Squirrel digging up bedding plants

[sticky1]

In my garden i have a couple of grey squirrels, and they are digging up the bedding plants. I searched the internet to see what to do about the problem but that brought no luck.

What can i do to stop the squirrel digging up the bedding plants?

[Wild-Woman]

Take their spade away? Sorry.....couldn't resist.


Not easy to answer as squirrels are clever at overcoming anything that you put in their way to stop them. I think I might offer them an alternative source of entertainment...ie bury some monkey nuts somewhere in the garden that keeps them occupied. Sorry not to have more to offer.

[m1.carson]

Hi,

You could try surrounding the plants with garden wire mesh [ or is it called wire netting, the fencing mesh], if you bury it a little it won't show.

Max.

[m1.carson]

Hi stick1,

You haven't by any chance planted your bedding plants on top of their nuts have you ?

Max.

[sticky1]

No, i made sure not to put the plants onto the nuts.

But thanks for all your help, i will try them all and see what happens.

[mbaldw]

What can i do to stop the squirrel digging up the bedding plants?

In his amusing book Outwitting Squirrels, Bill Adler Jr. agrees with WildWoman and Max - both diversionary tactics (i.e. supplying other food to keep them occupied) and covering your plants with chicken wire seem to do the job. In addition, it seems that there are some scents and tastes that squirrels dislike and these can be used to dissuade them from digging in your flower beds. Mr Alder Jr., suggests that dried blood powder (which is apparently sold as a repellent in US garden centres, so may also be available over here) and mothballs are effective - he writes:

"Where do you place the mothballs or other materials? The best place is around whatever you want to protect. Not too close, but not too far away. Protect the general area, rather than individual plants..."

It seems that various forms of pepper sprays are also useful deterrents. There are more details about this form of repellent, including some homemade recipes, here. On the subject of pepper sprays, Mr Adler Jr writes:

"The old standby, red pepper, works well in gardens. If you elect to erect a fence around your plants or vegetables it's worth the extra trouble to coat the fence with petroleum jelly and cayenne (red) pepper. This give squirrels added incentive to stay away. ... Some people use spray vegetable oil to help the red pepper stick."

One point that isn't covered in the book (or anywhere else that I can find) is what -- if any -- impact sprinkling pepper on to the flowerbeds would have on soil-dwelling invertebrates.

In addition to the various homemade recipes, you can also buy commercial squirrel repellents, although there is some debate as to how efficient these are. I should point out that repellents only last for a short time (before they're leached out of the soil) and so they'd need regular reapplications.

I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Marc.

[RepelSquirrel]

I have a few homemade recipes for squirrel repellent posted on my site, not trying to sell you anythiing, they are free and based on cayenne pepper as another poster said. Best of luck, SquirrelRepel

ALL THINGS SQUIRREL REPELLENT