I have bird feeders and a site feeder that the squirrels eat from. They don’t much bother the garden. Give them another food source and maybe they’ll leave the roses alone!

We do have deer, rifis, but not many and the buds are only ever eaten off the shortest ones. I have never seen a deer in the yard.

Birds are also frequently digging around the base of my plants and even get into the urns on my covered porch.

A squirrel finally made it up the hill this year in our desert hill country location, and now I'm worrying about the little devil (and wife, I think). Deer definitely ate my tomatoes, and wasted green ones by taking a bite and dropping them--that wasn't squirrel damage because we didn't have squirrels, but we sure had mule deer. The deer, of course, gnawed on the roses, forcing me to spend a fortune on repellent which is only partly effective. One thing that has helped with the squirrel problem is having a completely squirrel proof (and deer proof) bird feeder. Now I rarely see the squirrel, and he hangs out in our neighbor's back yard pilfering from her bird feeder. I wonder if good old garlic powder would deter squirrels since it worked well keeping rabbits away. I fill a cheese sprinkler jar with garlic powder which sprinklers the stuff quite efficiently. Of course, you could dispatch the squirrel the Idaho Farmer Way. My friend gardens in farm country, and her husband is a good shot. She feeds birds, too, and as the pest squirrel climbed the pole toward the bird feeder, her husband stuck his rifle out the barely open back door, and sent said squirrel to the happy walnut tree in the sky. I'm not recommending this method however, especially if you live in town! Diane

I'd bet money jc's rose damage is deer browsing. Otherwise how far off the ground are the affected buds? If above squirrel height then that means they are managing to climb up the thorny and/or prickly stems and out to where the buds are to get at them.

Diane I have already used a weak pellet gun on a particularly fat one.

He jumped up, turned, and stared me down.

I think I’ll try garlic powder and cayenne pepper.

Hahaha, you guys. Before I had the squirrel proof feeder, I watched our varmint use thorny Evelyn as a launching pad to the non varmint proof feeder. I don't think thorns deter squirrels much. They sure don't deter deer. Diane

JC, Tennessee is known for its great squirrel hunters, I thought. Blasted squirrels. Diane

I don't think thorns deter squirrels much. They sure don't deter deer

Deer nip at the tender bits at the extreme tips, beyond the firmed up (mature) armature.

Squirrels here in Minneapolis take tomatoes and I am convinced they also take tulip flowers that they can reach. They seem to concentrate on my red tomatoes the very last evening before I plan to pick. I got taller tulips that had their flowers out of reach last year and they survived. Chicken wire fences work somewhat to protect the ripening tomatoes, too. It is not because these particular squirrels are hungry. I have neighbors who feed them so much that they may have half a dozen squirrels around them at a time taking nuts right out of their fingers. Nice folks and this is their special thing; so I try to protect my things with barriers. New wrinkle last summer, something got my Japanese eggplants at about two-three inches long. Clipped them off on the stem. They leave my peppers alone, both the sweets and the hots, but they do dig into my garlic bed to bury nuts they got from my neighbors; so I am not so sure that garlic deters them much.

If I lived outside the city and had no neighbors feelings to worry about there is a very good solution at 22/100 of an inch. Squirrel cooks up pretty nicely, too.

We have bird houses hanging in our front yard. The birds use the houses all year. If a squirrel steps in the yard the birds gang up and chase the squirrel back to the neighbor's yard.

I don't know about the taste of squirrel, but my friend's husband uses the rifle method. I do pick my tomatoes just as they start to ripen, and that's helped us keep most of the harvest. I have bamboo stakes all around, standing next to, and lying next to, my garlic crop, and it hasn't been bothered at all. I have to do this for lots of stuff to ward off the hoards of quail, destructive beasts, with their scratching and making of bowls in the dirt for dust baths. They are nothing but wild chickens. They destroy plants and eat up expensive seed. I grow lots of super hot peppers which are never bothered. I'd like to see a squirrel take a big bite of habanero pepper. I'd pay well to see this. Diane

Short of a neighborhood full of roaming cats or an aggressive dog (a Jack Russell would be an excellent candidate!), I'm not sure you can deter squirrels. I have to spray a repellent to keep the deer from nipping off just about anything in flower but I haven't seen it do bupkus to keep the squirrels away!!

Chili powder keeps them from digging in my pots until it rains. Then it has to be reapplied or they dig in it again.The little fluffy rats have dug up my front-porch pansies several times now.

If I weren't in town, I'd be using the 22/100 method, but instead I'm growing some hot peppers to try and make my own repellent. We'll see how that goes; AC's adventures in seed starting and squirrel battling, coming to a Gardenweb board near you!

My son in law makes all sorts of hideous salsas from my habaneros--he loves the stuff, but I should borrow a little for areas that might attract squirrels. I could even try growing a Carolina Reaper just for the squirrels. I think I will, indeed. Maybe we all should form the Anti-Squirrel Society and Social Club. It's a good way to get suggestions on combating the varmints. Diane

A couple of cats will take care of the tree rats in a big hurry. I feed a small community of kitty's and have never seen a squirrel on the ground in years in my neighborhood.

We have two cats and the neighbor has one aggressive hunter, and no, they have not taken care of the tree rats. They are focused on voles, mice, and birds (unfortunately). Diane

finis,

I’ve seen squirrels eat our rose buds. They get tired of eating the black sun flower seeds I guess. lol Maybe I should go back to my squirrel hunting days as these guys are getting FAT!!

Now if I could just get the rabbits to leave the new rose growth alone…..grrrrr

In the mean time the birds are taking their daily bath in the heated bird bath. Now if the duck that I saw walking down the street today gets in there with them the you-know-what will hit the fan!! Gotta draw the line somewhere, right?

Keep Safe

I was just informed at dinner that our neighbor's mighty hunting cat has chased the squirrel we both dislike over to another neighbor's place where he is living in that neighbor's fruit trees. Hoo boy, that neighbor is in for it, but I'm not sure he'll ever know he's got a squirrel in residence. He hires all his yard and gardening work done, and never sets foot outside. That is a story in itself. Anyway, maybe this is our chance to be rid of squirrel persona non grata. Time will tell, but I plan to put some very hot pepper concoction all around my tomatoes (watch me get it all over myself). Good luck with the duck, Toolbelt. Would you like some quail? Diane

You only have one squirrel? We also have tom cats running their territories around here. I see at least two or three who make regular circuits through my garden. I find that here, the cats do not control the squirrels. However the more feral cats the fewer the cottontails. They are a pest in their own right.

We live in the desert hills at the top of a hill--been here 15 years, and our first squirrel arrived about 6 months ago. We have plenty of varmints around here and lots of predators, too. Diane

I've seen the squirrels running off with tomatoes. My helper lobbed one with another tomato and smacked it right off the ballast trades down 20 feet but it still ran right off. I spray things with a sort of pepper spray that I make out of water and hot sauce. It's tough to use other types of pepper because it can clog the sprayers. It works really well. They only have to try something wise once. I have not done it on my rose but I do suspect them of nipping off buds as it is definitely not deer damage which often has a ragged Edge. This is very clean and neat and also in an area which the deer cannot access. We have a lot of squirrels. Chipmunks will dig like crazy but I do not believe or I have never seen them eat roses or tomatoes.

You cannot deter them but you can relocate or kill them.
I have a live trap and they take a trip to a park 2 miles away.
My neighbor has a rat set up, but it has also gotten squirrels. It's a big grey trash can, half full of water. A skinny pipe is suspended over it, and a larger diameter 2 foot PVC pipe is slid onto the skinny pipe, then it's coated with peanut butter in the middle. They try to eat the peanut butter but it spins and dumps them in the water below, to drown.

There were 9 in my driveway just now.

They ate the first buds of: Tamora, Lavender Crush, and Tiffany.

They've also broken off two fairly large canes of Cinco de Mayo.

I think they want war.

SO sorry jc—-I’ve been at war with a number of squirrels over the years, and it’s a tough one. We’ve got cats now, and they do help. I’ve spent a lot of time researching this, and the traps that sautesmom describes are reportedly successful. So are bonbons if you google those. Keep us posted!

jc, you must have some one or ones in your area who feeds the squirrels. That many all together doesn't normally happen in the wild. They will congregate at abundant feed sources, but normally space themselves out better. So long as the local food supply is there you will have abundant squirrels no matter how many you remove or how you do it. You might check into local regulations about feeding wild animals. There are often little known rules that can address what is otherwise baiting. Of course if the local feed is abundant, then the local squirrels should be nice and fat and cook up real well. With Covid jeopardizing meat supplies, that might actually be a budget help. Cook them cut up rather than whole and they will look less like a barbequed rat and more like cooked rabbit or chicken wings. Funny how so often when a "resource" like that gets utilized that it makes itself scarce...

Well, your term "barbequed rat" convinced me, OldDutch. I'll never eat a squirrel. I'd rather go vegan. Diane

I got no problem with squab, chicken, pork, rabbit. Fat rodent is no problem either, considering that most of them are no dirtier than a hog is. I grew up on a hog farm; so I know pretty much what I am talking about. No slats in those days to simply pen cleanup.

"Like a rat" was my late mother's objection to rabbit, actually. She had no problem with most domestic meet, except rabbit and lamb. She was not a fan of any wild meat, however, not even pheasant or venison.

Personally I don't see what the difference really is, just so long as the animal is healthy. And probably you should avoid rabbit dishes in big cities. They have a type of harvest called "roof rabbit". You can probably guess what that is.

Probably can’t count them, but there are 8 in this photo

Wish me luck

jc, youall got nut trees around there. They're burying stuff, most likely nuts. No trees then someone is feeding them on purpose. Wrong time of the year for nuts anyway. At least the nuts are likely to have been cooked or roasted; so you won't have nuts sprouting all over the place.

Shagbark Hickories and Eastern Red Cedars.

They are DEFINITELY digging all over the flowerbeds.

I would recommend Whippets!

;)

Have you tried any of the squirrel repellents sold on Amazon? Deer repellents are partially effective. I'm all for cayenne, but you may need to buy it by the bucket. We have a large supermarket that sells stuff like that in quantity by weight, and it's cheap. We use a lot of cayenne and that's how my daughter buys it, not by the brand name in a bottle. And we also buy garlic powder that way. That might an additional repellent. I'll ask her about the price. Good luck--I'd be tearing my hair out and ready to quit gardening. Diane

jc - 8!!! That's a LOT of squirrels!! Good luck with your varmint control!!

Saute'smom - Holy Hannah...that's a HUGE squirrel!!!! We just get little ones here. Way to go whippet!! They are so freaking fast that I don't see how any critter could stand a chance.

My method might not be that effective for getting rid of them but she leaves my roses alone. She never bites.

A robust local coyote population seems to keep them in check here. The odd one or two still show up, especially when the wild plums start fruiting or the horse chestnuts ripen.

We live trapped 16 chippies and 12 squirrels last year. They took a trip to a vacant lot about 5 miles away.

sautesmom,

That squirrel reminds me of the big red fox squirrels we had back on the farm when I was a yonker. We had border collie type dogs then and they could never catch any of them. What I have now in the City are the much smaller gray squirrels, only about half the size of the fox squirrels I grew up with. Either type learns real quick. Out in Cali you have different types of squirrels, too.

BTW there was a saying back home (that was tall grass prairie country originally with very few trees besides what human planted) that if you had squirrels in your corn crib you had no rats. There never were enough of them to cause garden trouble back then, since only the farm places had trees and there was too much open space for grays to congregate or the reds either. It is way different in the City which as far as the grays are concerned is all forest in the residential areas.

I noticed earlier this year that now I also have chipmunks. No ground hogs though thank goodness.

We have beyond a "robust" coyote population, not to mention hawks, badgers, the occasional cougar, and bobcat. They prefer the equally robust quail population, plus cats, rabbits, and gophers. I don't think squirrels are worth the trouble to our predators with hundreds of quail as easy pickins.

Suncoast, I've been bitten by a squirrel, and it's not fun--prepare for a lot of blood.

Saute, are you sure that's not a cat with a strange tail? Diane

This is not squirrel country--hence the 15 years it took to get our first one. Diane

I've been feeding her for about a year. I'm sure she could give an ugly bite if she wanted to.

I’ll take the quail Diane…. lol they ain’t bad eating. Skinning squirrels is a job in itself so think twice before you blast one of them….. Anyone who has ever done it knows what I’m talking about….

suncoastflowers, a friend of mine saw a squirrel on a tree about 4 feet up from the ground. He walked towards the tree and the squirrel moved around behind it. Not thinking, my friend reached around the tree and grabbed the squirrel. You should have seen the hold he ended up with in his hand. A squirrel can chew hickory nuts open so their teeth are sharp..... as he found out.

Amen, toolbelt. Diane

Ewww...that does not sound good.

Now I’m wondering if it’s birds doing this?

Dee Lish and Evelyn continue to get their buds nipped off.

Jc, is the nipping a clean cut or a messy rip off? Deer are messy, but they do drop a lot of stuff. The above pic looks like a neat job. I don't think it's birds. Quail rip at everything close to the ground like chickens. Squirrels still look like a good possible culprit in your case. Diane

It's definitely clean cuts every single time.

The garlic and chili powder aren't helping beceause we keep getting more and more rain.

I'm just going to wait them out I guess. Seems like they are mostly bothering the shorter (young) ones.