Well, my neighbor once live-trapped them and moved at least 40 of them to a faraway location. It had no noticeable effect on the population in our yards. I'd suggest some good blood pressure medication.

esox,
That is very discouraging news on trapping them, especially since I have considered that option. Maybe your neighbor didn't take them faraway enough. I am thinking after I trap them I to them, to say maybe, another dimension, or even to an altered state of (un)consciousness!!

Sprinkle chili pepper on your flower beds. Seriously. Buy the hottest you can find, dry, in powder form if you can, because if not, you'll need to blend them up into a powder. Then mix them up with just about any extender - like cheapo bran flakes, or even fine sand. Sprinkle the mixture onto your flower beds. Squirrels won't dig in chili pepper garden beds. Chili pepper, btw, is the basis of many critter repellents.

I did this last year, and this year is the first time I've ever had tulips bloom - because the darned pests don't dig up the bulbs. The rabbits still munch on my hosta leaves, but the squirrels have gone elsewhere to dig.

I once had a squirrel that was causing me some distress on a daily basis. He was easy to recognize from the other squirrels, due to some unique markings. I decided to try to capture him with a swimming pool net...and believe it or not, I had success. I didn't have the heart to kill him and really didn't know what to do with him. So, I decided to take a stick and gently poke at him for about 10 minutes. He just kinda curled up in a little ball and clearly did not like it much. I didn't think it would accomplish much, except for some strange personal satisfaction for all the grief he had caused me. Once I released him from the net, he took off running through the yard, leaped on the neighbor's fence, and took off through his yard, completely ignoring all the trees along the way, which he could have climbed. I never saw that squirrel in my yard again, but did see him a couple of houses down from me many times. Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe he learned a lesson from that little incident...lol
I wish you the best of luck.

I have the same exact problem with the neighbor feeding the squirrels corn and them coming over into my beds and 'planting' the corn. At first it was kinda funny, now it's just annoying. And they are chewing off leaves and branches from the trees and dropping them into the yard. It's nest building time for them. While I find them cute, they are becoming annoying. I just have to deal with them.

Karen

I have 3 cats of my own, plus I feed 3-4 feral cats that have adopted me. They manage to keep the squirrels, chipmunks, rats, moles and lizards at bay. I do have a regular "offering" left on my doorstep daily, which I'm sure serves as a warning to any varmint will bad intentions.
I never even noticed the absence of all these critters until I was at the neighbors house and noticed all the activity in her yard.
Annette

I used to think squirrels were kind of cute. No more!! They got in my attic once. The stain is still there in the closet ceiling. I had to patch the drywall where the nest was, and I have painted it several times with sealers like Kiltz. They ruined our TV dish to the tune of a hundred dollars. Just this year they killed my Komodo Dragon by digging and chewed my Liberty back to almost TC size. I have pulled up a hundred pecan seedlings thanks to those buggers. I did a search, and there are several sites dedicated to squirrel haters. I was hoping for some kind of poison to kill these vermin. I have grown to hate them that much. No such luck. There is a trap kind of like a pipe that has prongs that impale the squirrel. I couldn't quite stomach that, but that was before Komodo died. My DH sent me an email of a kid who had a squirrel sling shot. It was kind of funny and did help get rid of some of my squirrel frustrations to see that tree rat go flying through the air. Our dogs have gotten a couple, but alas there are always more. I am getting lots of pepper.

Geez -- and thought I had problems with them eating my woodpecker suet lol. No suggestions on how to rid the world of fluffy-tailed rats, but you could put some wire mesh around the hostas and cover it with mulch -- keep them from planting their corn crop.

I own a small rat terrier mix dog. He occasionally sits on my hostas but I forgive him because he is extremely vigilant against squirrels. Now if I could only teach him not to bury the dead things in the garden mulch I would be happy....

we trapped over 30 of them last year , my neibourg almost as much , we have no bird population almost to none anymore and i am a bird person.....and thats not counting the number of racoons we trapped and my drunk neibourghs cats that did his business in my garden beds .....what was the problems in my hosta beds wore the small tamias , they will dig holes and make canals in them ...

my neibourgh (the good one lol) tried to make a spicee mixture and put some on the feeders pole , it worked the squirel never came back in the feeder it burned his little butt, but it wont keep them away....

here is a good link for you , if they overpopulate this year again i am trying some fox urine works for racoons too.

http://www.squirrel-x.com/repellent.htm

Rocks--not to throw at them but to put around the base of your hosta + pepper + feed them yourself!
I know--sounds crazy but I feed mine (not corn) roasted (unsalted) p-nuts and they never disturb my place
or right next door, because I have her feeding them, too! I guess it's their way of saying "thank you", not to
disturb the garden of the "hand that feeds them"!

Oh, the other neighbors on the other side, across the street and beyond---aren't into gardening so I'm sure
they don't care how much scratching they do in their yards!

An idea--maybe you could convince your neighbor to microwave the corn (short of popping it), so that it won't
germinate! It's done commercially with black oil seed (which squirrels love as much as p-nuts)!

I would be VERY SURPRISED if they eat hosta--rabbits seem to be the culprits in every case of that--not even chippies
do it, unless there's a drought and they need the moisture, (so I've heard it reported, anyway--never seen them do it, personally)!
I always have several 'chippies--and I feed them, yes I do! They are very easy to to tame!

My MIL swore they were the offenders in her garden, till I asked her if she acutally *saw them do it*, and she finally
admitted she had not, ! But she also, finally, admitted to seeing rabbits early in the morning in her garden! Not sure
why she was more willing to blame squirrels and chips than the rabbits!

the right cat could help

or

Dave I feel your frustration! Although my "weeds" aren't corn, they're black walnut trees.

I have a medium sized have-a-heart trap that I catch squirrels in. I bait it with seeds & peanutbutter, (I set the trap on a higher plane than the ground, I don't want to catch a skunk) once I catch them I transport them to a wildlife reserve to let them go there. Chipmunks are another terror to my garden beds. I have a mini have-a-heart trap and I bait it with peanutbutter. After awhile I didn't have to bait it, they just smelled it I guess and went into the trap. The most I caught in one day were 21 chipmunks, it was really tiring. Oh, and groundhogs are massive pests too. Get the big trap and bait it with cling peaches in heavy syrup, works every time.

Donna

I have lots of squirrels and Chippies,too. The worst thing they do in my garden is dig right at the base of a hosta. Chips are always digging holes in the garden,as they live underground at times. I had one dig up a seedling just today. Squirrels will dig if they think there was something just buried,as a peanut,by another squirrel. They are particularly bad if you just planted some new plant. I always try to cover well,with mulch, around a new plant,so they won't think something was just buried there. It usually works! Phil

I have tons of squirrels and chipmunks, and I've never had a problem. Of course I have a secret weapon!

J,
I like the idea of chunking the rocks at them, but I don't have the aim or velocity I used to.

I can tell you, DW and I watched a squirrel rip off a Sagae leaf last year and drag it to the top of a fence post. Now, imagine a rabbit eating lettuce in a cartoon. That is EXACTLY what this thing did!!!

I am glad to see I am not the only squirrel hater!

Dave

I have a cat and a german sheperd that keep everything ok. Also there is the local stray cat population that is nearing 20 ON MY BLOCK , thats my biggest problem . They love to go to the bathroom under my hemlocks . My cat normally chases all the stray cats right out of my yard and then turns around and sits on my deck and just watches the yard for the next cat.

I will try that chili pepper idea. Maybe your neighbor would agree to feed them cracked corn. That wouldn't sprout and they're not as likely to bury it. One winter I put out whole corn on the cob, and I noticed that they just chewed out the heart and left the rest untouched anyway. Maybe they will eat the whole thing if they are super hungry.

Nuts and peanuts they will bury, but I've never seen them bury sunflower seeds, but I quit putting those out because over the years they leave a mess and poison the ground nearby. The chipmunks do bury SF seeds or fill their pouches and carry them home (one lives under my front porch). I swear chipmunks just like to dig in my pots and planters for the fun of it. I have to cover them all with chicken wire and put rocks in my geranium pots.

There's a discussion going on the bulbs forum, deja vu lol.

I decided how to use up my SF seeds, put them on the back unpaved old gravel driveway where nothing but weeds grow except I found a lily where my son dumped some sod I dug and tried to save as much dirt as I could, for planting. I could shell the roasted peanuts and see if they will eat them right away. I even buy them nuts at the store, but only in winter. I enjoyed their antics until I got serious about gardening again.

But I don't want to harm them or go through the hassle of relocating them unless they get overpopulated compared to now. At least the chipmunks hibernate in the winter but there's not much they can bother then anyway.

Ditto to the sentiment, 'I HATE Squirrels'. I used to feed them until I realized that all I was doing was creating more of the little buggers. :P The only deterrent I have found which is effective is dog poop....yep, dog poop. Take the poop and 'plant' it at the base of your plants....they stay away for a while, until the rain eventually washes the poop away. I bet kitty litter would work just as well. I'm trying the traps but it's been 2 days and no luck yet. :P I do have to warn you, though..if you feed your dogs regular dog food, the poop will carry weed seeds which will eventually sprout in your garden. I can handle that, though....it's better than dealing with all those darn holes and planted pecan trees throughout my gardens (even in the pots!).

Squirrels and I get along quite well now. They have their feeder way back down in the woods and the cats keep an eye on them if they come up into the yard. No rabbits or squirrels with the cats on guard duty.

I am lmao. I dare anyone of you of says you have outdoor cats to admit that on any of the bird forums, especially the hummingbird forum! You will get beat to within an inch of your life!! Personally, I have no problem with outdoor cats. We remove every predator from an ecosystem, and then wonder why I HATE SQUIRRELS.

I did see something wonderful today while golfing with my son - a redtail hawk picked a squirrel off a branch as slick you please! Now if I could get it to live in my yard. . .

When I had Heidi, I can tell you I had no squirrels.
Here is a picture of her hiding in wait . .
{{gwi:1013007}}

And here she is saying "What was that, did I hear a squirrel???".

{{gwi:1013008}}

I treated myself to 2 new Droll Yankee squirrel-deterrent bird feeders for Christmas. They work terrifically well and I don't see nearly as many squirrels - they used to just vaccuum the seed from my old feeders - a great investment...

However -- the voles. Today, I invested in 20 mousetraps to tackle that nasty issue. But, do I have the nerve to set them, knowing chipmunks will get whacked?

And why are chipmunks so appealing - they are rodents - could it be that fetching striped coat?

I can't face having yet another hosta lift right out of the ground, rootless...

Dilemma

A really great deterrent for deer and rabbits is to sprinkle Milorganite around the plant. Maybe this would work for squirrels, as well. In addition to keeping the pests away, Milorganite provides great fertilizer for hostas. It is not very expensive, either. You can get it at any garden store. A huge bag is under $10 (in my area).

Chip no dale
{{gwi:1013009}}
rat trap won't do for him

Don't get me started on why I HATE squirrels! This is the second conifer that a squirrel has stripped for a nest.
Two years ago an upright yew had all the branches on one side chewed off. Nothing grew back! I saw the squirrel doing the damage and chased it several times to no avail.
I also had an expensive grafted Japanese maple. The entire grafted section was torn off by a squirrel which I happened to see as he finished the job.

My God, I HATE SQUIRRELS, and the morons that feed them! I live in a Condo, and 90% of my neighbors are old. They have nothing better to do than to feed these dirty SOB's. In 1 month time, they have climbed up under the good of both my cars and caused almost $2000.00 in damage!! Enough is enough! Shooting them was not an option for me (my neighbors are WAY to nosey.)And it's a city law that forbids killing them. I contacted the association board, only to be told that the funds aren't available to hire a pest control professional to remove the squirrels.

I called a couple pest control companies and had them come out for estimates, I was thinking of paying out of my own pocket until I found out that they would charge between $75.00 and $100.00 PER SQUIRREL to remove and relocate them.

HELL NO...NO WAY I'm paying that kind of money to rid these rats with fluffy tails. I borrowed a haveahart trap from a friend, set it up under my car and caught 1 after another, 6 total in a 2 hour period. I loaded the cage in the trunk of my car, drove a mile to my friends house, took the cage into the back yard and shot each one with a BB gun! It felt soooo good, revenge for the $2000.00 they cost me!

My one neighbor started having a fit; she's a huge animal lover. She's telling me to not trap them and just to park DOWN THE STREET!!!???? I'll be damned if I'm going to be inconvenienced for them! I figure I better stop trapping because it's against the law in my area to even trap and transfer unless you're licensed.

Now I'm mad as a hornet. I drive to Lowes and buy about 6 boxed of D-Con rat poison. Come home and open up a bunch of packages and dump the poison in a plastic bag. I crush the poison up as fine as I can with a hammer. Mix a little peanut butter with the poison, and place outside under the cover of darkness. The squirrels come and feast the next morning...about 7 of them. They eat every last bite! I also tried straight poison, just placing small piles all over the place, they eat it all! It's only been 2 days, so time will tell if it works.

And before anyone chimes in, there are ZERO children around here. As far as pets, keep them on a leash, and they won't be able to eat the poison. It is nowhere near where people/pets walk.

Hopefully this works!!!

And then theres those posts that have flashing warning lights, wrapped in yellow caution tape and a voice that says to me "DANGER WILL ROBINSON".

Ditto upnort. Real scarry.

I just sprinkled blood meal around the plants. So far, it's working and good for the plants as well.

Not at all scarry to me! After having squirrels chew through the soffit where it met the roof, they moved into the attic. What a horror that was. I couldn't afford the pest control, so a friend set rat traps and we caught them. What a nightmare. They are so destructive, had to have someone come in and patch the hole. I see them as rats with fluffy tails. Chipmunks are a terror too. They've tunneled under the pavers around our pool, which causes the walkway to cave in. What a pain in the neck it is to have to fix that.

Now we've stopped feeding the birds to keep the varmits away. We started using bait blocks. I put gloves on and pop them down into the holes. There are no cats, dogs or anything in the neighborhood to control pests. Wish I had a hawk or a few owls. Sigh.

PIM

Well, so much for the blood meal. I just went out and found the little varments had dug some more holes. Sprinkled more blood meal closer to the hostas.

Between the deer, squirrels and slugs, I'm exhausted!

Ms Jo

Set out some Ex-lax, that might keep them out of your life for awhile. It's an old farmer's remedy.

Ex-lax... oh my I can't stop laughing. What are they gonna do s876 them self to death... or just do it all over your plants and attic??
Really, I hate them too.
They have torn up my soffet and gotten into the attic and made a huge mess every year for the last 4 years.
I am at a loss how to get rid of them.
I repair their damage and next thing I know I hear them running around again.
Sometimes I feel like I'm that man in the movie that has problems with the chip ez. Except I have squirrels.
grrr I think I have tried almost all the things mentioned above. maybe not a couple of the more... colorful ones.
Bonnie

Dave, this is a topic that i really dont want to go to after I.... uh just got home from work!! and lets just say I decided to have a beer or 24!! oops!! only about 4 at this hour!! I have Greys the Browns ( or red, depending on how much you like like those stupid things!!)and the Black!! ALL AT ONE TIME IN THE YARD!! I have learned to just watch them and hope they fall out of the tree and brake their necks!! I used to shoot them with a pellet gun(dont have that any more, but thinking about getting another one, and was actually a pretty good shot thanks to the boy scout days, but then other squirels would just move in and replace them. supposedly they are somewhat territorial, so if one moves on, another one moves in, so i have read. (with 2 dead squirels in the bush, there are ten more in the tree tops....to move in) i just dream about putting razor blades on the telephones wires or maybe getting up there and oiling those darn lines so i can see them fall head first into my CEMENT bird bath!! Yea they get into everything and reek havick but there are so many in this city that i cant stop them!!
I have neighbors that feed them, just like everyone else "OH THEY ARE SO CUTE". yah they would look much nicer IN A POT OF BOILING WATER IN YOUR KITCHEN!! hmmm probably tastes like rat, which tastes like mice, which tastes like? CHICKEN!!! Oh jeez!! Just shoot them and put them on the mayors porch, OH MY!! why sisnt i think of that before????? OOOOOOOH!!! (in a bunch of dog doo, on fire) oh quite gross but then again. Maybe you should go to the city council, many people still eat that thing, and you could get a motion passed and then have a city thing go on for "who can cook the best squirel" , Hmmmmm really thinking about talking to my mayor here, or just buying another pellet gun and selling the dead squirel on EBAY for hosta fertiliser.

Lotsa LOL

(sorry, know how you feel and cant do anything about it here either!)

Paul

and the chipmunks, I really actually like them. OKAY well not at the start, i saw them as varments that chewed crap up and ran all over my plants....until I tried to kill them, that was bad!! thought that i would buy some glue traps one year. (1st year at the house, saw them as little lawn rats. and didnt want them around) puts one of the traps in the garage. next day i saw a chipmunk stuck in it. (was actually horrified after what i had done) and closed the door and hoped it would die. well it decided that it wanted to live so it chewed its tail off!! (GROSS)
still not done with exterminating these creatures I decided to put a garden hose down there little hole and drown them!! ohhhhh, well this was a couple of hours before i had company come over!! and yah know? I drowned the wife of the poor chipmunk that just chewed its tail off in my garage!! and that guy pulled her out of the hole and dragged her like twelve feet to another part of the yard (this took over 2 hours!! was like some bizarr funeral prosesion!!!

Am i still on the squirel thread and not the hosta seed one? double check here! this would been a waste amd a bunch of HUHS? done that one before!!!

okay, on the right thread...

and right in front of my friends!! They freaked!!! I just played dumb!! and never tried to kill a chipmunk in my yard again!! and also named that chipmunk "red" cause it has a red butt (with no tail)

Ok I was having a bad day. But who can keep a straight face after reading that.
Bonnie

Pzelko,
I must give you the "Hillbilly Method" of ridding yourself of Chipmunks. I told a dermatologist this and she laughed out loud at me in front of a whole garden club. Two weeks later she thanked me and apologized for insulting my hillbilly ways. All that you need to get rid of Chippies is a 5 gallon bucket, a 2x4 and a bag of bird seed.First you fill the 5 gallon bucket half full of water near a chippie hot spot. Next you take the bag of seed and pour 3/4 of it it into the bucket. THE SEED WILL FLOAT AND GIVE THE ILLUSION OF A HALF BUCKET OF SEED. Next take the 2x4 and place it on the ground and place the other end half way over the standing bucket. This will create a little death ramp .Sprinkle the remaining seed along the 2x4 to lead them to the big plunge! They will follow the ramp and when they look into the bucket you can almost see them grinning! They will jump into the bucket to get that treasure trove of seed only to find that they are drowning. It works like a charm and you let their greed do all of the work! Try it you'll like it !

Denny

Do squirrels swim?

Maryann,
I think they do because I remember seeing some whacked out video with water skiing squirrels. I think that they even had swim caps on and no life jackets! LOL!

Denny

hum...
maybe a bigger bucket/trash can for squirrels?
I think this maybe worth a test.
Maybe I should try this out before I repair the latest soft ball size hole in my soffet.
I think I may try sunflower seed for the squirrel, maybe a tad of peanut butter on the 2x4.
Has anyone else tries this?
Bonnie

Bonnie,
We have tried it with a 55 gallon drum and they do jump in the water but they can jump like a Kangaroo and they quickly escape the grim reaper. Chipmunks sink like a rock!It would be cool to design a trap like it for squirrels though. You do the work and I will take the glory!!

Denny

I came home last weekend to find all of hosta in one bed dug,as well as heather and begonia.
I know it is the same one, because he has a half a tail.
I am so determined to figure this out so sick of all the damage.
They even climb up the caster bean plants at edge of back yard and break them. Too bad they do have a bite while they climb on them.
Maybe the barrel need to have a net or something to drop over it to keep the little darlings in for a while. Maybe until the see the light??
Bonnie

I have had a bad summer... Squirrels swarmed my fruit trees, and Ate my grapes, Japanese persimmons, and pecans. I mean they stripped the trees bare. I posted this sad lament earlier to day, and Don Yellman, Great Falls, Va. posted this response...
pappy. Buy a small amount of plaster of paris at a craft store, and a jar of crunchy peanut butter at the supermarket. (Plaster of Paris is calcium sulfate.) Sit down at the kitchen table and blend about 1/2 cup of each ingredient together in a cereal bowl with a fork. It may take 15 minutes or so to thoroughly blend the ingredients, but it can be done. It usually ends up a little dry, so add a little vegetable oil and re-mix until it is the consistency of stiff cookie dough.

Take your bowl of mix out in the yard, and start making small bonbons with your fingers. Place them on spots like fenceposts, the crotches of small trees, etc. The suggested amounts should make about 2 dozen bonbons.

If you put the bonbons out in late afternoon, most of them will be gone by late the following morning. So will the squirrels. Your neighbors will not have a clue about what happened, since the squirrels simply disappear. If the squirrels move in from elsewhere after a few weeks, mix up another batch.

Please don't ask how this works. That's not my department. But it does work, and I have been using this method for several years, whenever the squirrel population builds up to impossible levels. This has been a good acorn year, and the population is relatively high. When I can look out in the yard and see more than a half-dozen squirrels simultaneously, that's when I get out a cereal bowl and start mixing.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
I am certainly going to try it, and see if it works on Texas squirrels.

Your neighbor needs a SQUNGEE.

That way he can feed squirrels, and the cobs stay out of your flower beds!

Here is a link that might be useful: SQUNGEE

Get an owl. And cats. I have an indoor cat, but a stray has adopted me. She walks the perimeter every morning when the squirrels are most active. She's caught one. I haven't lost a tulip bulb all summer. And there are daffodils in the woods. They never touch the ground here.

Every couple of weeks, a big owl comes by the neighborhood. I have some of the taller trees since my house is one of the oldest and sits on a hill. That's where he perches. I've seen him snatch squirrels right off the power line. Huge owl. Huge.

After paying a service to "humanely" remove 6 of them (later learned they're putting them down) + close up a hole they chewed in to a cavity of our house for $830, I started looking for options as the 6 they removed didn't make a dent in the population problem - and these little buggers are very territorial. In our area (northeast Ohio) tree rats are designated as invasive pests, we're allowed to put them down whatever we way want along as it doesn't involve discharging a firearm. In researching, I learned that relocating them to a far away area in established squirrel colonies is a death sentence (typically very slowly) for them anyways, so save the time, gas and vehicle wear-and-tear. Bought a couple of traps and a jar of peanut butter, quickly caught a half-dozen then drowned them in a water-filled tote (sounds awful, but it's quick), but they quickly became trap smart. Read around and learned that pellet gun technology has a come a long way in the past 20 years. Air guns are legal in my area, so I bought an entry level .177 caliber gun and fell in love with the thrill of the hunt and/or small game hunting, decent shots take them out humanely. In less than a year I've "liberated" over 150 from the comfort of my home. Upgraded to a .22 cal and am not going back to .177. If you're considering a pellet gun, get .22 caliber, far more humane than .177 shots.