Squirrels: Cute, cuddly, and

extremely annoying.

I have three fruit trees next to each other in our backyard; a lemon, a peach, and a nectarine. The nectarine is my favorite- unfortunately, the squirrels also love it so I spend most of my summer days hiding in the bushes with a hose in my hand set to STUN. How do I get rid of them?!? (legally of course) Or maybe a FOOLproof way to deter them from risking their necks to get to the nectarines?

Short of a squirrel chasing dog, you could buy one of those plastic owls. I got my hubby to put a post close to each of my fig bushes. I start the owl on one post and move him around every day or two so the birds, chipmunks, and squirrels don't get wise to the fact that he's not real. He works pretty well--not 100 percent but well enough that I get plenty of figs.

My squirrels laugh at the owl, but it does convince birds. They peck the poor guy's eyes out. One of these days he's going to have to wear an eye patch. I haven't found a deterrent for the squirrels in my peach tree. My squirrel chasing dogs annoy the neighbors now that Mr. Higgins has died. (He came after them silently.) Had a foster once, a beagle mix, who about gave the squirrels a heart attack. I had brought her puppies out to the yard (introducing new things every week to them), and the squirrels started bombing them with pecans from the pecan tree. This infuriated Mama. The squirrels were able to jump from the pecan tree to the peach tree. Right next to it is an apple tree that was planted too close to the peach tree by a former owner. Mama climbed the apple tree and met the squirrels. I still didn't get any peaches that year, but did finally get some pecans, and had a good laugh at the squirrels expense.

Hi Chezca...me again, Grin Here is some amusing and hopefully helpful info for ya.

http://mgonline.com/articles/squirrel.aspx

http://www.ehow.com/how_5628029_keep-squirrels-out-fruit-trees.html

and finally....the "ultimate solution"

http://deadsquirrel.com/

Try putting your sprinkler on a motion detector.

Or my dad put a baby monitor in his garden so he could yell at pests over his coffee. My mom was less than pleased with that solution but it did work.

LOL....I can just see squirrels teleporting from feeder to tree.

thanks Moon! I will try the mothball tip asap :). btw, how's everybody doin around here? sorry for the delayed post- my pc wouldn't let me go on DG for the longest flippin time!

happy gardnin! ^_^

Too welcome Chezca....figured you might have been hijacked by squirrels....LOL. My computer's security alerts would go off every time i tried to log in to DG for a day or so...then just when I would try to go to PlantFiles....same thing...throw up a warning screen and shut down the whole link....must be something in the air....GRIN

You could buy a live trap squirrel cage. Every time you caught one, carry it wayyyyy down the road and let it loose in someone else's yard.

I sympathize-the squirrels in my area are psycho this year! They are digging everywhere-not eating it, just uprooting everything and creating havoc. I'm a dead-eye with the 22, but that's not allowed here. At least, not where anyone can see....I am at a loss what to do with them, there's no way I could treat the whole yard, is there? I'm going to check out deadsquirrel.com right now!

If you were closer, I'd let you borrow my little wiener dog, she's so fast she can catch them. They pretty much avoid my yard now.

So far, looks like the "Getting a dog idea" wins but if those squirrels are like the ones around here they'll make a mockery of the dog. I don't have one myself but my next door neighbor does and they run that crazy little dog ragged. They take turns making it chase them and cross each other's paths so he doesn't know which one to catch next. I had some suet out for the birds this winter and they attack it and leave little for the birds. I had it on my well house, they would eat it all...I put it on the gutter of my house, they climb across the roof, hang down off the gutter, open up the holder (which has a latch by the way) and dump it on the ground and go to town. I put it on one of my planter holders that has a long pole....they shimmy up the pole and grab chunks of the suet out of the side and then jump down on the ground and eat it. I will have a trick for them next year, vaseline. I can't wait for the show!! It's going to be hilarious watching them try to shimmy up the pole with vaseline on it.

I have a dog-useless against squirrels. (gormless, friendly 10 year old Golden Retriever) My friend's dog regularly catches and eats them, but it doesn't do me much good. They must have litters of a dozen! They are so crazy this year, what are they digging for? There is plenty of food in the garden, and the bird feeders, does anyone have any idea to make them stop uprooting the flowers?

Hmm, I wonder if they eat bugs that are in the ground.

This is also the time that they are "harvesting" nuts and the like that they "squirreled" away for winter. And, since not much is producing right now, they are foraging...late winter and spring are hard times for a lot of critters.

Guess I should be more sympathetic, they are hungry, although it is doubtful they buried many nuts underneath the coralbells! And I wish they couldn't "taste" every tulip and fritillaria before they remember they don't like to eat them!

We invest in a bag of sunflower seeds and cracked corn just for that reason....We rarely have any squirrels as we have three very territorial cats, but just to keep them away, I have an easy access feeder in the far back corner on the property line....they bedevil the neighbors...who think they are "so cute", but they stay out of my flowerbeds.

Mine eat all the birdseed already! And I have two (apparently useless) cats! Sigh. I'll try keeping more food out for them.

I put the squirrel feeder by the compost bin and we keep fruit and veggie discards in a separate bucket...they go on top of all the rest of the stuff....the squirrels are so busy robbing the compost they don't have time to dig in the garden....GRIN

I know you can put cayenne pepper in the bird feeders to keep squirels out. The birds can't taste it so it doesn't bother them. Might be a little hard to put it on fruit trees though
:o)