Squirrels

My Mum used to call them tree rats!

I only have a water pistol.

Grandmabatty

Blossoming I'm assuming you don't live in the uk. Ordinary suburban folk don't routinely have guns, nor do they feel the need to kill wildlife. Either that, or you are being sarcastic and thus not helpful.

Wrong on both counts. I do live in the UK and am not being sarcastic. It is legal to shoot grey squirrels subject to the usual controls and permissions.

They are an invasive foreign species
They are American, of course.

Could we catch them and ship them back home?
The red squirrels would stand a better chance then.

Blossoming I'm assuming you don't live in the uk. Ordinary suburban folk don't routinely have guns, nor do they feel the need to kill wildlife. Either that, or you are being sarcastic and thus not helpful.

I don't have a gun.

If they’re grey squirrels then shoot them. They are an invasive foreign species and have wiped out many of our native reds.

After planting out my baby tomato plants in big pots, I knew squirrels would dig them up, so I put a barricade of bamboo barbecue skewers all round the edge of the pots, until the plants were a lot bigger.
They still managed to get to one of the 6, but somehow it eventually recovered. Its tomatoes were delayed by at least a couple of weeks, though.

They ate the nice green shoots, Fuschiarose

Squirrels have been digging in my troughs ,I put boards on them at night with bricks on.Apparently they love tulip bulbs I won’t be planting them again.DH has bought some chicken wire to put on now.

I didn't know squirrels would eat bulbs. I planted loads. I am going out now to get the wire backup from B and Q. lol

Teacheranne

I put upturned wire hanging baskets over my pots when I plant bulbs.

Good idea!

They're burying acorns from a neighbour's tree all over our garden too and disturbing plants in pots.
One year they munched through the green shots of tulip bulbs so we did put wire mesh over the other pots of bulbs.

They've eaten all the sunflower seeds too, but I had to pull the seeds off the sunflower heads before they would eat them. Spoon fed.

I put upturned wire hanging baskets over my pots when I plant bulbs.

I don’t understand why there isn’t a nationwide breeding programme for hedgehogs. I know there are lots of rescue places for them but there doesn’t seem to be an attempt to breed them, They seem to be the sort of creatures that can be bred in captivity but released back into the wild easily. My stepson has a young hedgehog that he’s rearing in his house with a view to releasing it into the wild next spring.

I love to see squirrels in my garden - there are 4 that visit, and I leave food out for them - acorns I gather from a large nearby park, and I buy peanuts (in shells) for them. I also leave out food for the hedgehogs, as they are in decline nationwide.

I had problems with squirrels and mice digging up bulbs, especially tulips and small bulbs like muscari and scilla. Now when I plant the bulbs I sprinkle chilli flakes in the planting hole and on the top of the soil. It’s been a great success but the chilli on the surface eventually washes away. We also use chilli flakes in the bird feeders to deter squirrels - birds aren’t
affected by them. I bought 2kg from eBay - well worth it, in my view.

VampireQueen you are absolutely right. What's a few bulbs when I can have wildlife in my garden? Thank you for giving me a metaphorical slap ??. I have rabbits in the front garden most days and lots of little birds despite living in a fairly built up area so I will learn to love them. I just wish they were red! ☺

It's a swings and roundabouts thing. I get a lot of pleasure watching the squirrels so a few bulbs seems a fair exchange although it is better to put food out as they forget about the bulbs. They'll repay you in winter by continuing their acrobatic antics and brightening dull/cold days.

Love the photo Jax

Jaxjacky love the photo!

Thank you for the tips. I think the bbq grill is a great idea! I won't be feeding them as I used to have bird feeders in my small garden and that attracted mice into the house so thanks, but no!

This one was determined to get the sunflower seeds!

We have a large oak tree in our garden and the squirrels are very busy burying the acorns in our lawn. They seem to leave the pots and borders alone. I did plant loads of fritillaries in the lawn a few years back. But have never seen a one

ClareAB

Put out food for them. It seems counter-intuitive, but, sometimes you have to work with what you've got. We have a mill pond at the bottom of our garden, many rats live around it. Some ventured into the house. We employed a pest control company who suggested we put bird feeders near where the rats live to encourage them to stay away from the house. It has worked a treat.

Yes I think working with nature is the way to go, especially as we are losing our wildlife at the rate of knots.