# #[email protected]#*&% Squirrels



## PaphMadMan (May 5, 2009)

Can anyone recommend a truly effective squirrel repellent? They won't stay out of the potted perennials on my balconey. Most of the plants are well established and can tolerate a little digging, but Cyp Gisela is getting irritated at being thrown out of her pot completely. And within a couple weeks I have a dozen new containers going out and I can just imagine the mess.


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## nikv (May 5, 2009)

Go to Costco or some other warehouse type store and buy the giant-sized container of cayenne pepper. Sprinkle it liberally on all of the plants and the surrounding soil in your windowbox and flower pots. That will teach the little buggers a lesson without actually harming them. I've done this in the past and it works fabulously.


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## Rocketman30 (May 5, 2009)

Unfortunately, the best way to control your problem is to elliminate the problem. You can use a racoon trap with nuts as bait in a cup and relocate the little buggers. The other option is a pellet gun. Show no mercy!!!!


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## Candace (May 5, 2009)

I like the idea of the ratzapper. I bet it works on tree rats too.


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## PaphMadMan (May 5, 2009)

Rocketman30 said:


> Unfortunately, the best way to control your problem is to elliminate the problem. You can use a racoon trap with nuts as bait in a cup and relocate the little buggers. The other option is a pellet gun. Show no mercy!!!!



I actually have experience trapping squirrels - tortilla chips and peanut butter are much more effective bait than nuts. But I'd have to get at least 20 of the tree rats out of the neighborhood to make a dent in the population, and since I don't have a car I'd have to mail them out. Anyone need some wildlife via USPS?


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## Ernie (May 5, 2009)

Build cages for your plants. 

-Ernie


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## PaphMadMan (May 5, 2009)

Ernie said:


> Build cages for your plants.
> 
> -Ernie



That might work for Cyp Gisela, but the Amorphophallus and Alocasia will need some rather large enclosures as the season progresses.


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## Hiker (May 6, 2009)

I think those buggers are nothing but an irritating rodents that should be gotten rid of. Traping and releasing is transferring the problem to someone else. Use poison and get rid of the damn &*^%$ things. Here they are going out of control and destroying fully grown trees potted plants and even lawns. I have not seen an apricot from my large tree now for years! they are nothing but hairy rats.


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## luvsorchids (May 6, 2009)

Of course there is always this option 

http://edibletulip.typepad.com/edible_tulip/2006/07/f_is_for_urban_.html
http://www.getlostmagazine.com/mcbee/2004/0404squirrel/squirrel.html

Susan


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## biothanasis (May 6, 2009)

Whatever u do, do not use poisonous materials!!! Some nice ideas were suggested above and u can combine them!!! Good luck!!!!


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## Hera (May 6, 2009)

How about a nice, fat outdoor guard cat?:fight:


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## goldenrose (May 6, 2009)

Rocketman30 said:


> Unfortunately, the best way to control your problem is to elliminate the problem. You can use a racoon trap with nuts as bait in a cup and relocate the little buggers. The other option is a pellet gun. Show no mercy!!!!


I'm with you Rocketman! I started trapping them at the bird feeder & then ooops - the trap fell in the pond with a squirrel in it.



Hera said:


> How about a nice, fat outdoor guard cat?:fight:


Is the average squirrel too big of a rodent even for a skinny fast cat?


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## PaphMadMan (May 6, 2009)

Hera said:


> How about a nice, fat outdoor guard cat?:fight:



A cat or dog would certainly help, but my 4' x 20' balconey isn't an ideal home for one.


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## PaphMadMan (May 6, 2009)

luvsorchids said:


> Of course there is always this option
> 
> http://edibletulip.typepad.com/edible_tulip/2006/07/f_is_for_urban_.html
> http://www.getlostmagazine.com/mcbee/2004/0404squirrel/squirrel.html
> ...



I'm not enthusiastic about the culinary uses of squirrel, they can carry a spongiform encephalopathy similar to mad cow disease, but I have considered that squirrel fur slippers might be nice and warm. A few of these squirrels are blond rather than the usual gray so there are fashionable options.


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## tocarmar (May 6, 2009)

I also have the trouble with them & chipmunks, I tried to do the good things have had a cat but he never got the squirrels, did help with some chipmunks. I also tried the catch-them alive traps & relocated a few, but I live in the country & always will have them. I found out that they both love a mix of rat poison & birdseed. I put a little in a small dish & cover it so the birds don't get it and leave it out for a few hours and they dissappear.

Tom


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## Hera (May 6, 2009)

On a more serious note than the cat, is there anything that can scare them away? I heard somewhere along the line that chipmunks are afraid of snakes. Could you buy rubber or plastic snakes and distribute them around the area? I know this sounds weird but I have heard anecdotal evidence of this working with chipmunks.


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## NYEric (May 6, 2009)

Hmmm Squirrel curry. :evil:


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## goldenrose (May 6, 2009)

Hera said:


> On a more serious note than the cat, is there anything that can scare them away? I heard somewhere along the line that chipmunks are afraid of snakes. Could you buy rubber or plastic snakes and distribute them around the area? I know this sounds weird but I have heard anecdotal evidence of this working with chipmunks.



A HAWK! (should be their top predator, but on a 4' wide balacony?)
Squirrels are so darn smart it isn't funny so I doubt that the fake snakes would work. If they're sensitive to cayenne, I wonder if some plant might be stinky smelling to them. I noticed this year in my flower beds if daffodils were surrounding tulips the deer didn't touch them, the tulips by themselves in a cluster were chewed down!
Going back to the cages .... the bigger plants would just need a cage to keep them out of the pot, right ? ....
cage the pot, not the whole plant!


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## Inverness (May 6, 2009)

The cayenne treatment works pretty well, I've used it for many containerized plants. It does have to be applied fairly liberally, and repeated irrigations and rainfall will diminish its usefulness. As to some of the comments about daffodils, they contain a naturally occuring toxin that animals will always avoid. That's why they naturalize so well for years and years.

Ken B.


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## Wendy (May 6, 2009)

I got fed up with squirrels eating the bird seed and destroying the feeder so I switched to seed with hot pepper 'juice' already mixed in. Laughed my a$$ off when the squirrels dove into that....they were eating away for a few seconds and suddenly began pawing at their mouths. Birds can't taste 'hot' but tree rats sure can. I haven't had a problem with them since. I would add hot peppers/cayenne to your pots.....I bet that makes them think twice, especially when they have to lick their paws! :rollhappy::clap:


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## cnycharles (May 6, 2009)

when I was a kid one of the neighbors took me squirrel hunting. it wasn't really 'hunting' as they just sat up there thinking you couldn't see them, but he made them into stew. if they eat your plants, eat them!



goldenrose said:


> cage the pot, not the whole plant!



last year when I had peppers, tomatoes and herbs in 10 gallon pots outdoors, I was concerned about cats and tree rats getting into the pots, so I just used fencing mesh over the tops of the pots and let the plants grow up through the mesh. cheap and effective. though I like the laugh-factor of adding hot pepper to the soil! maybe it will keep slugs away as well?


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## SlipperFan (May 6, 2009)

I think you guys all need foxes and coyotes!


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## PaphMadMan (May 6, 2009)

SlipperFan said:


> I think you guys all need foxes and coyotes!



There are foxes, coyotes (and hawks) in the neighborhood, but not on my balconey.


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## cnycharles (May 6, 2009)

well, we had a fox family out behind the loading docks and coyotes out a bit in the fields down the roads, but they aren't brave enough to go around people's houses yet. we have had hawks dive bomb the masses of pigeons that love to hang around the boiler building/smokestack, but numbers never deplete. there are always more squirrels...


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## Eric Muehlbauer (May 6, 2009)

The squirrels have been horrendous this year! Every rhododendron that had a few buds on it, well, the buds were eaten! So much for their being poisonous...my Viburnum carlesii? Covered with buds in the fall. Bloom time? every bud eaten. My vegetable garden? all dug up. My paphs? knocked over regularly now that they are outdoors. Hot pepper spray only works for a short time. Cayenne pepper gets moldy. Hawks? I have them...don't make a dent. My son wants to use his bb gun, and says I should use a rat snap trap..but I'm afraid of killing birds with it...and besides, getting squirrels out of my yard is like trying to empty a lake with a teaspoon...they are everywhere! Take care, Eric


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## NYEric (May 7, 2009)

squirrel fur hats!


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## tocarmar (May 7, 2009)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> The squirrels have been horrendous this year! Every rhododendron that had a few buds on it, well, the buds were eaten! So much for their being poisonous...my Viburnum carlesii? Covered with buds in the fall. Bloom time? every bud eaten. My vegetable garden? all dug up. My paphs? knocked over regularly now that they are outdoors. Hot pepper spray only works for a short time. Cayenne pepper gets moldy. Hawks? I have them...don't make a dent. My son wants to use his bb gun, and says I should use a rat snap trap..but I'm afraid of killing birds with it...and besides, getting squirrels out of my yard is like trying to empty a lake with a teaspoon...they are everywhere! Take care, Eric



Eric M, 
I know they are!! I Unfortunatly have to take drastic measures & use a 1/2 mix of rat poison-1/2 bird seed. I live in the woods!! Up to about 2 years ago I didn't have a neighbor for 1/2 mile. I don't leave it out all the time, just once or twice a year during summer when plants are outside, ( only when they become bothersome to the plants).

Tom


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## Clark (May 8, 2009)

Thirty years ago, before Peter Singer invented a market to justify his
tuition bill, my grandfather told me about farmers and woodchucks.
Back in the day, it was hazardous to have woodchuck holes in the field,
for fear of the front tractor wheel rolling into a hole. The farmer would
not only cull the varmint (with a small,cheap rifle), but would display the carcass on a fence post. This was supposed to act as a scarecrow to 
future groundhogs entering that field. My grandfather assured me he did not
practice this act. Back to the grey tree rat-
Possible reproduction at 5 1/2 months of age.
Five to eight offspring per litter.
Two litters a year.
Life span 3 1/2 - 12 yrs.
I say TREAT THEM LIKE APHIDS!!!


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## goldenrose (May 8, 2009)

Hiker said:


> .. Use poison and get rid of the damn &*^%$ things...





tocarmar said:


> I Unfortunatly have to take drastic measures & use a 1/2 mix of rat poison-1/2 bird seed.... I don't leave it out all the time, just once or twice a year during summer when plants are outside, ( only when they become bothersome to the plants).Tom



What happens to the animals that prey on the dying or dead poisoned squirrel? Aren't you poisoning them too?
We are all in agreement, we don't like them & not every method works for everyone, wish I had the answer.


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## NYEric (May 8, 2009)

I can't believe it. The Austrian lady who tends the native garden downstairs is feeding them, I had to shoo them away as they were stalking me looking for handouts. [and they're probably the same bastards that are eating my native orchids! ]


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## nikv (May 8, 2009)

So NYEric, you're not planning on setting any traps for the Austrian lady, are you? oke:


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## NYEric (May 8, 2009)

Naw, she's the only one who knows what's planted where. I have to get you guys a photo; she's like 80 Y.O. and half my size! LOL!


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## cnycharles (May 8, 2009)

Clark Edward said:


> The farmer would
> not only cull the varmint (with a small,cheap rifle), but would display the carcass on a fence post. This was supposed to act as a scarecrow to
> future groundhogs entering that field.



even before the tractor, farmers could quite often lose a horse because it stepped into a hole and broke it's leg. often still, farmers will let you target practice your rifle on vagrant woodchucks

at my father's house, my stepmother a long while back was complaining that the squirrels were trashing the bird feeder and scaring all the birds away. she went somewhere one day, and a squirrel happened by the feeder. I retrieved my father's/my ithaca 16 gauge and dispatched it. later my stepmother saw the squirrel hanging by it's tail from the back of the tree nearest the bird feeder (I had tried to hide it back there where the squirrels could see it but she couldn't, but the wind was making it sway back and forth.... ) there weren't any squirrels for a while until it was seen and removed; squirrels eventually came back, but I never heard any more complaints about them hitting the bird feeder


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## Eric Muehlbauer (May 8, 2009)

I can't use poison....aside from my fears of poisoning everything else but the squirrels, I don't want dead squirrels in my yard either....I get verrrrrrry squeamish. I found a dead one last week, and made my son throw it out (down the sewer) because I was too grossed out....as my son was carrying it away on the shovel, he laughed about how it would be a perfect moment for the MTV people to arrive...they got there seconds later....Take care, Eric


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## KyushuCalanthe (May 8, 2009)

This kind of thread always gets started on plant forum eventually. Putting all moral and ecological issues aside, one should be aware of legal problems you can get into. Let me illustrate by my own experience.

I lived on a wooded lot in north Florida before coming to Japan. The original ecosystem was long leaf pine/turkey oak sandhill, but due to the elimination of natural fire the property became overrun with oaks, mostly laurel, water, and some live oaks. Oaks make acorns and squirrels just love 'em. I was growing a wide variety of exotic and native plants on the property and the squirrels just went after everything. I declared war and ended up shooting them and trapping them. It was in the end a useless battle since just for fun I counted their nests on that 8 acres and I stopped counting after 40...

A year passed and my war continued. A friend of mine who worked for the Florida DNR, but was not an officer, found out about my doings. He told me directly, "Tom, please don't tell me any more or I will have to report you. Grey squirrels are a game species in Florida and therefore they have a season and a quota. Also, any wild trapped animal must be let go once trapped _IN THE PLACE IT WAS CAUGHT_ without a permit from the DNR. What you are doing is illegal and punishable by fine and possible imprisonment. That's all I have to say."

To wit, be aware of you state and local laws and for Pete's sake, don't mention it on a internet forum. My 4 cents.


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## Renegayde (May 8, 2009)

LOL I was thinking the same thing myself...here in IL of course there is a squirrel season ect ect so shooting is not legal at any other time.....trapping....well I once had some possums that got in my trash cans and could not get out....kewl figured this would be a good thing and I could get animal control or some one to come get them and let them go some place else....I was informed that it was illegal to TRAP animals ect ect.....LOL so I went out and tipped the trash cans over and let them go.....the only way you could get around this whole squirrel issue is if they were a problem pest and then there might be a loop hole I would assume that would allow you to trap or otherwise get rid of them.....just my 2 cents worth

Todd


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## likespaphs (May 9, 2009)

i think here in r.i., trapped squirrels must be euthanized. same with lots of other varmits. i think it's to try to not spread rabies.


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## SlipperFan (May 9, 2009)

Tom's advice is right "on target."


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