Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I used to put out a lot of seeds in the backyard for the local birds and squirrels, mainly to entertain our two cats who love to sit at the windows. The squirrels have even learned that the cats can't get them and have gotten so bold as to sit on the garage roof (the corner sticks out about 1 1/2 feet from one of the windows) and wave their tails and taunt the cats.

Now I feel like a jerk for wanting to chase them away, because someone has been sampling my new strawberries. Apart from building a wire or net cage to go over the plants, is there anything I can put around the plant to keep them away? I don't mind if they're in the garden and would even like to continue to encourage their visits, I just don't want them using my new planters as a salad bar.

Has anyone had any success with garlic? That seems to be the only non-fox urine suggestion I can find.

Crushed chillies? Birds aren't affected by them, so that might solve the birdseed issue.

Our dogs keep the squirrels away. I love squirrels. But, the dogs keep everyone out of the raised bed planters, so that is good I guess. You see where this is leading....

hot pepper wax or sprinkle cayenne around plants. i had to do this with my front yard kale. i'll report the cayenne findings to y'all.

I'm just adding to the pepper suggestion. With all the rain lately, I haven't been able to let the dog out on the back deck, but a sprinkling of cayenne seems to be doing the trick so far.

Also there's this commercial 'fox urine' kind of repellant you can buy that doesn't actually use urine. It's all fake stuff, I bought the 'coyote' one to repel racoons and it seems to work.

Thanks! I'm going to try the peppers and keep my fingers crossed.

I'm allergic to peppers so I haven't tried it, but garlic has been working for me this year!

Be careful with peppers, if it gets on the squirrels' fur, and then, via grooming, into their eyes or mucous membranes, it will very painful for them (I can attest to this, having rubbed my eyes after dealing with peppers in the kitchen). I've seen what animals can do to themselves when trying to rid themselves of an irritant, and it's not pretty.

The one time I grew corn (first and last!) the squirrels were all over it. I read that if they have ample food, they won't go after the garden, so I got a squirrel feeder and fed them and they were happy and stayed off of my corn -- until it was just almost ripe. Then they decimated the entire crop in record time. :|

I think a cage for the strawberries is your best bet.