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Squirrels
sheilah
Posts: 3
Please can someone help me. My garden is being decimated by squirrels, they are eating all the buds on all flowering plants. They are also biting off the stems of my lilies. I cannot afford to feed the little critters any longer!
0
Posts
If you have a bird feeder the squirrels will probably go for the bird food instead of your plants.
Yeah, they like to deadhead flowers for sure - I've noticed that they take the heads off gazania's, just for fun and leave them there without eating. They did the same to two young acers, just ripped the leaves off, jumping up and down madly.
I do like squirrels a lot, we rescued one once so since they've had a soft spot. If you put food out for them, be it nuts or birdseed, you'll probably have safer plants for a while, but probably get more squirrels and create another problem. We fed one squirrel in the old house, and within the year, we had 6 more regulars and then their babies... easy food means they will stick around.
I eventually found putting powdered chilli around my fav plants worked, they don't like chilli at all whereas birds don't mind it. Only works tho if it doesn't rain but they soon got the message and left the plant alone even without chilli.
Thanks, have tried chilli, pepper, lemon skin and the bird feeder, they are now busy stripping my lovely olive tree of its foliage!! Grrrrrrr.
Assuming they are grey squirrels then I would consider 'disposing' of them, not to everyones taste but they are vermin.
If they are red squirrels then enjoy them and be grateful.
Get a pet Pine Martin.. that will soon empty your area of greys
Or eat them.
Squirrels often go for flower buds and fresh greenery because they are thirsty - try putting a large shallow dish of fresh water out for them.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
They probably won't be particularly interested in dried stuff (e.g. bird food) at certain times of the year, particularly if it's a female squirrel which is still feeding her young. When they are lactating they need a fair amount of moisture intake to produce enough milk, so I think that's supposed to be one of the reasons they tend to go for young & relatively juicy buds etc.
I don't know if anyone's made a study of how much fluid squirrels actually need to consume, but when you think that they evolved to live in forested areas where often there's no obvious water available I suppose much of the "liquid" must be from immature greenery. I've never ever seen a picture of a squirrel drinking anything!
p.s. Sorry - Dove - we cross-posted!
I agree with LeadFarmer and ForesterPete. The north American tree rat (aka grey squirrel) is an alien invader and severe pest on a par with Japanese knotweed, ground elder (brought by the Romans) and rabbits (Normans). It's out-competed the native red squirrel almost to the point of extinction such that the reds now survive only in a few protected or remote areas.
An air rifle would do the trick and provide some sport, and I believe (although I've yet to confirm this from personal experience) that they taste good.
We had a lot of grey squirrels on the site where I used to work - they frequently drank deeply from the very large pot saucer of water used for the birds and placed in front of my window where I could see it from my desk.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
That's amazing, Dove! I've never seen it happen - the squirrels ignore the bird-bath here en route to other more interesting things!