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Squirrels, what to do?

Kim63Kim63 Posts: 15
in Problem solving

Lovingly tended my strawberries and raspberries again this year only for them to be eaten by squirrels.

I grow these in a large netted friut cage and just for good measure covered the strawberries with another net as they were ripening....but no, the squirrels ate through the netting, both lots and now they have started on the apples that I also grow in there. I find it so disheartening to spend time on the veg patch and not reap the rewards. Apart from making a scarecrow to keep in the fruit cage, will this frighten them?,  does anyone have any tried and tested methods of how to deter them.

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,134

    What sort of netting is the cage made of - squirrels will gnaw through nylon-type netting and also chicken wire netting.  The cage needs to be made of something sturdier. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Kim63Kim63 Posts: 15

     It's made from chicken wire around the bottom and nylon from then upwards with a black material netting on top. Think I'll have to see how a scarecrow does.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,134

    They won't take any notice of a scarecrow - squirrels are really bright - the ones where I worked knew when I was shouting at them from the window and when I was shouting at them from outside - if I was inside, even with the window open, they knew they could climb up to the bird feeder with impunity 'cos there was nothing I could do about it image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Maz6Maz6 Posts: 1

    Basically there is no way to deter squirrels. I have tried putting gravel on soil to stop them digging into my plants, rubber spikes on the top of my fences to stop them running along them to gain easy access to my plants, and a battery operated sensor device.

    None of these worked. The squirrels ripped off the rubber spikes on top of the fence, dug into the gravel and ignored the sensor device, which eventually stopped working anyway.

    I love animals however, the grey squirrel is destructive to plants and wildlife by doing what is natural to them.

    As a gardener and lover of what is natural in plants and nature, I really resent the damage they do and have no way of controlling the situation as my next door neighbour delights in feeding them and continually supporting their periodic breeding!!!

    I have had wild and uncharacteristic fantasies of destroying these 'pests' after researching the 'grey squirrel' and finding out that once 'trapped' it is illegal to release them into the wild.

    Sadly for the squirrel, it means they have to be destroyed by someone who has authority i.e. pest control.

    This is a costly business but in my 'fantasy' I thought about it as revenge for the destruction of my garden and irritation at my neighbour who loves animals, treating them as her pets and not particularly liking or respecting her fellow human beings and neighbours!!

    I could never kill anything though or have a hand in killing anything so its 'put up or shut up' as the saying goes!!!

    I haven't given up though!!! My latest trick is putting my holly tree cutting along the fence!! to make it a bit more difficult for them??!!! also the local cats who walk along my back fence to access all gardens, including my own, to go to the toilet!!!

    C'est la vie!!!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

        

  • Kim63Kim63 Posts: 15

    Thanks for the replies, looks like a solution shall be on going then. My son hung a bird feeder on a piece of cable from one tree to another and put a CD disk a foot or so away from it either side of the feeder, they never went near it again. Strange.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,134

    Hanging bird feeders on long cables was one of my methods of outwitting the squirrels - they couldn't get at the bird feeders like that.  But the cables have to be long enough so that the squirrels couldn't hang upside down from the branches and reach the tops of the feeders and pull them off.  Also I wired the tops of the feeders shut - it took ages to refill them. 

    I've even seen squirrels shin up the Shepherd's Crook type poles to get at the feeders - greasing the pole with cooking oil foils them, but the poles need re-greasing every day.

    The look on the squirrel's face when he jumped onto the pole and slid slowly down to the ground was priceless image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,134

    Would Velcro work?  They'd stick to the velcro and then ............................. image

     

     

    Only joking folksimage


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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