I NEVER thought I would ever want to kill a squirrel, heck in previous states I have even put up squirrel houses so they would be on my property.

But the squirrels down here in St Pete have made me feel quite the opposite. I am almost ready to buy a shotgun (doubt the neighbors would like that) or put out poison (and I rarely kill even insects).

But these guys have been digging up all my small plants, pulling new plants out of pots and deheading flowers and branches. I think I would ring their little necks if i could get to them.

I am looking for effective deterrents that won;t force me from my yard. [ok, i read one suggestion on laying ammonia laced rags around the garden.that won;'t work]

I am going to get a couple of habanaros and chop them up with a little water, vinegar and oil and try spraying that extract on some plants / pots.. Does anyone have any experience in this method. i.e. does it work and any plants that it has harmed?

Any other options I can try, that you have found that works here on these overgrown gremlins? . I have also read Fox urine, which I would need to go buy. [Heck, I might be willing to get a pet fox a this point]

I am going to try the habanaro spray or a hot pepper/tobacco mixture with water and see how that works.. I figured it might stick better than the chili powder on plants and would be hotter. [and hence be better at deterring the squirrels]

and since they seem to largely bother only the plants in pots, newly planted things and certain flowers I might be able to keep up with spraying those.

I think I will try it and update the post on if it helped or not.

I don't necessarily believe there's a correlation, but I preferred the days when squirrels weren't quite so ubiquitous.

Squirrels
Hawks
Ducks
Ibis
Egrets
Gopher Turtles
Armadillo
Vultures
Hummingbirds
Butterflies
Black Snakes
King Snakes
Spadefoot Toads
Tree Frogs
Woodpeckers
Cardinals
Blue Jays
Robins

The list goes on and on!
(I love it! Except the squirrels)

Buy a couple of live havahart type traps bait them with sunflower seeds and take control of the problem one bushy tailed rat at a time. Once in the trap you can relocate and just don't tell anyone or drop the trap in a container of water.

I have killed hundreds here with .22 quiets..they make almost no noise. It keeps the damage to a minimum. Without killing them I would not harvest much of anything.

So... umm... get a pair of red-shouldered hawks and give them a nest in your yard?

I could go the trapping and release route. I could take them to one of the city parks and drop them off there. I would not have much guilt about that. I doubt I could kill them. Heck, I live trap palmetto bugs who get in the house and release them outside, so killing an animal willingly is not likely going to happen.

The squirrel problem has gotten worse since i moved in. we had one or two when we rented the house last year. now there are a good 6.

I'll try the deterrent methods. I may try to attract and feed some of the feral cats in the neighborhood and see if they will make the yard home. [ I have an older male cat who would not like a new cat inside ] might be a good option. If i can't attract a cat or that fails, i'll try to live trap and move them.

Not encouraged :-(

I probably have more like 60 myself.

I'm the one who's not encouraged. LOL!

You'd think nature wouldn't be so inconsistently able to thrive around humans.

God or Nature, take your pick, set up a series of checks and balances to help make sure that no one species gained the upper-hand. The only check that was missing was against the human race. And with our 'superior' intelligence and wisdom, we've taken it upon ourselves to somehow 'do it better' and we're failing horribly.

Now, I'm not a tree hugging hippie who thinks that we must somehow restore balance to nature. I know that things have already pretty much spun out of control and will continue to do so. I can do what I can in my yard/practices to lessen my impact on the environment, but the sad truth is, there's no going back. The only way this world goes back to any sense of balance is if somehow the human variable is removed from the equation. And that is not going to happen on our own accord.

Something is eating small turtles and leaving their shells in my yard, too.

Red-tails are an uncommon sight in my area, though they do appear from time to time. I tend to see swallowtail kites more than red-tails, which says something since the kites are seasonal. There's also a Bald Eagle that has a territory somewhere east of me near the Okalawaha River/Lake Griffin area, but it's very rare that I see it this far inland and when I do, it is usually circling way up. Last year I saw it chasing what looked like a heron across the sky toward the west. Then about 5 minutes later it came 'blasting' by so fast that I think most prop planes would be hard pressed to keep up with it.

Though it doesn't live near me, the coolest Bird of Prey sighting I had here in Florida was this past Sunday. After leaving the Spring Garden Fair in Ocala, I went down NE Jacksonville Rd to 441 and turned left (heading south). About a half mile down there is a bridge just before you enter the more municipal area of Ocala. As I was reaching the top of this bridge, a Golden Eagle came over the rail from below the bridge and flew about 15 ft in front of my windshield. I was hollering at my kids, "Look! Look!" but they were looking out their side windows instead of through the windshield and missed it. I think that was the first time outside of a zoo that I've seen a Golden Eagle. It was... awesome.

My bet is what you saw was an immature bald eagle. Far as I know Florida is not home to any golden eagles.

Brute,

I agree on the red shoulders...they will come get squirrels when I shoot them but they are physically unable to fly off with their prize, the squirrels are just too big. Now once they consume part of the rat they can fly off with the rest.

The red shoulders are quite good neighbors..I have 19 chickens and 22 ducks. Not once have the red shoulders even made a pass at them or even the ducklings. On the other hand during the winter when the hawks are migrating the red tails can be a problem.

It's a blurry photo, but that's a squirrel he's eating, and I've seen him a few times since. So very cool!

Now, all I need is something to "look after" the hood cats. Neighbors don't fix, let them run amok and breed willy-nilly. They pee and poop in my beds (makes me gag... Sometimes it smells o bad I've had to close windows). Dog and chickens keep them out of the backyard pretty well (squirrels to, BTW) but the dog barking at the cat just OUTSIDE the fence is enough to send me squirrelly!

What doesn't work for squirrel repellent in my yard:
Holographic tape
Ultrasonic repellent
Pepper spray (have to reapply after every rainfall)

Grrrr