Gus said:


What non-lethal methods work best to keep city squirrels away from
tomatoes?
It is a serious problem here. I wouldn't mind sharing some tomatoes, but
the squirrels here are very rude and do not share. And actually taunt.
Taking a bite out of a perfectly good tomato and then leaving it.

Building a wire cage probably is the best method, but I hear they can even
get through those. And I'm not all that handy at building things.

Last year, putting soaking a rag with vinegar about every 3 or so days
seemed to work for a while. Though at the end of the summer, even that
was not deterring them that well.

Late to the party, but...

1) Provide a source of drinking water for the squirrels, birds, etc. They may
be going after the tomatoes mainly for the water content.

2) My daughter ran an experiment as an assignment for one of her zoology
classes. She offered various 'flavors' of peanuts to hungry winter squirrels,
including smoked, two levels of hot pepper seasoned and wasabi flavored
peanuts.

Their obvious preference was for plain or salted peanuts. They would eat
the hot pepper and smoked peanuts. They mainly ignored the wasabi
flavored. Which suggests that wasabi (similarly, horse radish or mustard oil)
could be worth looking into as a squirrel deterent.

3) When all else fails, a cage of 1" hex wire netting ("chicken wire") will
exclude squirrels. You need to bend the wire out at the bottom (to prevent
them going under) and either let the top flop outward or put a cap on the
cage (to prevent them going over). I've used panels of 48" chicken wire
stapled to 1" x 2" strapping. The panels can be moved around as needed.
Tie them using temporary stakes. You can make circles, triangles, etc. They
should be rolled up and stashed out of the weather when not needed .

4) A sturdy 4' fence which is lined with chicken wire (bent out or buried
several inches deep at the bottom) and topped with a shock wire or two will
keep out a whole lot of potential pests.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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