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Satan's squirrels

bagsmom
14 years ago

You guys - I am so mad I could spit! The squirrels are in my tomatoes this year. I made my peace about sharing birdseed. I don't mind that. But don't mess with my 'maters! The little boogers are getting in and chewing about 3 bites out of the prettiest, best of my green tomatoes. I have hung plastic rubber snakes on the cages. Not scared of snakes, apparently. I even got so gross as to take "pee cakes" out of the cat box and put them around the raised beds. Who cares? Not the squirrels! I made spray with hot sauce and have been liberally dousing the tomatoes -- to the point that I cannot see or breathe when I'm doing it. The little turds must like their tomatoes spicy. Aaaaarrrrggghhh! I even tried getting something yummy to keep them busy, and put a trail of corn on the cob to sort of lure them away. They like corn WITH their tomatoes. I caught one little guy trying to drag a humongous Cherokee Purple across the yard. I busted out of the door yelling "Put that down right now!!!!!!!"

I noticed that some of the chewed-on tomatoes are healing. Dare I eat one that a rodent has gnawed on? I guess I'd better not.

I called my sister in law who gardens in Michigan. She even bought a BB gun to battle her squirrels. She said at first, they would jump and run. But after a while, they got used to it, must have realized that it just stings and doesn't kill you -- she said now they just jump and stay where they are. If squirrels could flip you off, she said hers would.

Lordie. Any advice???????

Comments (9)

  • satellitehead
    14 years ago

    Create a chickenwire cage around them? Setup some baited mousetraps (rat sized) and tether them to something nearby? There are also "humane" traps for sale at Home Depot according to someone that posted in my squirrel rant thread. I think they're $40/ea.

  • salisali
    14 years ago

    Squirrels are taking down my sunflowers. They climb up the stalk, chew off the head, the head falls to the ground. The smaller ones, they run off with, but the bigger ones they just drag a ways until they realize they can't climb with them. HALF my sunflowers have been decapitated! AARGH!

  • nandina
    14 years ago

    For those that can tolerate killing them, a suggestion was posted this spring on another Forum which we are using with great success. We were fighting a losing battle with squirrels getting into the house causing a great deal of damage. Mix 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter with 1/2 cup Plaster of Paris stirring in a few drops of vegetable oil. When throughly combined, roll this mixture into little balls and place them about out of the reach of children and pets on tree branches. We repeat this treatment once a week. Try it.

  • vicki7
    14 years ago

    We bought one of the Hav-a-heart traps to catch a raccoon and baited it with sardines (this was recommended to us). After catching the neighbor's cat on two different nights, we finally caught that raccoon. I haven't tried it for squirrels yet, but I'm betting it would work if you put a nice juicy pile of sunflower seeds inside it to draw them in. Right now (fingers crossed) our squirrels are only eating the bird's food, which is bad enough... that stuff is not cheap. We may resort to trapping them if they start stealing tomatoes or corn!

  • ilikemud_2007
    14 years ago

    That Plaster of Paris idea is disgusting why don't you just put rat poison with the peanut butter and kill them more quickly. UUG

  • mkrkmr
    14 years ago

    Get a hawk or an owl. Our neighborhood has a couple of each. Of course that's probably because we have so many squirrels.

  • opal52
    14 years ago

    There's something weird going on with squirrels in our area this year. We heard a terrible commotion on our roof one morning a few weeks ago. I looked out the window and witnessed a squirrel stampede. Fifteen (I counted them) had run across our roof, across the telephone wires and into a pine tree out front. They all ran down the pine tree, across the street and behind the house across the street. I had never seen anything like this and thought perhaps the parent squirrels were chasing their offspring away from home.

    I was out back gardening last week and noticed a big commotion, lots of noise and leaves and small limbs breaking off in the tops of our neighbors oak trees, and the commotion moved to our oak trees. I saw perhaps 20 or more squirrels in a high speed chase (or stampede) through and down the oak trees and into another neighbors yard several houses away before I lost sight of the chase.

    Has anyone else seen squirrels behaving this way? We have lived here for twenty six years and I have never noticed it before. Maybe the squirrels around here have become possessed.

    I am not fond of squirrels at all. One this year is breaking and eating the leaves from one of our Hibiscus bushes and finds the flower buds particularly tasty. Too bad the Hisbicus isn't poisonous.

  • bagsmom
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Opal - That is just bizarre! If I saw that, I would have been very freaked-out! I am still battling the tree rats here. I have taken to picking my tomatoes when they are at the very end of the green stage, and putting them in a paper bag to ripen. They probably won't be as good, but at least I'll have some!
    My next battle strategy was going to be getting a fake hawk to sit by the beds. We have red tails and cooper's hawks and owls in our small neighborhood.

    A couple of days ago, I was excited to see the big red tail sitting on a dead branch in the backyard. Guess what? One of Satan's squirrels ran down the tree and onto the same branch! I was holding my breath, sure that I was about to see an Animal Planet Moment. Nope. The hawk just looked at the squirrel like it was crazy, then ignored it. The squirrel continued to FROLICK on the branch 4 FEET AWAY from the hawk.

    Excuse me???? Easy meal just steps away! And you pass it up? Good gracious -- all the animals are going crazy. :)

  • vroomp
    14 years ago

    I don't have a problem with squirrels anymore.
    {{gwi:830874}}

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