get a dog? get rid of all nut trees in vicinity....

I had a have a heart trap for a few years and moved alot out but they came back. They eat apples, nuts, acorns, persimmons and anything else their mouths can fit in.

They also spread fleas.

Penny

A cat would probably be more effective than a dog. The cat can climb trees, too.

I'd prefer a pet hawk though, or maybe a boa? =)

I had a squirrel that used to sit on top of a chainlink fence and eat the morning glories growing on it all day long. It would also climb into my avocado trees and eat the avocados too. I have had luck with Deer Scram. Its a powder that you spread over the area you want to protect. I haven't had one squirrel or bunny since I started using it.

The website to order is: www.deerscram.com

I also have a couple of squirrels who visit my yard often. However, they have never eaten my flowers. It is probably because I provide peanuts for them. They also nibble on the bird seed. If you give them food they want, they will leave your flowers and plants alone. I enjoy having the squirrels visit, so this is just my approach.

Buddy I dont think everyone is so lucky. Often they will eat the whole crop on a fruit tree without sharing. They will eat the pits and toss the fruit even.

They destroy over 3/4 of a very heavy apricot crop every year. Destroy almost all of my persimmons, steal strawberrys, take bites out of my tomatoes just for fun, eat the figs and most amazingly, they leave my almond tree alone. I don't understand them

In prior years I resorted to a very high powered pellet gun but now that I have a two year old running around I don't dare take it out of the locked attic.

For me, the squirrels are but one part of a three-pronged attack on everything I hold near and dear in my garden. (the other prongs being the bunnies and the rats/mice). We can't have cats outside because of the coyotes, and the dogs are fenced (because of coyotes) on the other side of the house. I don't do release traps because I would have to quit my job to constantly relocate the detainees, and I won't use poison because I like the hawks, owls and kites to have something to eat. Also, many years ago I lost a dog to a poisoned-squirrel chew-toy. My mother-in-law feeds them almost as much as she herself eats, and they still like to dig up her potted plants and chew her roses to the ground.
My solution? Chicken-wire around everything. Tops and under the ground. And when I just can't take it anymore, an air-rifle, which I can only justify to myself by telling myself that I'm feeding some other creature.
I've not tried the new "liquid fence" type products, but would love to know if anyone has luck with them.
HM

I read recently that the reason the Russians gave up further expansion from their Fort Ross territory was because they were not able to grow their fruit and vegetables because of the native Gopher population. I guess they are not all bad news. Al

Thank you for your responses. I am going to check the website for deerscram out.

pamsi

you must develop a taste for squirrel, yum.

One method, which is fairly extreme, seems to have an effect on population of the little scampering furry tailed robbers.

My neighbor sold her house and moved away. She had lots and lots of trees. She also liked to feed the squirrels.

Anyway the new buyer, who tore down the existing house, also cut down many trees (most of which were suffering from neglect...so it was not a loss). Presto! Squirrels have no aerial roadway anymore. I have noticed that there seem to be fewer squirrels as a result of the tree reduction. My observation is noted with this caveat: the figs are not ripe and the tomatoes are still green....so who knows. Maybe they are slyly waiting to attack!

As asked earlier are we talking ground squirels? I have dealt with ground squirels. A two prong aproach. Find their main entrance areas to your garden and take a 12 x 12 piece of aluminum foil. attach one end to anything so the remainder catches the wind and bangs around a bit. The next part is a bit "experimental" but seems to work. Have a male human urinate around the perimeter of your garden, especially at access points. (male urine has testosterone). Easier to aim too. Good luck, no ground squirels for me. Cats and dog hair spread around apparently works also.

you can borrow my 4 dogs..they live to chase the squirrels out of my yard..plus the mockingbirds have been chasing them off as well.

A red fox squirell raised 3 squirlets here last spring. The old dogs r 2 stove-up to chase & cat not interested. My 90y/o neighbor says 'they cant do any good' & did eat some apricots, & we dont eat the pecans anyway. It was 112 deg. here this week & all 3 were lounging in the backyard not paying any mind to me. I thought maybe 1 at most would survive to this age. If they get into the veggies, grapes or destroy something I will 'remove' them. As for the ground squirell they must be poisoned. there really is no way to keep up with their breeding. they r dangerous & too much damage, esp. with horse pasture.

we gave up our fruit trees. after we gopher-wired, planted, sprayed, thinned and fertilized, the squirrels kept getting the whole crop before it was quite ripe. we live by a creek and the 'fresh food for squirrels' message went out up and down the waterside trees for miles i think, and nothing stopped all those blasted critters so we had no choice. i don't understand how anyone makes a living raising fruit! min

Rodetrol is not half bad for eliminating ground squirrels. Put it directly down their burrows. It's an organic poison (made of corn sugars.)

My cats would just lay there...chins on paws and the squirrels would run around them. I think maybe once, one of the cats lifted his head....that was about it.
The squirrels almost conga lined around them and I think the cats knew the squirrels could outrun them.
Maybe I just had smart kats...I dunno.

I have heard that dirty cat litter works well as the cats are supposed to be their natural enemy. My cats love to chase them up a tree but they aren't very good hunters and the squirrels just mock them. My neighbors have squirrels but they don't bother us, probably because of the sent of the cats.

Well there is another way to get rid of the squirrels for good, but some people in the forum might like using this method. I would go and use a BB gun to get rid of the squirrels. In college we had a lot of squirrels in our yard and they were pest, so I bought a BB gun practiced on my aim, and erradicated the little buggers. Again it is an option.

Dax

Patty..I am waiting for my shipment of Rodetrol. We had a monthly service that filled mice bait boxes with poison. I found a couple of dead owls in our water tank (no less) and was just devestated thinking that they ate poisoned mice. The company assured us that there was no secondary poisoning with their product...ha....I looked it up on the internet and found that EVERY poison is lethal to birds of prey and other wild animals (we have bobcats and coyotes)...so Rodetrol it is for me!!!!

Ground squirrels are a serious problem. If they tunnel near the foundation of the house, they can destablize the soil. They carry fleas, and are occasionally carriers of bubonic plague here in California. If you live as I do on the fringe of wilder areas, and grow fruit and vegetables, as I also do, you will have to deal with them sooner or later.

I'm planning to have pest control people out here next week to set traps. I have a dog, and there is a lot of perdatory wildlife in my area, none of which I want to have eat a poisoned rodent. The pest control people tell me that poison is also a less effective method than trapping, since sometimes the ground squirrels take a bite, figure out something is wrong, and stop before eating a lethal dose. Finally, while I have no objection to killing vermin, I do object to inflicting a slow and painful death.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: Rodents and plague

Tressa - I hope the shipment comes through (and works out) for you.

We found we had to re-bait several times, but that eventually the squirrel population dropped, with rodetrol. We also found that they would eat more of the rodetrol, if we mixed the rodetrol with peanut butter.

Another community gardener mentioned that she had heard that Rodetrol is off the market - someone took them to court claiming they weren't organic. I don't know if this is true.

The squirrels found my corn this week. I only lost three ears, but expect that they would soon eat the whole batch. I have covered the corn with 1/2 inch plastic mesh, and secured it around the base, to prevent the squirrels from getting any more.

Live traps also seem to help. Bait with peanut butter. The traps are expensive. I read up on Deerscram and have suggested this approach to our garden officers, to keeping the rodents away. Another fellow said that there are seeds sold by Bountiful Gardens, that grow and act as a scent barrier to pests.

Patty....I tried to access their site this morning because I have asked them twice when they were going to ship....and it says that the product is "no longer available". I got the info from an owl trust site. Wonder what's up!!!!

I use to have an avocado tree in my back yard and the squirrels would travel from the neighbor's walnut tree, where they had a nest, to my avocado. I finally bought one of those wooden snakes that are jointed and move in the wind. My son hung it with fishing line close to the telephone wires that they traveled on. They did cartoon stops and about faces and went right back to the walnuts. It was very funny! I think it worked in part because they had a specific route they followed...don't know how it would work otherwise, but might be worth a try. I am pretty sure the movement of the snake is important. The jointed wooden snakes are in toy or nature stores. Good luck!

I read somewhere a few years ago that the best way to keep squirrels from raiding your bird-feeder is to add cayenne pepper to the mix. the birds can't taste it but the squirrels hate it. maybe if you sprinkle your garden with it periodically might deter them. I don't know if a food source is what is attracting them but I'd think that if they got a little pepper in their eyes while digging they'd think twice. and as hard as it is to get the spice out of your mouth it may be a treatment that would last through a few waterings. Shouldn't be too expensive- worth a shot.

I can quarantee this method to rid yourself of pesky squirrels. We have been squirrel free for six weeks now.

We have two trees which the squirrels entered the yard with. I took vaseline and made a ring around each tree as high up as i could reach. Then with gloves on i smeared in cayenne pepper from the grocery store making a vaseline pepper combination ring. Additionally to ensure the squirrels didnt follow up by using the fence rows from the neighbors tress, in strategic places i smeared the mixture on certain places along the fences surrounding my yard.

The only other thing i did was took moth balls and put them in some legs of panty hose and hung them in the corners of the fence rows. I used neutral colors so they did not stick out like a sore thumb. No one even notices them there.

I am not sure if the moth balls or the vaseline but either way we have been squirrel free and for the first time in five years we have gotten ripe tomatoes, radishes, peppers and onions out of our flower bed gardens with no animal bites taken out of them.

I have read several articles about killing the tree rats but i caution this method as others will just continue to move in, it will never stop.

good luck