Rock squirrel-photo courtesy of Tadam at pl.wikipedia
July 29th-So the battle is on against the squirrels. One of my friends tried the hot pepper spray to no avail. I guess the Rocky squirrels that live here in New Mexico are use to hot peppers and like their food hot! I hear they prefer green over red chili!
Right now I’m trying 2 products from Agua Fria Nursery. The first one I tried is called Shake Away, made of fox urine granules and is for small critters-rabbits,groundhogs chipmunk, and squirrels. It is very stinky. You put down a tablespoon every three feet like a dog marking it’s territory around the garden fence perimeter. Apply it twice a week the first week, then 0nce a week and then once every 2 weeks. It seems to be working because I haven’t seen more damage on the tips of the pumpkins that I left uncovered the past few days. I’m not sure if I saw some damage on some big leaves that were munched or if that was from before this stuff was down. Taking notes now..
My next line of defense is Plantskydd repellant for rabbits, voles,chipmunks, other rodents and deer. This is granules of dried bovine blood-yuk. I put some of that down too. It doesn’t say whether we need to reapply any of this stuff if it rains, but I take no chances and put both of them around some more after it rains (LOL). I got some of those party whirley birds as I called them when I was a kid that are made of shiny mylar and spin in the wind. I am also covering completely with row cover any pumpkins or giant marrows so the pesky rascals can’t eat them..
UPDATE-Here’s the update 3 weeks later-August 16th. It really seems to work. The squirrels are not trying to eat the pumpkin patch anymore. Just keep up on sprinkling it around the perimeter. In fact I think the squirrels left the property because I haven’t seen them in awhile. Perhaps they moved to my neighbors where they think the foxes don’t live!
giantveggiegardener 
It seems like I have been involved in a chess match with squirrels/cats/deer and other critters forever. They are so cute but incredible destructive! I put solar panels on my home last year and squirrels wreaked havoc on the wiring under the panels. It was a very expensive fix.
We have also encountered a lot of heartache and frustration with our vegetable garden and flowers. Year after year they are invaded. I search the gardening forums and tried one suggestion after another. I’ve tried every single homemade solution with varying results (most were extremely ineffective). None of them worked very well.
Finally, i ended up stumbling onto the solution a few miles away from my home. We were visiting a small family farm and they had a series of motion activated sprinkler units. The farmer swore by them. The unit is about $50 bucks. That is a bit pricey for my taste but with such a strong recommendation, I took the plunge.
These things are fantastic!!! They are precise and effective. They deliver an accurate burst of water to anything that comes into its range. Finally! It keeps away the squirrels, deer and neigborhood cats. The only downside to the product is that if you forget it is there… you will get wet! I walked in front of it many times and got soaked lol. My husband, kids, dogs and a few guest have all fallen victim also. Hilarious! Here is a link 🙂
http://amzn.to/UVXCZr
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Great! I’ll pass it on!
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