Squirrels and red pepper flakes

I have had squirrels digging in my lobelia pot, so I put red pepper flakes in there tonight. Does anyone know a) if this will kill my plants, and/or b) will this keep the squirrels from digging up my lobelia?

I have been using red pepper flakes about 2 months now- it does keep them from digging- I think they get the taste on their paws. I was initially worried that the dried pepper would sprout but it hasn't,and it hasn't hurt any of my plants. Since I water the pots most every day I do re-sprinkle when the flakes look faded. I had just about given up hope growing in pots when I learned about the pepper. Hope this works as well for you.

Pepper sprays work. But like anything else to deter varmints (e.g., "Deer Stopper", "Liquid Fence", etc.), you have to stay on top of it. I've found that adding a dollop of sticker-spreader to the spray solution makes effectiveness last 2-3 weeks longer. My problem is with squirrels chewing up plastic components of my (extensive) drip systems (I have learned to hate tree rats!). Simple solution: spray the beejeezes out of them with Hot Pepper Spray. Simple enough, except my main irrigation people told me "if you put pepper spray on your delivery system, we won't work on it anymore". Now 10 years ago, that wouldn't have been a problem. A "no-brainer", since I installed and maintained all of them. But now it's 10 years later, and I'm 10 years older, and (slowly) coming to understand that "I ain't the man I used to be"). Can't do all the stuff I used to do. But I'm going to pepper sray the system. Friend of mine grows some new pepper that registers something like 100,000 on the Scovile scale. I think the hottest pepper I've ever heard of is the Habanero, which if my memory serves me correctly, lands anywhere between 1000 and 10,000 on the Scovile scale. So this thing is at least 10X hotter than Habanero! Can't blame them for not wanting to deal with it. But if they wimped out on Hananero juice, they definately won't touch this new stuff! Lot of experimenting to do...

I'm going to stick with the flakes and see how that works, I also have some flowers (the name escapes me...) that attract hummingbirds, and I don't want to scare them off.

I use chili powder (buy it in bulk at an ethnic food store cheap) and it deters pretty much everything. Was having trouble with mice in the house, coming in at one inaccessible point behind the stove. Pulled the stove out and poured some behind it 2-3 years ago. Haven't seen a mouse since...Works great for plants, too, and does not harm them, in my experience.

What kind of ethnic store?

Latin grocery store (of which there are a number of chains) and/or Mom and Pop stores, or Asian/oriental. Most medium-sized towns have at least one. Chili powder can be bought in bulk, so its cheaper. If you don't have a latin/hispanic population, you may not have any nearby. We are lucky to have lots of different nationalities in our area, so can get lots of different spices etc pretty easily.

I think after reading these posts that the problem with the 200+ seeds I planted (flowering perennials) not growing may not have anything to do with the composte I used, but the three squirrels eating them!

Is this possible?

I had retaining wall bricks put in that are encircling 3 sets of pairs of trees, used a high quality hummus/composte mixture over the clay soil (after breaking it up a bit and mixing with the mixture I made) and all I've seen are holes where the seeds used to be!

I have a walking sprinkler that I run (especially lately) every day between 4 am and 6 am. So I know that in spite of the lack of rain in my part of NC, the seeds are definitely being kept moist, and not drowned.

If it IS the squirrels, I am definitely going to get a ton of red pepper powder for next year's replanting!

That is probably what has happened. I use the pepper flakes heavy in the spring when I set out my seedlings- they love to dig and are not only curious but are looking for stuff they buried the past fall. I have found that once things are growing well they do not seem to bother them. I do find the flakes easier to use- I just sprinkle on the dirt.

I came to this thread because I am contemplating moving to NC is a couple of year. After trying many methods on squirrels I discovered that they cannot tolerate freshly ground black pepper. I was having major problems until I started buying whole black peppercorns, putting the in a pepper mill and grinding it over my pots. You have to repeat it every few days, but it's cheap and, better yet, it's invisible!

Donna Mack