This morning I ventured out with a cup of joe to have what I thought would be a nice peaceful garden tour. The squashes, cucumbers and eggplant looked great, the peppers and tomatoes are cranking, basil is jumping and then I got to my corn. The F*&^%$# squirrels dug up most of my 3" high stalks to get to the kernel. I just got done greasing and baiting my WCS tube traps and am now committed to an all out war on these destructive and disease ridden varmints! Anyone else getting major squirrel pressure?
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I removed a grey and a red in the last two weeks, I have a year round zero tolerance for squirrels. I never remove that many at a time but it adds up over the course of a year and like most rodents you are not just removing one but all of the others it would have raised
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So far, rabbits have been more trouble here
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Squirrel is a delicacy to the animals and humans in my area. Can’t imagine them living long enough to be a problem anywhere besides a city. Not sure why they are protected to a point of being a problem in certain locations.
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The anti-squirrel devices I have used in the garden are chicken (bunny) wire around all the annual beds and then bird netting on top. This stops the squirrels from digging up my plantings, not necessarily to eat them but to plant and dig up their acorns and such. This has been very important if I want to harvest any garlic.
The berry beds so far have not been bothered by squirrels with this arrangement but it is important to get up the protections before they discover the yummies. Last year the raccoons got up onto and damaged the above defenses around the blackberries. I posted a video of this and someone suggested using an electric wire to dissuade this sized raider, which for my abilities seems to be the best option.
Similarly I think I will have to do this with the fruit trees beds. I’ll use the chicken wire as the ground (threaded to earth w/rebar) and use PVC supports for the hot wire. Did all that infrastructure over the winter. All I need to do is run the hot wire but I have a few weeks before things are attractive to them.
I have lots of squirrels but I shoot on sight, most right out of my kitchen window. Some are trapped then shot. I have way to much invested into my hobby to let them destroy everything. My Gamo air rifle is very accurate and will shoot almost all the way across my yard.
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