Rascals!

DontPanic · Jun 30, 2019

Something's been eating just the bottom of peppers!

I hate to admit it, but I may have contributed to this problem.

I've been broadcasting crushed red pepper into my raised beds in an attempt to deter the squirrels. This may have had the unintended consequence of conditioning the squirrels to develop a taste for spicy food!

Oh well, it could be worse! If they're gonna get curious about my peppers, I'd rather they get into my Cayenne peppers than into some of my more interesting varieties.

dragonsfire · Jun 30, 2019

Squirrel Pie with peppers could be a good solution.

CaneDog · Jun 30, 2019

Especially when the squirrels come pre-spiced!

Doelman · Jul 1, 2019

haha I've definitely experienced this, I've never seen them finish the pepper so I wonder if it's because they're taking a couple nibbles then the heat hits them.

DontPanic · Jul 1, 2019

This Cayenne variety is kind-of wimpy. And most of my peppers get much hotter towards the stem.

Still, that rascal ate more of it than I would have expected.

DontPanic · Jul 9, 2019

This rascal (or rascals) keeps coming back.

They've now eaten the tip off of six peppers, all from this specific plant.

There's a heatless Criolla de Cocina right next to it (a Bell pepper-type variety). They're leaving those alone (thankfully).

To the best of my knowledge, I've got about four or five other examples of this particular Cayenne pepper variety in my plant-out. They're not touching any of those.

Now, I'm curious as hell to try one of these peppers to see if it tastes any different from the other examples of this pepper. But these varmits won't let any them get ripe without nibbbling on them.

Since they're eating just the tips, they're leaving me plenty of seeds, so I'm going to segregate the seeds from this specific plant under the name "Squirrel's Delight Cayenne Pepper".

One of these days, they'll hopefully leave me one to try. I'm curious to see how discerning these squirrels are, and if these peppers have a better flavor.

DontPanic · Jul 20, 2019

This rascal is starting to earn my grudging respect.

I was finally able to sample one of these (just one, that's all they've let me get to).

It's not a heatless Cayenne. It was packing a regular level of Cayenne heat.

Now, they're starting to eat more and more of this plant's peppers.

This guy can't weigh more than one pound.!

Pound for Pound, he might actually be giving me a run for my money in terms of pepper consumption this year.

Doelman · Jul 22, 2019

I have squirrel and chipmunk problems in my beds. I made a little fence around my plots with Deer X mesh and that keeps them out. That's literally the ONLY thing that keeps them out.

solid7 · Jul 22, 2019

Birds have been taking my peppers apart lately. Except they start at the top, and work down.