squirrels and bulbs - What to Do?

I decided to fancy up our window boxes, which surround our deck,adding tulips and daffodils to our usual winter pansies. As I started putting the bulbs in today, between the pansies, it suddenly hit me! The squirrels love to get in the planters during the winter (they ease off in later winter) and eat the pansies. What are they going to do if they get a sniff of the bulbs?! I picked up all the bulb papers, but I seriously doubt that will stop them. Are they fond of these flowering bulbs? What can I do to deter them?

Peter

Maybe chicken wire? Depending on the size of your bulbs you could either remove the chicken wire next spring or the plants can grow through.

This is interesting. It would have to be secure on the boxes. I'll think about it, Sandra. So, it is true that squirrels would consider a tulip a main course?

Someone suggested moth balls to me and I am trying that this year.

;~D

LimeyLisa Kay

Yes! I was trying to think of the word for those little white things, really! I can't do the chicken wire without taking up the pansies, then planting through the wire. I am going with the moth balls. What are you using the moth balls on in or on your garden?

Peter

Tulips, mainly, but any bulb I wasn't sure about. The moth balls are cheap! I know that daffs don't get bothered.

LimeyLisa Kay

Sign me up for Team Mothball! I am stopping at the hardware tomorrow. Thanks, Lisa!

P

This message was edited Nov 4, 2003 8:22 PM

hello pdrones.. i have a a ton of gophers and used to have a ton of squirrels.. i have read many many different places that if u plant daffodils and hyacinths in amongst ur tulips , the squirrels and such will not go near ur other yummy bulbs.. i had 6 rose bushes and one of them was a rose tree.. the gophers ate them right below the surface of the ground and of course killed it.. also they killed another ros bush i had.. and not to mention they had holes dug to every single rose bush right to the trunk of each one.. well i set traps and caught a big fat one , but i also after that one was caught , planted a bunch of daffs around the outside area of half the rose bushes.. ( i need to get more daffs to complete the rest) since then i have seen gopher holes on the other side of the rose bushes and NONE around the area where the daffs are planted.. they say that daffs and hyacinths are so poisones that they dont even like the smell of the bulbs.. and so far for the past 3 or 4 weeks no gophers or squirrels... plus i get pretty flowers for the money spent...(: hope this helps...
chrissy

Chrissy, that is great! Since I have tulips and daffodils mixed, I should be deterring the squirrels. And since Daff's are great, I am going to plant even more this winter. I have been looking at fritillaria persica ,for hosta protection, but they are too expensive, and need some sun. More Daffodils, more dafffodils, more daffodils...............................

By the way, what about the idea Lisa shared, about moth balls? Has anyone written about this method?

Peter

I've used the moth balls before. They do help some. Shooting the squirrels was actually much less smelly. I know I'll get hollered at for saying that, but it is what we ended up doing. They were damaging EVERYTHING including the screens on our back porch. They'd eat right through the screens and destroy everything in our porch, which was huge. My husband calls them rats with long tails.

I get a gardening tips newsletter from Wayside nursery. The latest one included a tip from a woman who had problems with squirrels digging up her bulbs. She now plants a few ornamental onions with all of her bulbs. Not only have the squirrels left her bulbs alone, but the rabbits are no longer eating the foliage! Since alliums come in all sizes and colors you can choose whatever goes well with what you are planting.

I am definitely going to give this a try when I plant my spring bulbs over the next few weeks.

Sue -

I've heard the stories of squirrel invasions before, and understand your remedy. I would probably trap them, but I am happy they are not that bold here - although when the little bugger put his little feet onto our family room window last weekend, he was both adorable and worrisome.

NoH2O -

The onions make sense. Could even include interplanting garlic (until they are pulled) or 'real onions'. Wishing you more H2O!

Peter

Thanks for your kind wishes, Peter, but this year I don't need any more H2O. My area is 12" above normal in rainfall this year!

I really don't know if this was the cause or not, but being desperate to keep the squirrels from my newly planted lily bulbs I sprinkled onion flakes in the holes after putting in the bulb and a little soil. I didn't lose even one bulb. Don't know if it was coincidence or not. I also sprinkled some more flakes over the top of the bed and watered well.

NoH2O - Better change your username. The raingods might look kindly on you....................glug-glug

llilyfan - your reply is still another inventive idea. It does fit with the onion idea. But it wouldn't be permanent, like the allium?! Anyhow, thanks for the feedback. If we get a few more inventive ideas, we can publish a book!

Peter

I have quite a few allium and even daffs in this bed, my concern was the squirrels would pass them by and go for the lilies, hence my attempt to confuse them.

Gotcha. My DG friend Bert suggested that hostas, or any plants big ringed or fenced with the repellant bulbs. And added that it would be interesting if the rodent or other undesirable was inside, not outside the borders!

Interesting comments and techniques, folks!

I didn't have any tulips until this fall, and it is by coincidence I planted them by a long row of grape muscari. I haven't seen any evidence yet that the squirrels have dug them. The squirrels have dug most everywhere else, burying black walnuts, though. My garden looks like a miniature battlefield that has been shelled.

Some years ago I planted an entire bed of tulips for my mother. Since she had lots of moles and voles, I dug the entire bed and lined the bottom and sides with hardware cloth, being careful to lace the hardware cloth together with more wire at the seams. Then I replaced the dirt and planted the bulbs.

On top, I placed a layer of chicken wire so the bulbs could grow through it. Unfortunately, she soon sold the house and I never got to know how well it worked.

Darius, man - That was love!

Peter

The city hall in town punched holes in coffee cans put in dirt then planted can and all. In the late spring they dug them up sold the bulbs and replanted annuals in the area untill they reversed the procedure and pulled the annuals and replanted the bulbs. They had pretty tulips.

Darius send me some squirells I saw one in my back yard last year I think that may have been number three in 32 years. I have lots of garden things to share. As it is now my tame Bob Whites eat most of my strawberries thats ok lots of berry farms here sell them every day for the season.

Onions as a deteriant, don't know what to think cotton tails
ate some of my Walla Walla Sweets as I watched they were very tiny though and maybe needed more size to be effective. If onions work then I would think chives would work and they would be more permanant and they even flower.

I have noticed yellow tulips go first here. I don't know for sure but am fairly convinced the varments are moles. I have also noticed the tuplips I planted in a bed surrounded by the house foundation on one side and sidewalks on the others grow unmolested no pun intended. Ernie

Ernie - I think that was indeed a pun intended, and love it! The coffee can trick is fun. I rarely plant tulips because of the tedium of redigging (plus the squirrels), but may try it. Thanks for your entertaining thoughts! Peter

Paul,

If the moth balls & onion flakes "wear out" due to excess rain and the chicken wire gets dug up by the squirrels or gophers, get a DOG!!! My dog, Ms. Penny was ALWAYS on "squirrel patrol", whenever she was let outside in our fenced in backyard. A time or two, she almost would catch them as they scampered up the trees to get away from her! Now that she has passed on, we need to get another dog to protect our house & gardens from devious & malicious squirrels!!!

Growing tulips in your garden is like dangling a steak in front of a lion! Tulips are simply a delicious delicacy to squirrels! So, I plant my tulip bulbs indoors and force them to bloom during the cold raw days of winter! It's like a "shot in the arm" to see these beautiful Spring bulbs blooming indoors, when it's not fit for man nor beast to be outside.

smilin32 - I agree with you....they are "rats with long tails"!

Anyone need target practice???

I have used moth balls with some degree of success, depends on the amount of rain you get. Also, cayenne pepper sprinkled on the bulbs help. You can always put 2-3 bulbs in wire "cages" and then plant them.

I read an article about the flower bulbs at the White House a few years ago. Seems the squirrls were destroying every kind of bulb they planted. of course, its not politically correct to kill the sweet little darlings so they do the next best thing, they feed them! Hidden behind the shubbery, according to this article,are large containers of peanuts.

I've even read (haven't tried it yet) that taking a scouring pad like Brillo and gently separating the fibers, then putting the bulb inside the steel wool, helps to also discourage those pesky critters!

bamasharon - I'm sure it is NOT politically correct to kill the squirrels, but putting large containers of peanuts behind the shubbery & trees, just encourages MORE of them!!! Just wondering, is that a good use of the tax payers money???

Good grief - one bulb per steel wool wad. That's love. I will stick to interplanting lots of daffodils! My old dog is 18, deaf and half blind, and could care less. Even planting in wire takes more meticulous work that I can tolerate. No patience. Sometimes - speaking of peanuts - it is easier to eat the nuts shell and all than bother with shelling them. Now that is no patience. (Trouble is, I am being following by a drooling squirrel. Maybe I should start a new thread on that one?)

Peter, I wish you could borrow our dog, Stupid. He loves to chase squirrels, feels it is his bound duty to prevent them from setting foot (paw?) on terra firma. Even when he is inside, the squirrels here are nervous ...

Cheri'

That's one spiritually powerful dog!

I have had good luck with garlic powder, if you can stand the smell. Mothballs are poisenous to dogs, cats & other animals. I shy away from them as a result. I placed this note in another forum... I have a large lizard, & I place diluted doots around my garden. NOTHING goes near my garden. They don't know what it is, just that it is big & carnivorous! I always put garlic powder around seedlings to keep the skunks from digging them up. A very good deterrent. I refuse to spend money on urine, even if it IS from a coyote. We have coyotes now, so I wouldn't dare attract any more!

JRush --

As a footnote to your enjoyable note..............Since garlic powder works, planting garlic cloves in with sunny fall plantings then pulling up the deterrent the next May would work. Fits the observation that alliums/onion varieties work. The powder does sound convenient, and I take it that it doesn't wash away badly with rain? I used to keep snakes, and imagine their poop would work too; but I am done with reptiles, so plant cures appeal more!

Peter

I have a neighbor who is an generous feeder of squirrels.
Our neighborhood squirrels aren't afraid of cats (feeding neighbor feeds all the cats in the neighborhood, as well) or dogs (I have a great Pyrenees and a Bernese Mountain Dog and the squirrels taunt them and grab their food right off our deck under their noses). I've tried the chicken wire and my little destroyers tear it up to get to the good bulbs below. I have noticed that they don't mess with the daffs, so I'm going to get a few more of them and try the interspersed planting concept. Thanks for the help!

Good thing they are so cute. I am simpl;y sticking with daffodils - which still get turned up when the fresh dirt or potting soil looks like a good place to play in or to baury acorns in!

I bought this thing from Gardener's Supply, it is crushed oyster shells. Put 3 tbs before planting bulbs and 2 on top and cover w/ dirt. so far, no squirrel digging. A dog seems to help some, though my poor Kramer is a frustrated hunter 'cause these kritters are way too fast for him. Sometimes (I'm not saying how often) we hit a couple w/ bb guns, they get hurt and then Kramer goes and "takes care of business".

I know, I know, they are so cute. But they sure can cause a lot of damage, you learn to hate them after a while...

This message was edited Nov 10, 2004 7:14 PM

Two rat terriers! They were bred as ratters but love to chase any kind of rodent. That'll do the job every time at my house. I've got my squirrels convinced it's much less of a headache to take the buffet at the neighbors house across the street sans dog.

Being overly tender-hearted -- despite trying to be other -- I have finally cohcluded that planting only daffodils is easiest. . . .

Hey pdkrones:
Don't despair! Even before I "relocated" 41, yes 41 squirrels to public land, I protected my tulips by interplanting with daffodils. They all came up this spring, yeppers. This year I added frittellarias near the tulips. Over all the beds, I put cheap chicken wire. My last count after the big "relocation project" this las spring is about 6 squirrels. Those I have trained to flee the bird feeder. They know at least one human word. OUT OUT OUT. I can be on the other side of the house and when they hear me talking they flee. :) LOL. They know that there are two sunflower seed bowls that are theirs, those they will sit and eat at because they haven't heard that magic word....OUT. It's unreal. Try the chicken wire.
As for the moles/voles. Jerry Bakers's medicated baby powder works wonders.

Mary

Mary - I guess that the chicken wire could help. My stuff is scattered around and naturalized, and I dread that much work. My squirrels, especially in the soft window boxes, just love to dig. They upturn the daffy's, even if they don't bite. As tfor the wire, I do you mean a finer mesh than the usual wire? I guess they can't get through the usual stuff, but the spaces seem wide as I imagine them.
Peter

Hi Peter:
I was hoping for a better picture to show you, but the weather is not cooperating. I just started a new garden area that I wasn't going to give up to the squirrels. I have daffs, tulips and crocusus in that bed. Over it are several lengths of wire which I could have covered with soil, but haven't yet. I got the wire at a place called Menard's similar to Lowes or Home Depot. The octagon shaped spaces are about 2-3 " apart large enough for the leaves to grow through, but enough of a deterrent for the critters. If it fails there's always my relocation option, but I do like a few of them around. lol.

Mary

Mary, you are one determined and wonderful lady. Whenever I open up/excavate a new bed for bulbs, I am going to use your approach. I really do not want to relocate these guys (the furry ones) even if I had the patience for trapping. They are gorgeous. I was admiring the blue-silver coat color on one bushy-tailed giant near the mulch pile just yesterday. Right now i am interplanting bulbs with perennials, so I am sticking mostly to daffy's. I have a few discounted bulbs, which I won't plant until my mail-order daffy's arrive. By the way, I have a great source for bulbs, from here in E. NC: Terra Ceia Farms. They sell bulbs by the bushel, great qwuality, amazing prices. Enjoy the weekend!

P.

I planted 8 hyacinths in a bed containing about 20 tulips and many different kinds of flowering allium. The same day, a squirrel was in there digging away! Those little buggers love to hide black walnut seeds in my beds. I've lost count of how many seedlings I've had to pull up the next summer.

That's reason to start a Walnut farm. Here it's oaks - literaly thousands every year, but all part of the wonderful persistence of nature! apparently the squirrels as as interested in easy digging as in munching the bulbs.