The Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler is a possibility, and it works with largish birds, too.

I don't believe that vet who says pepper won't harm pets or other animals. Others who have treated them will tell you something quite different.

My neighbor has 3 outdoor/indoor cats. They do a great job with squirrels and birds on the ground.

Otherwise, i have started plants in styrofoam cups and then transplant when big enough to withstand the critters. Even the plants that they say don't transplant, sow direct, seem to do just fine.

This isn't a pretty solution, but what I do is secure lengths of tulle fabric over the newly planted seed beds. I leave it in place till the seeds come up & get a little size on them.
Once I remove it, I mulch. This seems (so far) to keep the critters out of the bed.

I feel your pain! I came up with this after kitties dug up where carrots & radishes were planted...arrrrgh!

I'm not sure if this works but you could try putting down pine cones around your raised bed as cats don't like these apparently. A better solution for the squirrels would be to invest in a sonic deterrent that makes high pitched sounds that they don't like.

Here is a link that might be useful: Human Animal Deterrents For The Garden

Newly seeded areas or small plants: I have boxes of various sizes made of hardware cloth that I put over the area or individual plant. I have 3 small cones made of hardware cloth that are pretty handy too. Hardware cloth beats chicken wire in many respects. It is more expensive however. Or if you have large old framed window screens, set those up on a couple of bricks to cover the area. These items are what I use to successfully protect my work.
Cayenne pepper is expensive and its effectiveness is debatable in my opinion. I prefer man-made defenses designed to absolutely defeat small intruders.

The The Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler that Anney posted is the best solution, IMO. However, if you have a small plot, plastic forks are cheaper and might work as well.

"Plant" the forks, tines up, in close proximity throughout the bed. This works very well for cats. It is difficult to find a nice spot to dig with pointy forks in the way. Squirrel also avoid forked areas, but if you have the only soft, nice dirt in the neighborhood, they sometimes work around the forks. I know it is not the most beautiful solution, but it is a great conversation starter! (Why are you growing forks???). Once the plants are bigger, you can remove the forks.

Bellatrix

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. A few thoughts...

I wonder what people think about using cayenne...cruelty, effectiveness, potential effects on growing plants, etc.

Apart from anney, no one has commented on the cruelty factor. I've had cayenne, habanero, and others on my lips, face, eyes, up my nose, in raw cut hands, and on other areas of my body that my hands have touched (use your imagination). Yes, it hurt like hell, but I was perfectly fine after the pain wore off. I'd like to hear if other's have opinions about this.

Regarding the Scarecrow Sprinkler, does anyone have any experience with this method? I have concerns about nighttime watering of leaves, especially regarding tomatoes. This seems like an invitation to disease.

Geoff - Cayenne works for when animal's eat/bite the food (as in mixing hot pepper with bird seed to keep away squirels or spraying a deer deterrent on leaves), not for digging. By the time they lick their paws, they will most likely be away from the garden.

Personally, I think hot pepper is a bad idea. The risk of an animal getting it in their eyes is too high.

Bellatrix

Bellatrix, getting it in their eyes was kinda the idea, and that's why I was asking for feedback about long-term effects, etc. I've had pepper in my eyes, and the symptoms usually last about five minutes or so.

I'd rather have pepper in my eyes than eat rat poison or have my cat taken to the humane society to be put down because it crawled into the neighbors garden.

They will learn and maybe if they sniff first like all animals do, it will just discourage them and they will go away.

Good luck on your problem, maybe putting wax cups on top of your seedlings or seeds until they grow would be good. It's cheap for sure and it doesn't look all that bad unless a good wind picks them up and tosses them in the yard.

I had suggested to a vet once that I was going to put cayenne pepper in my garden to keep the cats out. He told me that he had to remove a cat's eye once that it had nearly scratched out because of the pain from the pepper that it had gotten in it's eye. People can reason better than a cat can. People know that if they give it some time, the pain will go away. A cat does not. It will scratch at the source of the pain.

Read this article in order to get different ideas about great squirrel deterrents....!

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-squirrels.htm

Thanks, joekool...that's a great point that I hadn't considered.

give your kids a good military style haircut and put the clippings in your beds like mulch. The human smell should keep the animals out. My dad prefers his pellet gun and threatens to cook em. My father in law traps the cats and they "dissapear" I have squirrels digging in my flour garden I suspect to hide seeds or what not but Im a container gardener so I dont have these issues.

I wonder what people think about using cayenne...cruelty, effectiveness, potential effects on growing plants, etc.

I was painting the wood edge/cement blocks of my beds with veg oil, cheyenne and garlic. My 6 month old puppy kept licking it on the stones - not 1-2 times but 10 times! Did he like it? I kept shooing him away....he wouldn't listen.

And he won't stay in the house when I'm gardening, in case you're wondering...