Squirrels Arent As Cute When They Eat Your Landscape
(Remember when you were a kid and stuffed a bunch of dirty acorns in your mouth and hopped around pretending to be a cute little squirrel? )Well, maybe not everyone did that but you must admit that they can be fun to watch as they always seem like what they are doing is very important.
Now you own a home and a yard and it's time to get rid of them!
Put the gun away, you would probably just hurt yourself anyway. There are ways to protect your vegetation form these pesky beasts without having manslaughter charges on your hands.
The article, "The Gardener Within: How to stop - or at least slow down - pesky squirrels," written by Joe Lamp'l and posted November 21, 2006 on sacbee.com, provides protection from the squirrels.
Lamp'l begins the article by explaining how he receives numerous e-mails for other gardeners asking him how to protect their bulbs and other vegetation from disappearing courtesy of the common squirrel.
You can go about defending your land above and below ground.
The best way to fight these creatures above ground is with a fancy birdfeeder with nuts and fruits. You want to keep them in the trees because once they hit ground; they will go for the gold.
"Squirrels are such an omnipresent nuisance in our landscapes; many gardeners have resigned themselves to this fact and changed their approach in how they deal with them. Rather than fighting to repel or exclude, they routinely provide decoy food in the form of nuts, corn and sunflower seeds, in hopes of keeping the squirrels away from more valuable plants and feeders."
Other gardeners that refuse to keep feeding the squirrels decide to put a cage or fence around their vegetation. Maybe they should try a trap like in Bugs Bunny cartoons? That always worked out well for Elmer.
The same defense mechanism that applies to above ground vegetation can be adapted to newly planted bulbs below ground as well.
"It is certainly disheartening to spend a day in the garden planting a multitude of bulbs, only to discover the next morning that all your hard work has been completely undermined by freeloading and unsympathetic squirrels! Your best defense against these digging demons is a good offense, or in this case, just fence. Place a layer of fencing across the ground after you have planted your bulbs. The wire barrier should have openings that are no larger than an inch or so, such as with chicken wire."
Secure the "death trap" by anchoring it to the ground with rocks or stones.
You should also make sure that when you plant bulbs, etc. you leave no trace of your gardening efforts, no matter how deep the bulbs are buried. They're cunning and will find them. Raking away your footsteps may be over-the-top but you should discard pieces of roots or seeds that did not make it underground.
Do not trap or remove the squirrels. It is inhumane and more will return.
"So there you have it. Pick your battles elsewhere and coexist with them peacefully, settle on a compromise by offering decoy food, or take a more aggressive stand using exclusionary methods. As I'm fond of saying, "'The only sure things in life are death, taxes ... and squirrels.'"