Squirrels come onto my patio and dig dirt out of my plant/flower pots. How can I keep them from doing that? I know they like to dig (ground squirrels), but why my flower pots? This is the second year in a row.
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I had a nice patio garden going until a local squirrel moved in and had a litter. They stripped everything bare, including my wisteria. I mixed a small bottle of Frank's Hot Sauce with a tub of petroleum jelly and have smeared a thick coating around the rims of all of my flowerpots as well as the squirrel's favorite perches and regularly used avenues of travel. The petroleum gets on their fur and they have to lick it off, which they don't like. The hot sauce makes it extra unpleasant. It's been a week and I haven't seen her around. I'll see what happens when I actually get some stuff planted, but I'm 70% confidant that I've made my planters not worth the trouble for her.
How do I keep squirrels out of my flower pots?
Cayenne pepper sprinkled in pots and beds will deter the little darlings and not hurt them
I have a neighbour who feeds the squirrels peanuts. They run directly across from her house to my flower pots. I've tried all the recommended remedies: cayenne pepper, chicken manure, blood meal, and the latest - chicken wire.
I wonder if a couple layers of rocks would help. The rocks, about the size of quarters, would let water through to water the plants but wouldn't be great for burying the peanuts. Of course, this would be for plants that are already growing, not for seedlings. I see little bags of polished stones in the Dollar store, if you don't have access to a beach or the like.
My yard is the favorite for squirrels in my neighbourhood, they have killed many seedlings and dig up houseplants that summer outside. They are attracted to potted plants because the soil is soft and easy to dig. Depending on the situation; for plant trays, or large areas or bulb gardens, I use chicken wire. The squirrels (or chipmunks, or pooping cats) can't dig through the wire but the plants can grow through no problem, the wire can be left on a bulb garden year after year.
Squirrels were doing the same thing on my deck, year after year, to my freshly potted plants. They would toss my plant on the deck and dig in the dirt. It was maddening. One day, I noticed a new plant growing. It was a pecan tree! Several as a matter of fact. Sadly the squirrels also liked to chew on the new trees that were growing.
Squirrels like to bury food in soft soil and they will bury nuts and seeds in your potted plants as it's easier to dig. Earlier this year, before I started feeding the birds on my deck, I found one of my potted plants dug up and a hole where a squirrel had buried some kind of nut last year or before that. Nearby I found the shell pieces of a nut I never ate myself, and it looked like it had been the dirt of my plant for a long time.
I'm gonna try the cayenne pepper myself. If nothing else, it should mess up their "smellers". Hot pepper up their noses might be a deterrent. Might try the bamboo skewers, too. This is war!
They are burring food that they find or that one of your neighbors might be feeding as on my block everytime I catch a squirrel digging I find peanuts didn't take me long to find out that one of my neighbors is inviting them by feeding them and they're using my garden box & potted plants to hide their snacks it's now an issue for me squirrels are tearing up all my plants think Im gonna try tooth picks
I'm having the same problem and I believe it's due to the soft soil that they can dig deeply to bury food. The soil on the grounds of my apartment complex is hard packed so they dig in my planters almost daily.
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