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Squirrels (Regarding Lawn)

7 years ago

I redid my lawn two years ago and I must say it is looking great. Thank you to all here who gave good advice.

I have a bunch of squirrels who love to dig the lawn looking for nuts. I don't even have any trees with nuts but regardless; I bought a trap and have caught about 4-5 so far that I drove 10 miles away and set free. There are still those who have figured it out and now do not even go near the trap. I have tried moving it around to different spots, used different bait, tried hiding it, no luck.

It's getting frustrating, so my question is: should I just give up? If they dig holes in the lawn should I just go around and fill in the holes? This seems like a never ending task. I don't want to leave patches where weeds could easily grow.

Also: I have read the articles about squirrel problems; it seems my only other solution to get rid of them is to buy an air rifle, and I don't really want it to come to that.

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Comments (2)

GroundskeeperSmalley
7 years ago
In some states transporting squirrels is illegal, so I would check with that before you keep it up. I knew an old guy who used to trap them, paint their tails red as a warning and then let them go. If he caught any with a red tail, he would make a big fuss and talk about how he was going to shoot them, but I think normally just drove and released them. He still had tons of squirrels.

I had cats digging in beds when I lived in the city and got some "sonic blasters" that made a high pitched noise when they detected motion making the area unpleasant enough that the cats decided to find somewhere else to do their business. I think it is marketed for squirrels also, but it was marketed as being inaudible for humans and I did not find that to be the case, so YMMV.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried broadcasting cayenne or something to make digging in the lawn unpleasant...
krnuttle
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
The best thing to do about squirrels is to learn to live with them and enjoy their antics. They are quite cunning little animals, and it is fun watching them chase each other around the yard. We had a squirrelly gig on which we would place a corn cob on each spoke, they got so they enjoyed the ride and would run down the tree and take a few spins before eating the corn. Currently we have a bird feeder on a shepherd's crook, they get quite frustrated trying to get up it when it gets wet.

If you try to eliminate them with live traps, or other means; the only thing that will happen is you will feel better for the hour or so it takes you to drive some place and release them. Remember they are some what territorial, If you remove the squirrel who owns the territory, another will replace him. You are never going to create a squirrel free zone in your yard.
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Interesting how each situation is a bit different. We have a partially wooded back yard and tons of squirrels, probably because my wife feeds them and the birds each morning. They rarely dig into the lawn, though. I don't like trapping because what happens if there are babies in the nest? My new neighbor is a fireworks fanatic and lit off a bunch of large fireworks when he first moved in. The next day about 5 of our regular squirrels had burn marks on them and one was maimed so bad he looked shell shocked and couldn't walk right. We let the guy know what happened and he stopped lighting fireworks in a wooded area. We had a family of foxes move in to a neighbor's yard a couple of years ago and while they do scare off the squirrels, they don't get rid of them. BTW, foxes will not attack anybody, dogs, etc. They just want to eat squirrels and chipmunks. Of course the wife is feeding the foxes now so they don't go after the squirrels. I disagree with doing that but she doesn't listen to me, lol. They got mange so we fed them a course of medicine, but other than that I think nature should be left alone.
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These have worked to keep squirrels out of my apple trees (so far). You might need more than one, depending on how large an area you are trying to protect. Here is a link that might be useful: Scarecrow
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and just forget about the black pipe edging... waste of time and money installing .... go to the library ... yeah .. turn off the computer... and browse the garden books and just focus on the pix of garden beds .. and study how others do it ... i round up my beds.. and leave a 6 to 9 inch dead zone between the mulch and the grass .... keeps the mower away ... and allows the robins to search the chips for whatever they are looking for... i doubt it has anything to do with squirrels ... but maybe you have some weird ones .... since you are a newbie.. please understand that your garden is not a static picture.. it looked like the finished product you paid for for one day.. the next day.. its time to change it.. or it will change itself... that is one of the zen qualities of gardening ... good luck ken PS: a picture sure might help for better opinions....
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Lucky me, I guess, because I have Kentucky bluegrass. There are endless squirrels around here. I have heard of a fundraiser for a country fire department that holds a competition for shooting squirrels. Maybe I can get them to hunt in my yard this year.
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