Squirrels are eating my tomatoes
 

Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels
from pillaging my tomatoes?

--
Martin McCaffery
Director
Capri Theatre
Montgomery, AL

Martin McCaffery wrote:
Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels
from pillaging my tomatoes?


Borrow a poodle.

Susan B.

Leave a water pan around. They only care about the water. It takes them
a few weeks to switch to water and leave the tomatoes alone. I use the
dishes of houseplant pots for that task.

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 15:58:50 -0500, Martin McCaffery
wrote:

Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels
from pillaging my tomatoes?

They wiped out 100+ ears of corn on us last year. We got to eat maybe
6 ears out of the whole garden. They are relentless and evil, the
devil's spawn. Worse than woodchucks.

We trapped and relocated about 15 - not in time to save the corn, but
at least reduced the population. And we didn't plant corn this year.

George

yes, I do not plant corn (in fact my corn is destroyed by the racoons).
But everything else I manage except jujube which they clean up
completely. During dry years they would destroy the raspberries until I
chanced upon the water thing. Water also attract birds, and they keep
the caterpillars cleaned up.

Martin McCaffery wrote:

Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels
from pillaging my tomatoes?


Keep water out for them and birds. they are thirsty and know the ripe
ones are juicy. You might want to colocate some nuts/seeds and water
toghether somewhere to try to train them to find the water. Locate a
couple of spots and find which one they go after more. Keeps a higher
one for birds. They will peck out the water too.

I had a light-weight rubber pail that collects water from the
downspouts. I kept finding it turned on its side. I think the local
skunk was tipping it over to drink the water.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
3rd year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph

Martin McCaffery wrote:
Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels
from pillaging my tomatoes?

Base ball bat ;) Actually, two easy remedies I use are electronic rodent
devices and a motion activated sprayer. Squirrels are rodents and since
installing the erd we have had no squirrels in the yard. The efficacy
on these devices are reported to be questionable but we have found they
work. The motion activated sprayer works not only on squirrels but
other critters so is a worthwhile investment. OTOH, a shot gun would
provide you with inexpensive meat :)

George wrote:

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 15:58:50 -0500, Martin McCaffery
wrote:


Any suggestions short of rat poison or a shotgun to keep the squirrels

from pillaging my tomatoes?

They wiped out 100+ ears of corn on us last year. We got to eat maybe
6 ears out of the whole garden. They are relentless and evil, the
devil's spawn. Worse than woodchucks.

We trapped and relocated about 15 - not in time to save the corn, but
at least reduced the population. And we didn't plant corn this year.

George
Hot pepper spray and/or powder is supposed to work too. We tried it and
found two problems. You have to reapply it after a rain and the
squirrels tie their napkins around their tiny throats waiting for us to
put out their treat. I guess someone didn't clue them in or they are
Mexican squirrels ;)

I have a question about the pan of water for the squirrels, chipmunks
and birds, might it attract more of them and cause more problems than
before?

alan

On 29 Jul 2005 19:02:23 -0700, "simy1" wrote:

Leave a water pan around. They only care about the water. It takes them
a few weeks to switch to water and leave the tomatoes alone. I use the
dishes of houseplant pots for that task.