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Tennessee Gardening

Trouble w/Squirrels

17 years ago

Greetings, A few days after putting out 3 rows of Silver Queen in my small garden I started to notice the shells of the coen seed laying about the rows. Today I finally saw the culpret, a danged squirrel. After narrowing missing it with a small shovel it lopped off, albeit w/a full belly of my seed.

My question is, is there any successful method of warding these tree born rodents off from a garden, especially when I'm not around to run 'em off?

Course I've got the trusty .22 at the ready now but that won't help during working hrs.

Thanks

Volfandt

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Comments (8)

atwork
17 years ago
Poor little cute squirrel. Don't shoot them. They're just trying to eat. They aren't able to go the the store and buy food.

Try...
Coating the seeds in cayenne pepper or a repellent like...
http://www.critter-repellent.com/squirrel/squirrel-repellent.php
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kathy003
17 years ago
Cayenne pepper has also worked for me. With recently dug soil also try some temporary measures like burlap cloth and chicken wire. This discourages digging while seeds "start".

I currently have two layers of chicken wire over a planter I call the salad bowl.

My Mom fed me squirrel when I was a little kid, she called it 'beef'.

With cayenne pepper you have to be constantly reapplying it...
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Volfandt
Original Author
17 years ago
THanks for the reply's.
[quote]Poor little cute squirrel. Don't shoot them. They're just trying to eat. They aren't able to go the store and buy food. [/quote]
I tain't got no problem with 'em eating, just as long as it's not in MY garden!!!! :D

I'm going to give that Shake Away a shot. We'll see if powdered fox urine is worth a hoot.

Shot?, thats reminds me, theres one bushy tailed tree rodent that's thanking his lucky stars that the sights on my ole wind-broke .22 are off a tad.....
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fzouk
17 years ago
I can tell you Shake Away works great- I've used it a long time with success.
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bigorangevol
17 years ago
Unless you've got a lazer scope and are an excellent shot with the .22...I'd just use the shotgun with #8 or #9 bird-shot!!! The other problem is that it's likely not just the one critter. You can always set traps.

We raise Golden Queen but or main problems are with the deer in the middle of the night. They wait until the corn is up six inches then graze right down the rows.
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stackpopper
17 years ago
i was over-run with them....literally. it took 2 years to finally make it managable.

oddly enough, it works easy to trap them....with a live traps. and you can move it easily enough to another area if you so desire.

but a .22 works too.
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hosta_mom
17 years ago
We just buy a big bag of feed corn & put it out in small piles for the squirrels away from the garden. Works well for us, bit I don't really have issues with deer.
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brandon7 TN_zone7
17 years ago
When I hear you guys talking about blowing away squirrels when there are easy ways to keep them from bothering your seed, the word "karma" suddenly pops into my head.
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