BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...

Subject: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: UncleToad
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 05:35 PM

Help...I have tried everything, rocks, seashells, etc. But the squirrels keeps burying walnuts in my planters and pots of pansies and other flowers. How can I keep them out without poisons and traps and such...

Thanks, Uncle(up to my ass in squirrels)Toad

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 05:43 PM

a wall 20ft high, canted outward, covered with silicone and emitting sounds of dogs barking 'might' do the trick....for the first few days.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 06:02 PM

Try using blood meal fertilizer. It should work, only when you water or it rains your urns will smell (briefly) like a slaughterhouse.

(I originally thought this said "Squirrels in my Panties...")

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Emma B
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 07:04 PM

It's fun being dyslexic - that's what I read too Rapaire. I have the same problems with squirrels burying nuts in my herb pots but decided that the entertainment value of the acrobatics makes up for the loss of a few plants

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 07:38 PM

Look at it this way - you won't have to buy nuts at the store with your litle slaves bringing them to you.

Of course, you two, the squirrels love playing in the bush...

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 07:44 PM

Hey Rapaire, great minds and all. I posted that to the Mudcat Misquotes thread just before I opened this one and saw your post.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 07:56 PM

Only problem with the blood meal or dried blood is that rather than squirrels you may now have cats and dogs diggin' in yer panzies... especially dogs... You may wish you had the squirrels back... Actually, there's some nasty stuff called Liquid Fence that is usually used to keep deer away that might very well keep the squirrels away. I use it for deer and have noticed that in those areas the sguirrels don't go... But it is rather stinky so again you may wish you just had the squirrels...

The squirrel is the worlds most determined animal. I used to trap them and cart them off but that didn't work. Ya' really can't shoot them 'cause they don't deserve that. Maybe you could just drive yer car 'round yer planters and wait fir the danged squirrels to do their hairy-carry thing as they don't have a clue about cars. They could have seena million of them but the next one they see will be like the first one they've ever seen...

'Bout half an hour of driving 'round the panzies oughtta so it...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 07:57 PM

On the subject of the question, Uncle Toad, you might try putting some hardware cloth (wire mesh) over your planters, with holes in it just big enough for the plants to poke through. If you don't like the way it looks, you can camouflage it a bit by painting it green or terracotta or whatever would look the best with your planters. Alternately, you could probably put it right on top of the soil instead of over the very top of the planters. You would need to put gravel over the mesh if you had it right on the soil.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Dead Horse
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 09:01 PM

http://www.mikewest.net/squirrel/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 09:17 PM

I just live with 'em. I'm in a creek bottom and have a neighbor up the street who planted tons of pecans in his back yard. The old fart now traps and shoots the squirrels to "protect my investment" (the guy is 80, fer-christ-sakes, and he's not likely to go into the pecan selling business at this age!) People have stolen his traps right and left (mostly his neighbors on the right and the left!) and he keeps buying more. A fire and radical tree-trimming by the power company this week after his trees brought down a power line didn't disuade him. He has another trap in place (the last one seems to have taken a mysterious leap into the raging creek waters on Saturday night--observed first-hand by his next-door neighbor). :)

I've squirrel-proofed my attic. It worked last winter. It was a lot of work, and I have to go back and re-check the hardware cloth again this fall. Outside we're all in competition for space. They must have planted a half-million acorns and pecans in my yard last fall. What are another half-million this year? I found several in my potten plants, and I pull them out. I mow them or I pull them out of the garden. Those at least are easier to pull than the hackberries that seed themselves.

The squrrels may be rodents and relatives of rats, but they are beautiful and quite entertaining. You should see them struggle to defeat the "squirrel-proof" bird feeder! They're quite the gymnasts.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Janie
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:03 PM

Because I have a lot of cover, I have lots of baby rabbits. And I have a lot of birds. A couple of neighbor, or possibly now feral, cats like to hang out in my yard because of this, and they largely deter the squirrels from digging in my pots. Come to think of it, those cats may be why the squirrels don't dig up my tulips and lilies!

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:04 PM

You are lucky UT. When I lived in the Welsh Village, we had a gorgeos walnut tree big enough to house a tree house I'd guess could of slept 6 adults if needed (something never tried). Every year the tree would "fruit" and we would look forward to pick the nuts but always, before we decided to pick, The squirils seemed to manage a "dawn raid".

I don't object too much to that but a few of the nuts left in pansies or what ever plants we had there would have been a rather nice reward.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:29 PM

Actually, I like squirrels. I have my favorite. I call him Mr Squirrel and he is not one bit afarid of me. I can walk right up to him while his buddies run fir their lives and he doesn't care one bit. I throw him tidbits and we get along fine... I do have to get on him now and then fir knocking over palnts on the deck but it's good natured...

I had a squirrel as a pet when I was kid that lived in a birdhouse in my bedroom. I never closed the door. He''d just go in there by himself when he was sleepy. He's get on top of my head or my sholder and crack nuts and spill the shells all over me. He was real cool. I had him since finding him in the woods when he was about 2 inches long and had fallen out of a tree and fed him with a eye dropper... until he was full grown and he was the best pet I ever had (sniff) until one day we got our signals crossed (sniff) in the living room and I accidently stepped on him and broke somethin' (sniff)...

I still miss that squirrel to this very day...

Sniff...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Janie
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:44 PM

I like 'em too, Bobert! Especially in a stew:-)

J

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:49 PM

Sounds adorable, Bobert. And you're very lucky you didn't get rabies. . . ;-) So many things we did when we were young that are appalling now.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 04:37 AM

What beats me is what it is about squirrels that makes some people adore them. They are in fact Tree rats...rats with bushy tails but still the same family as the common rat. A few of the posts above show why they are classed as vermin. So why do some people adore them...is it just because they look a little cute?

Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 07:37 AM

Sorry I misread...I thought you said "Squirrels in my panties", and was going to offer advice..........

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:30 AM

You cannot win. I have been fighting "The War On Squirrels" for 20-odd (very odd) years. Unfortunately, I also have a day job, and THEY DO NOT! Their only goal in life is to outwit me (admittedly not THAT hard). In a matchup between homo sapien (with the number 1 problem-solving brain and a few hours a week to devote) vs. sciurus carolinensis (with a problem-solving brain in the top ten and 24-7 to devote) - take sciurus every time.

Long story made short - thought I had 'em licked with a Rube Goldberg 7,000 volt (DC so harmless) zapper rigged to the feeders and storage can. Worked on the squirrels for only a month - during which I got myself thrice (wetted in my pansies first time), wife twice, daughter once.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: ossonflags
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:44 AM

Raggytash has weasels in his moustache.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: jimmyt
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:58 AM

Thanks for the idea, made me think of Swirls in my panties, and today I begin production on a new thong based on the VanGogh "Starry Night" with Swirls over nuch of the minimal material. Next I think I will try lightening bolts.............then snowflakes..........

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 12:04 PM

revolutionary thought....you could shoot at them. or have I missed something?

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 12:07 PM

Anthrax.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 01:18 PM

If you shoot them, you'll only kill the stupid ones, and the smarter ones will breed.

I still have a bit of post-traumatic stress from having one live in my attic for an entire winter, and finding another in my house that had apparently come down a chimney. I say "apparently" because a couple of chipmunks got into the basement after I'd sealed up the unused stove hook-up, and mice seem find their way in. Somewhere, there is a hole.

Back to the squirrel in my attic. This malevolent creature had eaten through a 2"x4" to get in. It was repaired with screen mesh (the stuff used for concrete) under wood treated with preservative. Other attempted holes were treated with a mixture of olive oil and cayenne. Cayenne works great if a squirrel is chewing on something, but digging is another story. The wire mesh/hardware cloth Carol C suggested sounds like the best idea. Rocks may be better than gravel at keeping the squirrel from just lifting it off, or you may be able to bolt it to the bottom with a long screw, a washer for the wire part and a nut on the bottom that would hold it, not interfere with it sitting on whatever, and still allow drainage.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 02:31 PM

I had one eating his way through the window sill into my bedroom. He had a nest under an air conditioner for the summer and decided to move indoors. Banging on the air conditioner worked for a day or two. Then he caught on and flew at me through the window in a rage. Looked like a demented vampire - all teeth. I gave up and took out the air conditioner.

If you feed your squirrels shelled walnuts they will eat them rather than bury them. Of course then you will find them gnawing through your screens whenever they think it is feeding time. I found one in my kitchen one morning. Caught him in a trash bin and covered it with a cookie sheet, ran outside in my nightie and threw bin, squirrel, and cookie sheet out the front door to the amazement of passing joggers. The door locked behind me and there I was in my nightie facing a raging squirrel and the neighbors. Life is never simple.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 02:48 PM

Oh, that's so classic!

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: UncleToad
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 05:01 PM

Sooooooooo, to recap...I can electrocute them, shoot them, put the dogs on them, ignore them, learn to live with them, use something that smells bad...but there is no easy or humane way to keep the little buggers out of my flower pots. There has got to be a way, 'Catters, keep thinking. As for the comments on "squirrel in my panties"...You may have another furry critter in mind.

Thanks, Uncle(beavers maybe?)Toad

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 05:09 PM

I don't know... I take it they want to bury these things. Could some mesh at the top of the pots work?

Another thought... does anyone know how the ultrasonic pest scarers work?

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: CarolC
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 05:21 PM

Uncle Toad, did you see my hardware cloth (wire mesh) suggestion in my 22 Sep 04 - 07:57 PM post to this thread? I don't see it listed in your recap. Hello? R U there?

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: UncleToad
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 08:26 PM

Thank you CarolC...consider your wire mesh suggestion "recapped".

Uncle(ScrewedUpAgain)Toad

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: CarolC
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:33 PM

Good luck with the squirrels, Uncle Toad. Our squirrels have a bratty habit of taking one bite out of many of our tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries, just before they're fully ripe (goodness knows why), and leaving the rest of each one they take a bite of for the ants to eat.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 11:00 PM

Ohhhh...you guys have me laughing so hard my stomach hurts!

And- Oh Yeh, Uncle Toad, you forgot the anthrax and the cats.

It occurs to me that wetting on the pansies as you electrocute yourself, thereby using something smelly as a deterrent incorporates so many of the ideas that it has to be the one that will ultimately work the best. Or could it be that thongs with swirls or lightning bolts may repel the critters?

Sinsull and Jeri, we may not be able to solve Uncle Toad's issue, but maybe you could try pots of pansies outside as trap crops for the squirrels?

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Tea Aitch See
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 11:06 PM

If you taught the squirrels to read and then put signs near the pansies that said ROSES, they would not bury their acorns there. That's a fact.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 04 - 11:10 PM

Once they've planted a few acorns in the pansies they should leave them alone. Be glad that you have a yard healthy enough that there is wildlife around that is interested in it. And if you plant tons of pansies, maybe you won't notice a few that go missing. I just put out some bright red petunias (something I usually don't dabble with) and I fully expect the pots to have a few "extras" after a little while. I'll consider myself lucky if they don't overturn the pots.

Just because squirrels are *related* to rats, doesn't mean they _are_ rats. They are beautiful, and curious, and very busy, and resourceful. They're also noisy in the attic, and hard on the wires and insulation. So I'll climb that ladder again pretty soon and check out all of the "weak spots" in my anti-squirrel mesh arrangement around the vents.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 03:32 AM

"taking one bite out of many of our tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries, just before they're fully ripe ... and leaving the rest of each one they take a bite of for the ants to eat."

The Harmony of Nature's Web of Life!

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 01:26 PM

We need a pet anteater. That's a harmony of nature I could understand in this part of the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: kendall
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 04:55 AM

They are tree rats. They eat the eggs of song birds and the little birds before they can fly. Get a dog.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: SINSULL
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 09:20 AM

Now I know for a fact that a certain New Hampshire Mudcatter has real bats in her belfry and guest room. One poor unsuspecting visitor dropped his pants and undies on the floor and climbed into bed. Next morning he reversed the process and immediately started screaming and running around - baby bat in his Jockeys. I'll take squirrels in my pansies any day.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: jimmyt
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 12:55 PM

Sinsull, sounds like the makings for Abner Doubleday's favorite game. "Well, boys, lets build a diamond then, we seem to have the bats and balls covered, although with underwear at the moment."

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Amos
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 01:13 PM

LOL, Sins...I ain't gonna ask who that was, but I can imagine it purdy vividly!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 03:23 PM

The "folk" observation is that squirrels digging in gardens (and pots) usually happens only when there are isolated nut trees and lots of "landscaping" that prevents them planting their nuts at random. When there are sufficient trees, and open spaces with "diggable" soil, they tend to scatter their plantings pretty randomly, and don't bother plantings.

The "method" here works best if there are fairly dense stands of a single type of nut tree fairly densely covering a wide area.

The obvious solution is to replant many of their nuts in a neighbor's (or several neighbors') yard(s) and wait a few years. An isolated one, or a few, nut trees will attract squirrels to an area for the food, but won't necessarily provide sufficient shelter for them to nest in their "natural" tree nests.

A sufficiently dense stand of trees of a single kind will give them both food and shelter, and they'll seldom invade housing and/or gardens. Squirrels normally will not nest within 15 feet or so of the ground, so you do need a reasonable density of fairly tall trees before they'll quit looking for "alternative housing."

A "neighborhood beautification" project in the 1950s gave us four oak trees in our yard, in a 4 or 5 block long "neighborhood" with about 35 similar ones. We have many squirrels, but no particular problems with them that I've heard of. (This is a rather long-term solution, of course.)

The suggestion of getting a dog is marginally helpful. The squirrels in our neighborhood love to tease dogs, and will drive them to the brink of nervous dementia, but eventually the dog will tire of the game and take a nap while the squirrels scamper around him/her to do whatever they want.

Cats are a much more effective deterent, since they really believe they want to catch one of those little rodents, and will keep trying virtually forever. (Sort of like the dumb dog who persists in chasing parked cars?). We used to worry that one of our cats might actually catch one, which would likely be disastrous for the cat; but both the cats and the squirrels seem to enjoy the game, and a "catch" is so unlikely that it shouldn't be a concern. It keeps the squirrels so busy teasing the cats that they don't have time to do more destructive things in our yard.

A peripheral problem with cats is that they like to look for the easy places to "dump," so they may dig in your flower/herb pots and leave something worse than acorns. Usually a layer of marbles on the top of the soil will dissuade the cats, though - if there's sufficient other soft soil available.

The neighbor with the pecan trees has a problem. Oaks are a grocery store, since acorns are nourishing but rather boring. Pecans are a candy store for squirrels, and simple methods are unlikely to work for him.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:53 AM

The "method" here works best if there are fairly dense stands of a single type of nut tree fairly densely covering a wide area.

That isn't likely to happen in a subdivision, though, and that is probably part of the problem with squirrels in general. The old guy up the block from us has a half-dozen pecan trees in his back yard and is convinced the squrrels are damaging his investment. It's a vicious cycle--his trees are the bait and the squirrels come looking for nuts, are trapped and shot. He should have planted maples if he didn't want squirrels.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: leeneia
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:22 AM

If I had a pecan grove next door, I would put up nest boxes for owls. Also give thought and research to bobcats, foxes, other predators.

As for the pansies, try sprinking mothballs on the bed. Squirrels are said to hate mothballs. We put bags of mothballs in our eaves once, to discourage squirrels. The squirrels hauled the bags out and dumped them on the ground.

As for cats, I have seen a powerful tomcat kill a squirrel with one bite at the back of its neck, which severs the spinal chord. A cat has to learn this technique from another cat, no doubt its mother.

However, cats should always be kept indoors. When allowed out, they get worms and diseases, they get hit by cars or attacked by other animals, and they kill young birds newly out of the nest at an appalling rate. With the invention of kitty litter, the number of pet and feral cats is growing exponentially, and we need to take responsibility for our pets.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:41 AM

Mothballs are a "remedy" that is deadly to everything, and it has been discussed here at Mudcat. Never put out mothballs. All it takes is one small child seeing them and thinking they're candy to ruin the day for many people. From my favorite organic gardening site comes the short advice:
MOTHBALLS
Mothballs are toxic and smelly. Instead use bay, lavender and cedar.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:42 AM

P.S.--I fully agree about the cat advice. Add to it, they can get rabies from the squirrelss they pursue.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 11:21 AM

We drift totally but Leenia, I'm dissagreement with the idea cats should bet kept in. This subject was one that I think was the closest to a heated argument the Annexe ever had. I can't find the thread at the moment but somewhere within it, Ed posted a very interesting link illustrating that there are often cultural US vs UK thoughts on the cat. In that sense, I subscribe to the "UK" view that a cat is naturally a wild animal and has to take it's own chances.

We do try as Pip wants to - not my view - to keep our younger pair in though but they come from farm/feral stock. Personaly, I hate the meos or the looks to get through windows or the fight to ensure one doesn't sneak out of the door as you go out. As I say, they were born wild (perhaps something I disagree with local farmers over - there are oppertunities to get them neutered for free) but to keep such an animal indoors all the while (Pip has a compromise of in at night) would seem to me to be the height of cruelty.

Back to squirrels, yep I've seen dead ones that could only have been killed by one of our cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 11:29 AM

Got there... this was the article Ed found.

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: bbc
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 11:29 AM

I love it. Number me among those who read "panties." Where are our minds?! Best of luck w/ the flower problem, too.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 03:57 AM

I'm a squirrel
My name's Cyril
I like this garden fine
You seem to think the garden's yours
Actually its mine!

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,Ghirotondo at work
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 05:27 AM

Yoy can try this, or something similar...
http://www.smarthome.com/6140.html

peace
Ghirotondo

Subject: RE: BS: Squirrels in my Pansies...
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 07:12 AM

OUCH!