I think it does matter if it is tree squirrels or ground squirrels, altho' a half-eaten tomato is a half-eaten tomato. If they are in the trees at any time, they are tree squirrels. The ones around here are mostly interested in the walnuts across the road but they discovered the "everbearing" strawberries I planted in the backyard . . ! I followed David's advice from several years ago, altho' I didn't buy a "supersoaker" water gun. I just went after them with the nozzle on the hose. Around & around the tree, we went! He will make a dash along a limb and leap into the neighbor's tree at some point - I try to be ready for that! Exercise like this keeps me from setting a rat trap in the strawberries . . . It resulted in several weeks with no squirrel in the berries, however. I am not sure that your scarecrow will work. I doubt if a squirrel is smarter than your cat, who probably just thought that you'd put a pillow out for him to sleep on. A stuffed cat might work. I have used that to keep sparrows out of newly planted garden beds. It worked to move the cat frequently, keep it half-hidden but in view. Maybe a stuffed dog would work better with a squirrel. Oh, and to contrast with ground squirrels -- they will eat every plant near their burrows. They'd probably eat the tomatoes AND the tomato plant! Steve

bdobs- First, what we have here in the Bay Area is the Tobacco Horn worm, not the Tomato Horn worm. The difference is in the striping along their sides. They start out very small (so does their poop) But once they get going they increase in size at a fantastic rate because of their appetite. I intended to raise one to go through the phases to a mature moth a couple of years ago but the thing ate so much so fast that I was cutting branches off of my tomato plants to feed it. They eat 24/7. As they increase in size so does their poop. Which is one way to find them on your plants. Anyway I didn't want to keep cutting my plants to feed it so I put it on the patio table and within 30 seconds a Bluejay swooped down and grabbed it. Can't say I felt too sorry for it after seeing what it did to the leaves and unripened fruit. The one in the video below attacked my tweezers as I tried to pull it off of a branch. Didn't know they could move so fast. Here is a link that might be useful: Tobacco Horn worm attacking tweezers

I found Turbo Tax in a lot of different stores around here. I think it's still the #1 tax software. I'm going to give TaxAct a try to see how it does. I already did my taxes using Turbo Tax, but decided to d/l TaxAct to see whether it gets the answers right. If so, I may use it as my primary next year. I'll post what I find after trying it out. I started it last night (but didn't finish) and a quick observation is that you have to go through a lot more screens to get something done. I also like the way TurboTax imports things from last year and uses them as a starting point. If you haven't changed employers, that can save some time. The way they prompt with last years' 1099s helped me realize I was missing one. If I had just entered based on what I had, I'd have missed one.

Mine have been a headache this year. DD made a mistake on hers (she claimed herself and shouldn't have), so we've had to do 2 amended returns and now have to mail in DH's and mine (you can't efile when there's been an amended return). I had questions for the state ones, but the first day I called there was a 45 minute wait.. the second time I had a 25 minute wait.. kept checking updates on the time left.. then I got hung up on. I went ahead and sent the forms in - if there is a mistake they can send them back.