How To Keep Squirrels Out Of Your Garden: 5 Easy and Humane Tricks
Your garden often seems like the perfect settling grounds for our furry friends – the squirrels. Why? Well squirrels (like us) love food and pretty much see everything in your garden as such. While we may think they only eat acorns, that’s far from the truth. These rodents aren’t really all that picky. They can eat veggies, flowers, bulbs, birdseed, and even like to rummage through the trash to find something delicious. All of this can be quite annoying in the long run. After all, you’ve been working hard on your garden, you want to enjoy it and not worry it will be ruined by squirrels. Here are simple and humane way on how to keep squirrels out of your garden.
These rodents aren’t really all that picky
What Problems Do Squirrels Cause?
You may be wondering – but why would I want to scare away these cute creatures? Squirrels can cause a ton of damage to your beautiful garden.
Squirrels can cause a ton of damage to your garden
- You may start to notice a lot of missing crops, as squirrels are helping themselves to your fruits and veggies before you even get a chance. You may even notice some nibbled leaves.
- Another issue that squirrels love to cause is bulb damage. These animals can’t really tell the difference between food that falls from trees and food from your garden. They often dig up your bulbs to use them both for food, but to also create a hiding spot for the other food they collect.
- Squirrels also love to take advantage of any potential food source. This means your bird feeders will be scavenged through. They will take as much as they can and leave the birds feeling disappointed the next time they come by your feeder.
- Another problem squirrels love to cause is digging up holes everywhere. While this may seem harmless, it is annoying and can damage your root system.
Your bird feeders will be scavenged through
How To Keep Squirrels Out of Your Garden
There are plenty of humane ways to get rid of these furry rodents without causing them harm. After all, they aren’t doing it on purpose, it’s just their instinct. However, that doesn’t mean you should put up with it. For example, while using hot peppers is an effective method, if they step on the sprinkled pepper and touch their eyes, it will burn them. That’s why we’ve found ways to get rid of squirrels without causing them further issues.
There are plenty of humane ways to get rid of these furry rodents
#Remove Food Source
As we mentioned, squirrels love to hang out in your garden because it is an endless food source for them. So, an easy way to get rid of them is by taking away said food source. Get rid of any trash that they can rummage through. Make sure to use a tight lid trash or just don’t leave any waste exposed. Cover your garden beds, clean up any fallen nuts, fruits, seeds, and bulb debris. Also find a bird-feeder with squirrel protection.
Squirrels love to hang out in your garden
#Scents To Repel
These rodents really dislike strong smells, so a great way to deter them from your garden is to make them wrinkle their noses. Squirrels dislike the smell of coffee grounds, as well as peppermint, garlic, and vinegar. You can spray or lay these scents around the garden, however be careful to not spray your plants.
These rodents really dislike strong smells
#Scare Them Away
It may seem silly, but scaring them away a couple of times can do a great job of keeping squirrels out. If you have a dog or a cat you are pretty much done. Just let them out near these rodents, and they will be curious to inspect them, causing the squirrels to run away. If you don’t have pets however, you can buy predator urine and spread it around your soil. You can also install motion-activated sprinklers, or a pinwheel to scare them away. They will learn to not come back due to possible danger.
Dogs love to scare away squirrels
#Mulch
Mulch is not only amazing at protecting your garden from the cold months and give nutrients to your crops, but it can also keep squirrels away from rummaging in your soil. These creatures don’t particularly enjoy the feeling of mulch under their feet, so it’s a good idea to add it to your garden beds. It will also help to disguise the scent of new bulbs. You can also lay down gravel and aluminum foil.
Mulch can keep squirrels away from rummaging in your soil
#Cover The Garden
An easy way to protect your crops from squirrels is to install some row covers, chicken wire, bird netting or even to line the bottom soil with a hardware cloth. All of these can help make it harder for squirrels to get inside your garden, and it will also still allow for easy watering and sunlight to get in.
An easy way to protect your crops from squirrels is to install some row covers
@Gardener’s Supply
These some of the most humane, simple and effective ways on how to keep squirrels out of your garden. We hope you found this article useful. Now you can easily deter these little creatures from your garden without causing any harm.
Now you can easily deter these little creatures from your garden
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