Hi! I am new here, and new to gardening. We had one when I was kid, but this is the first time I've ever tried one of my own. I have tomatoes and peppers & I am starting out small!) and the darn squirrels keep digging around my plants and have dug up a couple. I have replanted them, but if they keep doing it they will die! Any suggestions on keeping them out, aside from putting a cage over them?


Message was edited by: Emerald3088

Hi and Welcome!! Little varmints were digging up my potted plants last year. I sprinkled some cayenne in the pots and luckily they didn't come back. However, I just read one of the posters in one of the previous threads about this same topic said they didn't like to use cayenne as it would burn the squirrels eyes. I didn't think about that. Click on "Search", type in "squirrel" and look through "all catagories" for a plethora of data on these cute little pesty animals. Good luck and Happy Gardening!!
Judy :x

if cayenne burns the eyes, it's only temporary, and should teach the squirrels to stay away... I've had the oils of very hot peppers get in my eyes, and after a few hours, things get better for the eyes... and that taught me to NEVER take a medium hot peppers that are dry and put them in the blender and assume washing the hands would remove the oils.... I haven't even put chilis IN a blender since (I learned that lesson well, and hopefull squirrels would too)...

Those squirrels are probably finding the damp soil around your plants to be filled with yummy things.

Where I live we get all sorts of digging creatures, and I found that laying chicken wire down on the ground, and weighting it down well, does the job.

Now, if you are putting something like a fish emulsion on the plants, that may be the problem... I had to stop using blood meal, bone meal and fishy products on my plants due to being dug up....

Welcome to the forum Emerald3088.

I canÂ’t really say how to get the squirrels to stay away. But my neighbor feeds them and we are always finding peanuts buried in our gardens all the time. :^O

I like the cayenne idea myself. I know that worked for cats that bothered us years ago at another house. :^O

I will try the cayenne, thanks! Hmmm... a cold one sounds good too!

Mulchy, you mean squirrels won't go across chicken wire? They are getting my apricots, and if I put a skirt of chicken wire at the base of the tree, and they weren't jumping from limb to limb, they wouldn't climb over it?