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SQUIRRELS!

TexasFire

TexasFire

Does anyone know any tricks to keeping squirrels out of your pepper pots...so far they havent damaged my plants but they throw all the dirt out of my pots onto the ground and expose the roots

Annoying :cry:
 
i got great results with Habanero powder mixed with Cayenne. a 1/4 to 3/4 mix .. i had a HUGE crop of both last year so i had extra and went into Squirrel annihilation mode. worked great with the little buggers.. ran like heck.



Edit had.. for Habanero
 
Don't have em here but I would use rabbit traps then use dvg's recipe for Bacon Wrapped Squirrel! mmmm... :drooling:
 
SQUIRREL!

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sorry, could not resist.
 
BBQ sauce and a roasting pan. Best way I know of dealing with squirrels.

I've used the homemade hot sauce/powder to deter them. Just sprinkle it on the surface and they'll quit digging pretty quick. AJ's fix is a bit more permanent though.
 
Think I might take that recipe for squirrel wrapped in Bacon...if I new I wouldn't go to jail for shooting them I would...stupid rats
 
I have them on my bird feeder all winter. I shoot them ten pumps from a crossman powermaster 760. The feeder is about 10 feet from my sliding glass door so little velocity loss and not much accuracy needed. It kills about 1 in 5. I dont really care to kill them but all my efforts at trying to teach them to stay off my raised deck and bird feeder have led to little success. I used to use 3-5 pumps and aim for their rump, but I would hit them, they would run under the deck and come right back. Sometimes it took two hits to scare them off for the time being. Then, I began to realize that the same squirrels were probably coming back even after getting hit. So, I put out a live trap with Peanuts. At first, I would drive them a couple miles away and let them go. But that became a daily ritual. I dont know if they were coming back or if it was always a new squirrel. So, I decided to find out. I would catch them in the trap, then grab some yellow spray paint and turn them into a new species of yellow tailed squirrel. It was fun pointing the opening of the trap out and the opening the trap door. They would launch themselves twenty or so feet out from the deck and hit the snow leaving a yellow mark. But, you guessed it, I began catching yellow tailed squirrels. So I realized the trauma of being trapped and painted didn't do much to discourage them. I would even shake them up in the trap to traumatize them a bit more. I went back to the bb gun after a while. Besides, I was having to re-bait the trap several times a day with the tufted titmice stealing the peanuts. I even caught a great big Bluejay in the darn thing. It is the raccoon size trap. Towards the end of the winter, I was back to ten pumps and shooting for effect. Found a few of the darn things frozen stiff in the yard after the snow melted. Don't worry, I can go out in the back yard at any time of the day and be able to see at least one or two running around. There is no population problem around here.

Call me callous if you want but I tried. I really did. I even went as far as posting signs "squirrels not welcome - Violators will be shot" but they didn't head that either.
 
Own a dog. Seriously squirrels go out of their way to stay out of my yard even when the dogs are inside the house.

But they do climb onto my roof and mock the dogs from up there though. It's so funny to watch.
 
+1 on the dog...
If ya can't have or don't want a dog you can get these motion sensored spray thingys (I know I am very technical), they are to deter cats normally but you could use them for the squirrels, when they come within a certain radius it sprays a harmless mist scaring them off. And you could always change the spray to saran gas, that'll fix em'.
 
Good ideas in this thread! Those little tree rats wreaked havoc on my tomatoes last year, but left my peppers alone. I'm going to have to do something since I have 20 heirloom tomato varieties this year. It's pretty disappointing when you pick a perfect tomato and turn it around to find little bites out of it. Mmmmm....RABIES!
 
napalmxv3 said:
Own a dog. Seriously squirrels go out of their way to stay out of my yard even when the dogs are inside the house.

But they do climb onto my roof and mock the dogs from up there though. It's so funny to watch.
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Good to know someone's dog is working. My THREE just sit and watch as squirrels wander just feet from them. Sometimes, they yawn.

I'm having trouble with squirrels and my younger plants. They don't go under the foliage of the grown ones, and don't dig down far enough to hurt the roots on those anyway. They're digging up acorns (that they no doubt deposited there) and an occasional piece of dried corn from the bird feeders.
 
The ghosts of my murdered vegetables cry out for vengence against Sciurus carolinensis!

During the growing seasons, the little buggers uproot my pepper plants. Now in the winter, they uproot my garlic bulbs. I have no sympathy (and I mean NO sympathy) for squirrels, but I also don't have the time to hunt the little buggers. Lately, they've been digging up my garlic bulbs. As gratifying as shooting them all one-by-one would be, what other options are available? Does anybody have recommendations for traps, poisons, or other management tools?
 
Does anybody have recommendations for traps, poisons, or other management tools?
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The hot pepper powder mentioned above in this thread has some real potential. I'll be trying it out in the spring, and is just might be the ticket to keeping my dog away from the garden too. She's not destructive, but she is always meandering around the little plants and breaks them off from time to time.
 
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