debw says:

April 19th, 2006 at 12:38 pm

Because squirrels are evil.
Well, not really evil but they seem to sit in the trees watching and making plans to eat everything that doesn’t eat them first. They can smell the seeds and dig them up. Worst thing is, they may not have eaten the seed, just relocated it somewhere of their choosing ( picture peas coming out of a knot hole in a tree, for example, or in the middle of the lawn). As with any sport your best defense is a good offense, plant some stinky garlic, onions or chives. Or maybe cover the bed with hardware cloth til you have plants. Beans and peas are too easy as they are big and the squirrels know it.

Laurie says:

April 19th, 2006 at 9:35 pm

I have a dream project. I want to modify squirrel DNA so they prefer maple seeds to all other foods. It would solve two problems at once. Think of how many people would line up to buy them!

Build a better squirrel, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Tracy says:

April 20th, 2006 at 8:19 am

I haven’t had squirrels eating peas just after planting. However, I have had rabbits eat the pea shoots (and bean shoots) when they get to be about 3-4 inches high. At that point, it is usually too late to re-plant: It’s too hot for the peas or getting too late for the pole beans.

I’ve found that natural sprays, hair, bonemeal, etc. just don’t work. Neither does planting stinky onions/chives/garlic (the chives have already been nibbled on this spring). In my rabbit-infested neighborhood, the only solution is a physical barrier.

Luckily, we keep the squirrels busy with lots of oak trees. But I would pay top dollar for the maple-seed eating squirrels, especially if they specialized in the neighbor’s Norway maple seeds!

debw says:

April 20th, 2006 at 12:22 pm

The theory is when they nip the tomatos they are thirsty. I have tried to lure them away with a water dish in another area but then the starlings moved in and drill holes…..
Squirrels are pretty smart, and they keep at it until they get what they want. Just check out the bird feeder selection to keep the little buggers from cleaning out your entire supply in a day! The only one that is 100% effective is the one that throws them and, cheapskate that I am, I wouldn’t have paid that much for a feeder but my sister got it and I videotaped them to see if it worked.

Lorika says:

April 21st, 2006 at 4:25 pm

Mmmm, blood meal! Yeah, a co-worker used that on his tulips and said it works. His problem though, is squirrels eating the heads off the tulips right before they bloom. You need any further evidence that squirrels are truly evil, there it is. How heartbreaking would that be?

Margaret says:

April 24th, 2006 at 4:12 pm

I planted carrots and lettuce and the buggers dug up the patch. I replaced them and put netting stretched tight over the beds. Hopefully that will disuade the nasty paws.

I use chickenwire over tulip bulbs (leave it on while they are growing, they come through the wire, snip the hole bigger if needed) Same thing with lilies, the asiatic kind, not daylilies, after having them totally decimated one year.

Judith Meyeraan says:

June 1st, 2006 at 4:44 pm

Forget squirrels! Chipmunks are my nemesis. What they don’t tunnel up, my dog knocks over trying to get to them. I even have a sinkhole in my driveway from the tunneling.

Greengirl says: Oh, no! How horrible!

LARRY says:

June 8th, 2006 at 2:14 am

get 4 cats, and your vermin probs are over. mine love to hang out in the garden and eat everything that moves. nothing eats my plants, ever. they do like to use it for a catbox until the ground is covered with mulch– has to be some price, i guess

susanne says:

June 13th, 2006 at 7:57 am

I did the slug-beer thing last year, 6 pack after 6 pack of cheap beer. Anyway, after a while I got very tired of that and the slugs won out. Perhaps it would help if I used longer, flatter containers. Last year I used tuna tins. There has to be some other way out there!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cecilia says:

June 28th, 2006 at 6:44 am

We don’t have the urban guerilla squirrel problem here….there are dogs on either side of my yard….but the bunnies! After losing all my early-sprouters last year to grazing bunnies, I learned to encircle the garden with a chicken-wire fence buried about 3 inches in the ground AND planting the perimeter with marigolds, which bunnies hate. Together, this has protected the garden(so far) this year….Hope this helps…Cecilia

Jennifer Young says:

July 2nd, 2006 at 4:55 pm

So - when is the best time to start spraying pepper sprays, etc for the squirrels? My tomatoes are blooming now & I fear the same old &^%$ is going to happen this year - half my crop gone to squirrels & birds.

Cecelia says:

July 17th, 2006 at 11:55 pm

Soon it will be bulb planting time again. I have found that if you lay some old screening over the ground after you plant your bulbs, the squirrels won’t get into them. (However, chipmunks and moles still might!) Then in the spring, when the bulbs are sprouting, simply remove the screening. Then if you want to keep the sqirrels from nipping off those buds, throw some corn out there for them. (Dried corn-from the bird food stores.) If they have enough to eat, they will leave your bulbs alone. You won’t have to do this for long, soon there is enough for them to eat in nature. Now, anyone have any ideas about how to get rid of moles???