Oh my, what a clever little rascal! He is so tenacious! After seeing this video, I can see why this would drive you nuts. He is absolutely relentless.

Rina - I got it at home depot from the pest isle. It was around $50? Bird spikes were the same price and ineffective.

The two squirrels definitely did more than $50 damage to my plants!

So far I'd recommend it. Of course I'll try to keep posting any new developments or interesting videos. =)

Lauren - This squirrel was FAR more tenacious than I had expected! I thought they would just stop by once to nibble but this was a major squirrel undertaking.

So far, that 'raticator' hasn't caught a thing! Maybe I scared them off when they saw I had brought out 'the electric chair' to get them.

I did catch this guy the old fashioned way! How do they get in those little holes! (red arrow)

I also found a 'sail rat' in some annuals I was pulling up nearby. I suspect it was poisoned by a neighbor. It was pretty desiccated and it wasn't there last week. I hope they stop with the poison. Eagles are nesting and there will be babies to feed in about a month.

Hopefully these 2 didn't bring all their friends and family with them and I can finally rescreen the lanai. Kevin - I guess your battle with the squirrels is on pause now - or will be soon?

Edit - Oh DRAT!! I heard a racket out on the lanai at 9 PM tonight and there was another rat in the trap. I guess the battle isn't over yet! BTW, we have to tie or anchor the traps because we've had these rats run off with them after getting snapped in one. They are tough buggers!

Crenda - My squirrel battle is over for now! All but two pots are in for the winter. I'll be all set with my motion detecting sprinkler for next year. Might even buy a second one if it gives me additional coverage against intruders.

I can't believe you have to anchor your rat traps. Never heard of that before. It looks like they are making a trail of holes in your screen there. Suppose using hardware mesh wouldn't do much since they would just climb a bit higher and chew another hole.

Poison is pretty terrible. Bad for the wildlife and if it dies in your home it makes a dreadful stink. Hope your neighbour stops too!

Maybe you need to ensure the raticator is in the right spot? I found that trap placement is pivotal in capturing them. If you are really curious... you could consider a security camera like I did and you'll see the little buggers in action.

Add me to this list of squirrel victims. One is going after my E. Encantada that just seemed to be recovering after the Hurricane Matthew garage-induced rot situation. A few leaves have bite marks, and I've seen a squirrel in the area. Last night, I put a few small cactus around it and this morning more bite marks and it actually knocked a barely-rooted notocactus out of its pot! (Sorry, notolover!) Tonight, I've surrounded the plant with my nastiest cactus - chollas. Will try pepper spray tomorrow, then the granules if that fails. Grrrrr!

Leslie,

Your poor plants have been through heck the past few months :( I've been using Shot-gun Repels All (dried egg white, red pepper, garlic granules) shortly after I started this post back in May and it really works for me and my squirrel problem. I have to re-sprinkle after a hard rain but no more destroyed plants. Lowes (and probably Home Depot) sells it.

Rhonda

Rhonda - good suggestion! I've never heard of that product.

Leslie - drat! I hope you can convince the little bugger to leave your plants alone!

On my rat problem - I think we may be making some headway, but it's too early to tell and I'm always hopeful. Since I posted above we've caught 4 rats in the traps. I thought it was 'mission accomplished', but last night (after 3 days) another critter chewed into a different screen. No evidence of what he did after coming in, but hopefully we'll catch him, too.

Thanks, guys. Rhonda, I'll try sprinkling pepper around. Where's my bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce when I need it???

I don't know why the squirrel is targeting this one plant (of course, one of my favorites) and I'm worried if I get him away from this one, he'll go after another. We just got rain, after weeks of drought, so maybe he was just thirsty and going after my most succulent succulents. :)

Once they get a taste... They will want more of the others. I also tried putting spikier succulents around the ones getting eaten but the squirrels got at them anyway. I don't have anything like Cholla though!

Depending on where you live, consider building an owl nest box to try and lure owls to your area!

Also there are these tools (I think "pet safe" is one) that blow bursts of air when trigged by a motion sensor, I wonder if anyone's tried using it for squirrels.

Owls are nocturnal, squirrels are not.

back when I was trapping small mammals for survey purposes, we ALWAYS tied the traps to e nearby bush or we would never see them again Either the animal would drag it away, or a scavenger would!

Doesn't stop the Owls from having squirrel on the dinner menu!

I have a hawk who frequently sits on my roof and the telephone poles nearby. This is really the first and only squirrel I've seen in the area. For the first time, I'm actually hoping the neighborhood snake comes by and gets him!

Did someone say Squirrel?

Seriously a couple of rat terriers or Jack Russell terriers will completely take care of the problem. I don't care how rural you are. They will bring you dead squirrels, rats, and mice by the dozens every day.

Leslie,

I drink "sanity sauce" after a 12 hour long stressful work day :)

I can't believe you have only 1 squirrel! I see 5-6 every time I look out a window. The fox terrier idea us a good one. My female Boston terrier chases the squirrels but when they run up a tree, she sits there with a puzzled look on her face. ..where did it go? How did it just disappear? Not the smartest tool in the box lol. My male Boston terrier Larry could care less about chasing critters. He used to walk around smelling the flowers and marking every tree even when he ran out of pee.

Good luck.

Rhonda

I had similar problem. So, what i did was i bought some dried corn in the bird seed aisle, and i would put it out very earlh in the morning and they ate it! I just substituted something they naturally like, and it solved the problem.

But then since you are feeding them, don't they come more often?

Whichever gave the squirrels peanuts on their roof makes me pretty furious. Before that, they would never come up there.

Yes....they show up early every morning for the corn, but they don't bother anything else. I figured they aren't going away, the woods are loaded with them. I do not want to poison them, because they are only following their instincts. They do not see your backyard, to them it is part of the woods. So i thought i would give it a try. I can't stop them from eating, but i can offer them something else of the menu! It worked in my situation, thought i would pass it along, I actually like feeding them, It's beautiful in the morning when they are all under the tree sitting with a niblet in their tiny hands.Http://www.luckycloverpets.com

How timely that this thread was resurrected. I've managed to keep two pleiospilos "Royal Flush" alive for almost a year. This afternoon, my boyfriend asked why one was lying on the ground by our front door. Something has pulled it out of its pot, and taken a HUGE bit out of the top. Apparently, they don't taste good, because the bitten off piece was lying there too. Grrrr.

Every morning I go out and count the damaged plants. Here is one of 4 plants today

I haven't had squirrels yet, but a bird has apparently taken off with a newly potted Sempervivum. I set it under the suet feeder, so it was probably covered in tasty bits, and some poor scrub jay mistook it for the mother lode. I wonder how far away he dropped it. But my problem is more easily solved run yours.

Luckyclover - Yes, poisoning and trapping are not good solutions. Squirrels are territorial so if you remove one, another will come back in its place.

I used to find them cute until they incessantly attack my plants and cause a ruckus of noise in the trees.

Don't think we will ever agree on feeding them. I'm a bit of a conversationalist and feeding wildlife has a whole host of negative impacts (squirrels are more benign, but owls/foxes/etc. can be very tragic for them).

Last night I moved my succulents outside. Really hoping not to come home to damaged plants!!

Bird - That's so frustrating. The outdoor growing season is just starting for us!

I have had crows picking at and punching holes in my succulents! I chased them off with a badminton racket. LOL I must have looked crazy enough for them to not return. So far, any way.

In the end, we got 12 rats in the traps. And last week, another little hole in the screen!! Someone in the neighborhood is using poison. One died on our roof stuck in the downspout. I could not breathe on the lanai! Rains washed it down and 2 more came with it. And yesterday I found another desiccated rat in the yard - so it had been poisoned, too.

Poisoning is the worst because they always die somewhere inconvenient and cause that putrid stench.

Is that in aluminum screen? That is an incredible amount of rats.

Happy I don't have crows, whew. The sparrows sometimes go for bugs hanging around my plants but I very rarely see peck damage.

Yikes--I have to knock on wood for luck so I don't curse myself, but I've had very little damage to my plants. I only have one and he has easy pickings in the turtle pen.

Is the same turtle you lost? I'm so glad it's still alive!!

I just found a haworthia under plant stand, terra cotta pot broken. It must have been there a couple of days and I didn't notice because soil totally dried out. I think I'm going to put coyote urine pellets out around on the ground , they really stink but perhaps it will drive off whatever is chomping on my plants

I'm using two of these:

Ewwmayo:

Yes, it's the same turtle pen, but the squirrel just eats the fruits and vegetables I put in there to feed them. It doesn't bother the turtles. And I wonder if a hawk got that squirrel because I haven't seen him yet this year.

Then those darn deer eat the Trichocereus flowers--my neighborhood has a lot of diverse growth so the fauna generally leaves my succulents alone--but nothing is safe forever I know.

No fair for the turtles to get their food stolen.

Hard to believe the deer eat your Tricho flowers, but I've seen them rampant in neighborhoods before. So I have seen them happily munching on people's annuals.

Well... my neighbour had some Critter Ridder when attempting to spray a squirrel on her roof I got some overspray in my eyes and face. Capsaicin / pepper spray is not fun in the face!

Pesky bugger ran up twice on her roof while we were up there. Even saw it climb up over onto my side of the roof, but didn't set off my sprinklers. Which so far says my plants are safe. Haven't caught anything on my camera yet.

Hope the rest of you haven't had any problems so far this year!

4 month update: Turns out my other neighbour has a family of squirrels nesting on their roof. They didn't get rid of the nest and now it has babies. Animal control said it would be $1000 to remove them, so the owners decided to leave them there.

That explains a lot of the activity!!

I am happy to report that there has not been a SINGLE bite mark on any of my succulents for the whole spring, summer, and fall this year. Having two automatic sprinklers was very successful and I am definitely continuing this setup next year.

The rats are at their worst right now! In the past month we've had the cable guy come out twice because the rats chewed through the wires. I have a cat she's 18 so she just stares at the holes. My dog is more interested in lizards. I swear I need a snake. I'm all about humanely killing them, even though they are from hell. I don't want to poison because we have so much wildlife like owls and hawks. That are not doing their job may I add.

I'm really thinking about ordering the electrocution chair that Crenda borrowed from her neighbor. I don't want to see something suffer. If I'm going to kill it needs to be fast!

My neighbor's dog always wanders her way over to our yard. The other day she made it to the back yard, and she went crazy. She went in our pile of jasmine and at least 10 rats of all sizes came scurrying out. Before I knew it she had one in her mouth. Circle of life. She wouldn't leave my backyard for an hour. Maybe I should hire her;).

I had no clue they were even in there. You can see the big tunnel my neighbors dog made in the heaps of jasmine. This weekend this will be cut down. Luckily my backyard has mostly cactus no little tender succulents. So they haven't taken a munch out of my plants in awhile. Knock on wood.

A hole she dug to get a rat and she got it:). Good girl. I was so happy!

ewwmayo - I have to ask - how do you go up there without getting got by the sprinklers yourself? LOL

Kara - you need to borrow that dog more often!! I can't believe that plant was harboring all those fugitives!!

I know I need to hire tha pooch;). I also thought if somebody had a a couple huge pythons I could rent for a week:).

Elucas - I have them pointed away from me to make noise and spray to scare the squirrels away. =)

Kara - Real bummer that the rats are on a rampage. Have you considered an armored coax cable so the rats can't chew through it? Can't believe so many rats were in your jasmine. That's unbelievable.

You might want to try lawn trolls. In some area's of the country the troll's freak out squirrels. Hit and miss though. I would just try one or two trolls for starters to see how it goes.

9 Month Update:

No bites and the squirrels now stay away from the grow area on my roof now. I've accidentally left my automatic motion detecting sprinklers off a couple nights and had no problems at all.

For those still having squirrel issues, here's a good video short by the BBC. It's no wonder that squirrels figured out my earlier spiked deterrents in a matter of days only.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8G4pmEe-o

As for my plants, I've put out nearly all my collection out on the roof this spring and summer. It's been great!

HOT SAUCE or powdered hot pepper! They just smell it and leave them alone. I had over a hundred dollars of succulents ruined by chipmunks, squirrels, and deer. The chipmunks would just rip the leaves off and leave them. I searched online for a solution and came up with my own concoction of grinding the hottest peppers from the grocery store, powdered garlic, water, and some vegetable oil or dish soap. They smell it and move on... to my tomato plants! The little stinkers! Use either an applicator bottle, like a plastic ketchup or mustard bottle from the dollar store or a small paint brush.

I tried critter ridder before but got some in my eye and that was not very enjoyable. After that I do not use spicy stuff except at normal levels on food!!

2 year update: Motion detecting sprinklers have worked fantastically. Even on the rare occasion I forget, the squirrels don't even try. All my expensive plants are out there now and I stopped monitoring with my security camera. With a readily accessible valve and Gardena quick connects, it's easy and convenient.

My neighbor reports some of her rooftop plants are still getting damaged and she is finding peanut shells there sometimes, so the squirrels are definitely still active and around.

In a different city, my dad opted to go the route of live trapping and releasing the squirrels that terrorize his garden. As I expected, new ones move in continuously.

peppermint oil does not work against squirrels or whatever is eating my succulents!

Another two year update: The squirrels have figured out the motion triggering zones, been sneaking around, and having a feast on my plants. Video here: https://youtu.be/4jXw-cxpO6M

I'm still convinced this is the best solution possible, just that I need to move the sprinklers and detectors to keep the squirrels from learning the patterns fully over time.

Last week I added one more sprinkler for better coverage and so far so good. The camera footage has been pretty pivotal in understanding how they are getting about.

Ewwmayo - I have a similar motion-activated sprinkler pest deterrent system. But I point the sprinklers directly over or towards the plants. Then I use a bluetooth-controlled timer valve to control when the sprinklers receive water. The sprinklers are active all night to defend against racoons (a real problem), and in the morning when my squirrels are usually active. Seems to work, but if I forget and go out on the deck at night, I get blasted by my own sprinklers.

Haha, that is a bit amusing. I thought of a remote-controlled valve for the water supply but didn't end up doing that. What model are you using?

Luckily the racoons don't go out on the roof - they do tend to hang out on my raised deck sometimes at night but do not touch my potted trees, thankfully. I do find the squirrels are most active in the morning and sometimes the evening.

I have a manual valve right by the door so I can shut off the water when I go outside by my plants: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/gardena-hose-stop-valve-regulator-0597444p.0597444.html

I use this Galcon 9001BT: https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/water-and-irrigation/water-timers-and-meters/58805-easy-to-set-water-timers

If the sprinklers haven't triggered post-water shut off, there's still some residual water in the sprinkler, so I have to remember to wave in front of it to avoid getting a light sprinkle.

To avoid that, a more elegant solution would be to turn off the power directly to the sprinkler, via a 9v battery "eliminator" like this: https://batteryeliminatorstore.com/products/9-volt-battery-eliminator-ac-source-battery-eliminator. But I'd still need a timer. And there'd be wires to run to run to the sprinklers. And the squirrels would probably bite through the wires....

I avoid that leevalley website like a plague. Every time I drop in, my wallet just disappears into some kind of cosmic sinkhole. First the hand planes, then the widgets...

Anyway, Kev, what IS that thing the squirrel seemed to specifically favour? In the vegetable garden, some mystery cabbage-like thing sprouted from a packet of what was supposed to be sweet pepper. It was a hit amongst all the pests. So I moved them all to one spot away from my actual vegetables and allowed the infestation to build up before neeming them heavily. I've gone through two cycles before I started seeing young mantises in the yard and all the bugs started to disappear.

I'm not suggesting you plant a sacrificial pot and put it away from your non-sacrificial ones...Oh hey, that IS what I am suggesting lol

Pagan - The amount of cosmic sinkholes over there is a little concerning! Maybe need a team of physicists and astronomers to help with some of those.

Squirrel favourites:

1. Sedum that I got a cutting from @rina_Ontario,Canada 5a. THE favourite snack.
2. Buddha's temple. Now in a million pieces.
3. Crassula aborescens. HUGE bites. Like a cartoon kid eating a cookie.
4. Crassula perfoliata var minor. The nice cuttings I was growing now have scalloped edges.
5. Mesembs. Luckily not this year, but in prior years they liked Lithops the most.
6. Crassula tricolor.
7. Crassula ovata. Toothmark city.
8. A nibble of everything else, including my phalaenopsis?

In discussion with my neighbour, they love some of her plants too. None are succulents and I plead ignorance in remembering what they were. It's the seasonal buffet up here!

There are forests and many other homes with lots of plants with no defenses, so those should be the sacrifices instead!

What sort of sacrificial plant would work for racoons? A garbage tree? And for squirrels? Corn? (or Ewwmayo's plant)

Milton: My husband claimed that at uni, he reached a detente with a family of racoons by giving them part of his sandwich. The family (it's always three of them with the creepy grunting in the dark at night) we now have in the yard do not seem to bother anything, not even the vegetable garden. However, I did have to boot them out from under my wood shop using---sit down for this one---bars of Irish Spring soap shoved generously throughout. The odor is unbearable even to me; and they are more sensitive to it than I am.

If that had not worked, I was prepared to drill holes into the floor boards and empty bottles of the same rancid cologne/fragrance oil thing that the vet recommended for my cat who is allergic to bug bites. The substance is so vile to my sinuses, I would have needed to put on my respirator mask just approaching the shop.

Kev: Yikes. They like a lot of stuff. We have squirrels here, too, but the brown ones but they only topple pots and do not seem interested in anything I am growing. Also, the tree guy once counted 4 walnut trees and 6 oak trees growing around our property so they scoff at my plants.

So caging is not an option? Or drones.