Squirrel Problem

Dave The Fig Guy said:
Squirrels got nearly all of my Desert King figs last year. Well over a hundred figs. They only went after that one variety. This year I've been using a peppermint spray that is sold as a squirrel and rat deterrent. (We tried the coyote urine product, but it freaked out our cat. And it stunk). So far, my figs remain intact, and they are beginning to ripen already. We've seen one squirrel so far, but he stays at the other end of our yard.
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That or propagate a dozen DK's and give them to your neighbour to grow across the street ;)
 
Dave The Fig Guy said:
Squirrels got nearly all of my Desert King figs last year. Well over a hundred figs. They only went after that one variety. This year I've been using a peppermint spray that is sold as a squirrel and rat deterrent. (We tried the coyote urine product, but it freaked out our cat. And it stunk). So far, my figs remain intact, and they are beginning to ripen already. We've seen one squirrel so far, but he stays at the other end of our yard.
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Good to know. Thank you! I saw they have peppermint spray at Home Depot
 
SlowRiver said:
Do they have to be in the shell? I just bought some fresh ones yesterday.
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I crack them some. I’ve caught 4 recently from my mother’s. Some had gotten in her attic. The thing with traps is they work all the time until you catch one. I can’t sit around just waiting to pew pew one. Once in trap… well. Yes they return but not all squirrels are as bad. If they get bad I start trapping again.
 
TorontoJoe said:
Chicken wire works just as well. I used to use it myself but it would get distorted if I tried to reuse it a in a following season. I got a bunch of hardware cloth for free and it’s infinitely reusable….

Down side of the hardware cloth is you definitely need to wear puncture resistant gloves and denim pants when working with it and cutting with tin snips etc. I’ve cut myself good a few times.
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I screwed in 4 hooks in my wooden containers and have them hold chicken wire stretched. Been reusing them for the past 3 years and they look fine still. Squirrles don't dig in my fig containers, so I don't use chicken wire there. They are mostly attracted to new soil, I believe it's the smell of fresh soil that attracts them. Once roots fill out the fig pots, I don't think squirrels can even dig there, the surface is hard. But I drop some chicken wire on newly filled pots when I see squirrels being very active around the backyard. I use hardware cloth too sometimes, I have a few pieces laying around, but mosttly chicken wire.
 
Figgin' A said:
I screwed in 4 hooks in my wooden containers and have them hold chicken wire stretched. Been reusing them for the past 3 years and they look fine still. Squirrles don't dig in my fig containers, so I don't use chicken wire there. They are mostly attracted to new soil, I believe it's the smell of fresh soil that attracts them. Once roots fill out the fig pots, I don't think squirrels can even dig there, the surface is hard. But I drop some chicken wire on newly filled pots when I see squirrels being very active around the backyard. I use hardware cloth too sometimes, I have a few pieces laying around, but mosttly chicken wire.
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I noticed that about them only going after new soil.

Hey... Whatever gets the job done! :)
 
SlowRiver said:
That would certainly be interesting. I am honestly surprised to have a squirrel problem. You probably don’t remember when you stopped by a couple months ago… There is a wide open field next door and there is a family of hawks that are constantly on a powerline overseeing the property. We also have an established neighborhood with roaming cats that I see every night the backyard. The squirrels are new to this year. Hopefully they won’t last long. There can’t be that many knock on wood.
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Im thinking the squirrels are looking for their stash and should leave the pots alone when they are done. Or the predators get them, whichever comes first.
 
Kompakfigs said:
Im thinking the squirrels are looking for their stash and should leave the pots alone when they are done. Or the predators get them, whichever comes first.
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I think for the most part that's exactly what they're doing. From what I understand they forget where they bury most of their stash and constantly dig up everywhere trying to find it.
 
For me it's been a conundrum. My neighbor uses a Havaheart trap. Only, he sets it and then often leaves for a couple of days. I went over once and saw a dead one in his trap. Dehydrated and dead. I went over another time and released a live one. We have one now that we call "Wallee." He sits on our 4 ft high block wall and eats sunflower seeds I set out for birds. He will allow me to walk right up to him. I hold my had out and he stays there till I am about to touch him. He's a cute little fellah. Makes it hard to decide what to do with them. So now I am using peppermint oil spray. Rodents supposedly hate it. Smells good to us and doesn't bother our cat. So far it appears to be working. I figure that's a win win.
 
I've always felt like people think they're cute because they have a bushy tail. They are a tree rat. If they had a long skin tail like a rat, I think a lot more people would not be into them.

They've created a lot of problems for me. They've chewed holes in our soffit, they've got into our attic, they've destroyed multiple bluebird nests and ate the babies, raid the bird feeders, and I haven't even started with the garden/orchard issues.

We also probably have more than average; like plague levels of them. I hate the fact we have people in the neighborhood that actually feed the squirrels. That's insane.
 
DELFIG said:
I think your rat terriers are doing the heavy lifting....an excellent breed for this purpose....I will look into both....
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They are super cute dogs that only get about 10lbs in size and are very athletic. I have the short legged variety of rat terrier. They've been somewhat recently renamed to Teddy Roosevelt terriers, or Teddy Terriers.
 
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