Try These 5 Tips For Keeping Squirrels From Driving You NUTS In The Garden
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- Опубликовано: 30 июл 2024
- Squirrels can be a serious nuisance in the garden. From digging up the garden, to burying nuts that sprout in the spring. They can be a huge issue! I will give you 5 tips to preventing squirrels in the garden in today's episode.
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I have used ground black pepper with great results to keep them and chipmunks from digging in my raised beds. I reapply it after heavy rains or watering. It has worked so well for me that I ended up buying ground black pepper in bulk sized containers a couple years back.
Does it work for mice??
I am not sure but I would guess there might be a good chance it would.
@@judyverdusco2856
works for any mammal. Our mucus membranes are heavily irritated by the oils across all species. @@judyverdusco2856
I live in a condo and grow veggies on my deck 20 feet above the ground,,,, I have been fighting those bushy tailed rats for years now,,, darn things scale the wall mission impossible style to dig in my containers no matter how many times i threaten their lives :(
😢😢😢😅😅😅😅 same here
Motion detector sprinkler if you have a water source. They work.
Omg I had one scale to my balcony and steal all my Halloween candy and bury them in my moms potted plants one year…
@@jenkins5265😂😂😂
Get a no-kill trap and relocate. Or a kill trap and throw out in trash. Or you could try making covers with hardware cloth. They can/will chew right through chicken wire but have a little more trouble with hardware. Good luck!
I have had success using pelleted chicken manure as a top dressing. My squirrels dig in my pots constantly, and this seems to stop it. I also put human hair around my tomatoes (just a few strands). That has worked to stop the squirrels from eating my tomatoes.
What I resent almost more than the burying of nuts is the fact they can't remember where they did it so they go back and dig in all my pots again!
We have a guy in our neighborhood that is constantly walking around feeding the squirrels and chipmunks with shelled peanuts and walnuts. I am always finding plants dug up in the spring as they try to bury them. I use cayenne pepper flakes and have also had to cut chicken wire to fit in my pots to keep them out. It works but you have to keep up with the pepper. Im going to make a spray next year to see if that works better. Thanks for the tips!
We have a neighbor that feeds the squirrels too 😭. I find so many peanuts in my beds!
I saw 4 squirrels eating my tomatoes in summer. I bagged the tomatoes and they destroyed the bags. I used my hot peppers from the garden blinded and boiled with corn starch to make it thicker. I sprayed it on the tomatoes and they never come back since. Lol. I haven't seen them digging my raised beds yet.
Squirrels will absolutely bury "whole in the shell" peanuts. I had several growing in my squash containers this fall, and I didn't plant them. There were whole shells I dug up when I pulled the plants. They destroyed two of my carrot containers too until I covered them with chicken wire.
Heavy mulch helps a lot. The squirrels can't see disturbed soil where you've planted bulbs and they don't see bare soil where they want to bury their own food. I usually use leaves as they're free this time of year.
Our squirts dig thru leaves.
I have a large cat that loves to be outdoors during the day. He keeps the squirrels at bay.
As to my experience this is the best way to keep squirats away. 😊
For me, squirrels are more of a problem for their digging than for their stealing stuff. I feed my chickens some wheat and the squirrels help themselves to jowls-full of wheat and then plant some of them in my garden. Every spring I have a few little hands-full of wheat grass popping up.
In general the biggest problem is when I am planting in the spring. I use chicken wire nailed to a frame that I set over newly planted corn, in particular and then I remove them when the corn is several inches high. I have some hoops over my strawberries with bird netting over the hoops to keep out the squirrels and also to make sure that the birds don't get to the berries before I do.
The lengths we go to to keep our produce out of the mouths of those little buggers!
Thanks to squirrels, my container and raised bed garden now sit right in front of my house in the bed that contained old shrubs and azaleas. The backyard also didn't have many areas that received sufficient sunlight but the squirrels were the main problem. Of course it did nothing to deter ground hogs, chipmunks and deer. Now the garden area is fenced; we did use green coated wire fencing and stakes to make it less visible. We also had to create cages using quarter inch wire fencing for containers that are outside this area. Obviously we don't live in a high-end neighborhood nor does it have an HOA. We actually get a lot of compliments on the garden and we plant nearly as many flowers as we do vegetables not just for visual appeal but for natural pest control as well.
Great info. I wish I knew before they dug up my garlic. 😊I did get my garlic back in the ground and covered
I have HW cloth under all my beds and it works great! If you're in the US, I recommend the 1/2" over the 1/4" since it's a heavier gauge.
My problem with squirrels that they come to bring and bury nuts in the ground 😩 . So annoying to find destroyed seedling and hole with buried nut!
The fact that you can easily go and purchase brand new for your home/garden and yet still start at a local thrift or habitat store is humbling. That's what I admire the most. ❤️ Hope you and your family are well.
I’ve spread Blood Meal before and that helped deter the squirrels as well! Not perfect, but considering it’s a good fertilizer anyway it worked pretty well!
I have a huge bag of it. How did you apply it?
Last spring, something totally buried sunflower seeds all over our garden, even in our planters. By summer I had clumps of little sunflowers coming up everywhere!
This fall the squirrels have wreaked havoc, mostly around our subpod so I thought they were interested in our worms. We put out seed on the bird feeders and it really helped!
You could always trans plant the flowers on areas you do want them. ?? ❌⭕️🙏🏽♥️
@@judyverdusco2856 I did! So fun! I did not enjoy all my food seedlings being torn out while the critter dug, though.
Love love love the new app. Thanks for the upgrade
That hurt when you said Spielberg’s “The Birds.” Alfred Hitchcock.
Thanks for the video. I’ll be mixing up some pepper spray in the morning. Will it also keep birds from pecking at my tomatoes?
Yes squirrels go in my pots and dig some of the soil. I have old window screen and i use that i also use the wire basket from dollar store when my seedling are younv to protect them the squirrels. Thank these tips are useful.
Yep had to replant my onions every few days because they keep digging them up. May need to make some pepper spray.
Changed chicken wire under my raised beds for hardware cloth (finer, thicker mesh, zinc coated). Gophers are through the chicken wire but not the mesh. For squirrels…. Get a fast dog with a strong prey drive. Tends to keep them at a distance. 😉
I put some coffee grounds on my garden beds; seems to help so far but we'll see. Great tips, will try some pepper too!
I bought a heavy plastic mesh to cover my beds with. It is a pretty good deterrant but they did chew thru several beds last year. Having cats also helps.
I live in a pecan orchard so I just have to make peace with the squirrels. They help me by planting new pecan trees. Sometimes they even end up where I want them. The squirrels have actually been helping me feed acorns to my sheep this last week. You could try planting something like pansies as a trap crop... One thing that you never want to do is loan them money.
Screaming helps. It doesn't make the squirrels go away. They just throw nuts at you from the trees and laugh. It does make you feel better though. Invigorating.
Hawks help but they also kill the chickens. Cats work well but then you are one of those jackasses with cats. Shotgun? Shotgun. Or you could just learn to live with them.
BTW, The Birds was Alfred Hitchcock.
I have a neighbor who feeds whole peanuts in the shell and corn everyday to squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and anything else that wants it. They bring the peanuts to my raised beds and bury them. Drives me nuts. Since he has been feeding them I have noticed there are a lot more around. UGH
Same here. I will find 25 holes in one garden bed in the morning.
Same here. My neighbor feeds everything in the neighborhood. This makes it extremely difficult to grow a garden. She complains when the groundhogs get into her garage and damages items or even digs and chews under their pool, but she won't stop. The neighborhood is overrun with squirrels. Now that the leaves are falling we can see 35 squirrel nest in our tree line. It's so frustrating.
Someone in my neighborhood also feeds the animals peanuts in shells and they bring them to my yard and bury them in all my pots. I’ve started feeding them peanuts not in shells in the furthest corner of my backyard, under the bird feeders. We have water for them also. As long as everyone is well fed, they don’t bother with my garden as much.
I prep my garden for spring planting then cover the garden with landscape fabric held down with bricks- it breaths and let’s moisture through and squirrels don’t dig!
Each of these seemed to be more difficult than spreading some blood meal on top of your bed. Not only does it deter squirrels for weeks, but it also fertilizes the soil. The only drawback I have found is that fungi sometimes form on the surface of the soil.
Cats work well too. 😂😂😂
@@stitchinggirlBut the cats can be worse than squirrels. Ew!
@@YSLRD i have higher raised beds. They know to stay off them like a kitchen counter or get a squirt from hose at their feet. Im in the country and have woods close. They rather spend their time there.
I steep my Carolina Reapers and put the solution in my garden sprayer. It deters all kinds of herbivore pests. It also reduces the heat of the peppers, so you can add them to your favorite recipes without risk of overdoing it.
I got my neighbor to help me put chicken wire all around my little raised bed and I use it to cover my pots to until the plants are large enough. Keeps the rabbits out too.
luckily i live somewhere i can give my squirrels a healthy lead diet
I do a couple things. The first is to provide them with squirrel food in a bird feeder. The second is to sprinkle crushed crab shell on my beds. The smell keeps them out when it’s fresh.
I have a small garden, so I bought wire mesh garbage cans from Dollar Tree and caged my seedlings in. 🗑️
I always wondered if they would just knock them over to get the food. Do they just leave them alone?
@@tinal7573 they mostly leave them alone! I do have raised beds so they aren't at ground level. I also push them into the dirt a bit so they aren't so easy to tip over 🙂
@@ferretfan. That’s what I was thinking you did by pushing it further into the dirt. I just wonder how it would work in case of a bad thunderstorm with massive winds. Maybe laying stones against it would help that.
I use the baskets from the dollar store too. I put heavy rocks on top. They have never been able to Knock them off.
They can be held in place with one landscape staple on each side.
I've got many many squirrels ( along with rabbits, chipmunks, birds and a groundhog or two) in my garden and love it. I feed them peanuts AWAY from the garden and my horse chestnut and black walnut trees are on the opposite end of the property from the garden. I also put a small empty 6" deep 3' x 3' raised bed by their trees. They bury things in there. It will be 20 years I've been gardening here in May and I'm fine with sharing the occasional tomato or squash with the wildlife. Groundhogs eat more (but not too much) than the squirrels and I plant enough for all of us. I figure they were here before me and watching them gives me joy, so I'm fine sharing. The groundhogs especially love the wild black raspberries that grow along the back fence so they leave MY berries alone.
For some reason those stinkers kept digging up my letttuce all summer, and now it's the garlic. Back to using blood meal til snow cover! 🙃
I had some random netting type material (similar to a tulle, probably from a rummage sale). I set up PVC pipes around my beds and wrapped the netting around about 18" high. That worked 100% to keep the squirrels out because they couldn't jump over it or climb it. Only downside is the material disintegrated and I was only able to use for a couple of years.
The squirrels have been absolute pests this year! Like you, I have a couple of lovely oak trees right around my gardens. There were more acorns this year than I have seen in years! I got pelted in the head by them constantly going near the trees. The squirrels were so bold in the garden that my dog finally lived out her dream and caught one! Sadly it was too late for the butternut squash he was gnawing on.
I took t posts and wrapped insect netting around my bed. Tole works great as well.
Be careful with the type and strength of pepper spray. I sprayed some on my tomatoes this year to see if it would help with horn worms and it killed one tomatoe and really brought down another. I sprinkle cayenne pepper powder and cinnamon on my potted plants to keep them out of there
I wish my problem was squirrels. I live in the SC back country and everyone shoots the squirrels so we have 3 right now. Sadly, my issue is a hard-headed curious great pyrenese. My dog gets so excited when I dig, she will fill the hole as I empty it because when she digs, I fill the holes. Then when I put in a plant, she will wait until I am I side and forage the freshly planted plants. So, anything not planted in the ground is in a greenhouse now that it is cool and a temporary chicken wire fence surrounds my young trees as she almost successfully pulled a 2 foot sugar maple out that was planted in the spring. Before spring, I need to plan a tall and very sturdy fence or I may have a mess. Lol!
I heard that if you plant chicken manure with your tulip bulbs it deters squirrels. As well if you plant daffodils with tulips because they dont eat daffodils. Seems to work for me. I like the pepper spray idea.
I put four posts up and drape insect netting over the whole garden. The squirrels avoid the garden and it keeps butterflies from laying eggs on me cabbage, broccoli, and other plants the butterflies and other insects try to eat or infest. For the cucumbers, egg plants and zucchini, it's staking them so that in most cases, the squirrels avoid any way. I mixed some bone meal in this year and tilled into the soil about six inches and was dug up pretty bad by a possum! The possum got in by climbing over a chicken wire fence, so I quit using bone meal.
Any advice on how to keep the squirrels from eating corn right out of the husk? Will the pepper spray be sufficient?
Marigolds are the best defense against bugs and critters. And! The best thing that keeps squirrels out of my plant pots and veggie gardens is Garlic Powder. And it doesn't go moldy!
I’ve got a team of squirrels that eat the succulents on my 3rd floor balcony. There is a big tree next to the roof so I hear them running across to get to the delicious succulents.
Alfred Hitchcock-The Birds
Thanks for the video 💚
🐿 The chipmunks at my house *_(Tamias striatus)_* LOVE spicy foods lol 🌶🐿
_I've mixed generous amounts of various hot sauces with wild bird seeds; hoping this would deter them, _*_however_*_ -- they simply cannot get enough spicy cuisine so now_
_I have more chipmunks than ever before_ 🐿🐿🐿😮🐿🐿🐿
I have another idea, is it legal to hunt and eat squirrels in your country?
Thanks. The Birds was a Hitchcock movie btw, not Spielberg.
I had the same issue with my garlic.
Also, each time I do anything with plants in a raised bed, something comes and dig.
I recently harvested some cilantros. The next time I checked out the plants, I found the entire area where I harvested was dug up and all the cilantros there were dead. Any tips?
I had similar problems this last year. I've been putting up fencing and netting in preparation for next year. It seems I have to fence/cage everything if I want it to survive.
The birds pulled my seedlings up and left them to dry out... Cats dug + pooped anywhere I had recently planted. Squirrels dug holes seemingly randomly all over the place. Deer trampled some of my plants on their way to eat others (they even ate my pepper plants fruit and all). Plus other critter problems.
@@theaconite1400 Oh boy. I thought I had a problem!
A good ole lean pole trap 😂. Also the squirrel enator
Love the squirrelinater. I’ve also had good success with peanut butter on a walk-the-plank style trap.
What do you bait the squirrelinator with?
I’ve tried almonds, and such. Not a single squirrel yet!
@@8oclocktomatotalk peanut butter and or mixed nuts
@@dash-4150 thanks. Appreciate that info!
I live on the 2nd level of an apartment building. The squirrels keep burying their nuts in my pots. One year I put wire on my pots. They chewed holes in the sides of my fabric pots!
😲🙁
They’re intelligent animals!
I needed this video 2 years ago!! 😂
squirrels do enjoy all d sunflowers i planted. dig up d seed, and even ate my plants and d flowers. but im ok with that, my worst enemy is d bunnies. i have them nkw this year. any tips for bunnies?
Channeling your inner James Prigioni lately. :)
It's nut dropping season, all the squirrels be needing, need a big tree need a big tree need a big garden bed
Highly recommend the pepper spray. I also recommend habanero or hotter. The best thing about this method is that you can grow your own.
We have a giant oak tree behind us in the neighbors yard. It is the biggest tree in a neighborhood that does not grow big trees due to being on filled land. The little buggers will come and take bites out of our tomatoes and not eat the whole thing. We got a trap and my neighbor has one also. We caught 10 squirrels and the neighbor caught two. From one tree!!! We took them elsewhere but kept the family together in the same spot. The neighbor neglects the tree that is over grown and in need of a major prune job. It's got to be 45-50 feet tall and grew into the power line and snapped the high voltage lines during a storm that dropped into our yard and three other yards. We still have 2 squirrels left to get but I only have one more tomato to pick but worried about next year.
That's interesting, in my area, the power company takes responsibility for pruning trees around powerlines. They don't do a great job of it but they do at least do it.
Okay, so to keep up squirrels out of my garden I should not grow things that they want. Good tip.
Around here, the squirrels are being fed peanuts in the shell by neighbours, who don't seem to know/care how bad this is and how destructive squirrels can be if they get in your attic/garage, etc. They breed like mad. As they are used to being fed by people, they seem to dig anywhere they can smell humans have touched, so flower seedlings, bulbs, pretty much anything is fair game. Only thing that seems to help deter them is a combination of blood meal and chicken manure pellets, which keeps them off for long enough that the plants to settle and the human scent to wear off.
I battled squirrels and finally ended up making 4 foot tall cages to put on all my beds to keep the squirrels out. (It also helped keep the dog out too).
Squirrels eat up hibiscus flowers and the buds too .
So what do you do to discourage mice in the garden? Judy ❌⭕️🙏🏽♥️
Thank you.
Alfred Hitchcock 🙂
Every winter I end up pulling trees out of my house plants that go outside in the summer lol
That pepper spray hack is diabolical… I’m gonna do it!
Hasn't worked for my corn
Chicken wire does not work for rats. Only hardware cloth does. Had to make hardware cages for our garden
Thank you. Best anti squirrel video so far.
Couldnt you just heat up water & add cayenne pepper. Let cool then put in spray bottle.
I came up with the chicken wire too. The bulbs get expensive if yr replacing them. You can also use Tulle with landscape staples.
The squirrels and voles driving me crazy. I’m going to try pepper spray
The squirrels burry peanuts in the shell in my garden all summer long
Our neighbors on either side of us feed the squirrels yet the squirrels still bring walnuts from a down the block and they bury them in our garden and create all sorts of havoc like birthing sunflowers everywhere and then destroy them just when they start looking pretty. Our other neighbors do use the chicken wire over their garden so that’s what we’ll have to do next year. Wish that also worked for Ground Hogs.
I have my chicken wire on the ground to keep the groundhog out. We are going to also cover the garden across the top of the fence with chicken wire to keep squirrels out
I do the chicken wire thing. Kinda hard to use on pots but they’ll dig if I don’t.
Good friend you have a nurse to make acorn flour
My trusty 22 works great! All other methods have failed :(
I bought a Squirrelinator from Tractor Supply. They work great.
Thanks, Luke 👍🪴🤓
You forgot get a dog! Ours is wonderful at chasing the squirrels away, it's her favorite thing to do.
My local squirrels dig just to see if there is any good to be found, they even eat beet and radish seeds! I have resorted to spraying animal repellent.
Bird net and pvc
I’ve had the opposite effect for garlic, they won’t touch mine but they will dig up the flower bulbs. Maybe they have enough food elsewhere
Spinach is the only pot that wasn't dug up!
I have not had an issue with squirrels in my raised garden beds (touch wood) but I have found perfectly buried peanuts in flower pots. If squirrels don't burry peanuts, then what is,birds? Weird thing is you can't tell any creature was there. The soil is completely undisturbed.
If you don't have a dog you could try planting daffodils around your plants the squirrels and OT critters don't like them.
Any idea how to keep them out of my corn that is already growing ears??? please,please,please answer!!!
Have a good little dog. Keeps all the critters away.
They only become a nuisance when there is too many from lack of natural predators.
When I was young there was a fishing lure company that paid for tails.
Also heard they make a good soup🤪🤪🤪🤪
What about flowers will any of these tips help
The birds was by Alfred Hitchcock
Squirrels ate ALL my pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash before they were ripe, just chewing them right off the plant. I'm going to have to build a big completely enclosed cage to grow these next year. I may put out other food for them as well like walnuts (which I don't like). I tried hot pepper spray without any success. Any other ideas?
😲🙁
I'm with you - this year they destroyed ALL my pecans from a huge tree by attempting to eat them before they were even ripe. The pecans were so big this year the pests couldn't hang onto them so I was constantly picking up nibbled and useless nuts. That and the falling nuts from the drought meant I didn't get one single nut this year.
Most times, when squirrels take vegetables and fruits, they are taking it for the water content. I've had success with placing a bowel filled with water just outside of my garden. I kept it filled by running a drip irrigation hose to it. The squirrels didn't eat anymore of my watermelons, so I presume the took water from the bowel.
I use cayenne pepper powder. Just wash your hands before you rub your eyes. Just spread the powder over the areas they are digging,
Really useful video, but it was Alfred Hitchcock that made The Birds. Sorry.
Hahaha I caught that too!
Alfred Hitchcock, the Birds
they do bury peanuts i have peanut plants coming all over my yard and garden electric fencing works
sqirrels invited their possum friends over to our garden. We have enclosed the entire garden now with a chicken wire fence, including the roof.
Thanks
Depending on what type of nuts they are you could probably eat them
Okay, in the same sentence you said the whole peanuts and then you said not whole peanuts and then you said peanuts. So are they in the shell or out of the shell?
4 ounces cornmeal and 4 ounces baking soda mixed....
Thanks for the information. Here in WV it's called "Electric Fence". Deer are biggest threat. Nothing gets past mine, ( Won't comment on what I use. Mine will knock you flat.) It's the only way, the animals have taken over. Not as many hunters these days. And I hate killing animals. I don't live in the city where you mite see a squirrel, I have every creature under the Sun out here.