FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Anyone else have or had a squirrel problem. I am not sure why, but they suddenly have decided it would be funny to start digging up my plants that are all in pots. Not my wife's cheap plants, nope. ALL my CP's. I bought a dog barking alarm but the sun seems to set the thing off, although it did scare the crap out of them. I bought a mesh bird net to see if that will work or not. Not sure if it is something in my soil or what. I know the birds liked the long pieces of LFSM I was using so I stopped doing that but I think the squirrels just want to be annoying creatures and destroy them. Maybe they are mad because I told my wife to quit feeding the darn things. They're wild animals that would walk in my house if allowed.

Get a cat or get/make a barrier. Several people here have custom made some barriers/cages for their plants and I've seen people use bird cages, dog crates, etc. I'd offer you the feral cats in my yard but I'm afraid they like to eat plants too. They keep the squirrels out but also took their job.

I have a hound dog but they just like to upset him and then in turn, the neighbors. No cats. Do not care for them. I am going to do a little research to see if there is something they are attracted to since they do not go after any of our other plants, not even the veggies.

I had an all out war with them at my last house. This was the solution that i came up with: The Squirrel Defense5000.

Now we have a cat and it does a good job of keeping the tree rats in the tree.

andynorth wrote: ↑Sat Sep 09, 2023 8:10 pm Anyone else have or had a squirrel problem. I am not sure why, but they suddenly have decided it would be funny to start digging up my plants that are all in pots. Not my wife's cheap plants, nope. ALL my CP's. I bought a dog barking alarm but the sun seems to set the thing off, although it did scare the crap out of them. I bought a mesh bird net to see if that will work or not. Not sure if it is something in my soil or what. I know the birds liked the long pieces of LFSM I was using so I stopped doing that but I think the squirrels just want to be annoying creatures and destroy them. Maybe they are mad because I told my wife to quit feeding the darn things. They're wild animals that would walk in my house if allowed.

Seriously, sorry to hear that you got raided. Squirrels are why I've still got some plants suffering in the old trailer. I'm just using some 1/4" to 1/2" hardware cloth rings and hoops right now for my outdoor plants. I basically only got some moss that isn't protected. So far I've been fortunate on it that it hasn't gotten hit to bad...a hole dug into it every now and then. But those wire cages are very confining. I keep procrastinating on getting something larger to put my plants in. Panman's Squirrel Defender 5000 is the Taj Mahal. I'm thinking of a simple pole frame and chicken wire. Of course, it would be nice to have the plants just sitting around on the porch, but that ain't gonna happen without getting vandalized. Maybe get rid of the squirrels, but more would come...and it only takes one passing through on one day to put a hurt on you. Everything's fine...until it ain't. Eradication, deterrent (cats? dogs? mongoose?), or exclusion is what I see as options.

It's only been a few months since I re-started a CP collection and I've been fortunate they have stayed out of my CP pots so far. At my previous home there was a walnut tree and the squirrels would bury walnuts *everywhere*, especially in my potted rose bushes. And then they would sprout. And by the time you notice you have a walnut seedling its roots are *deep* and *strong*. Frickin' squirrels. They're probably not digging up your CPs to dig up the CPs, they're probably burying other things.

If it is dry weather they will dig for water, too. Keeping a small bowl of water close by helps...a little. Yeah, squirrels are great tree-planters.<sigh>

htbm, if you have squirrels around your place it's not a case of "if" it's a case of "when" the tree rats will wage a terror attack on your plants.

I have squirrels at my place but since I feed them as well as the birds and dear and there's a pond in the backyard I'm lucky the squirrels are occupied enough to never bother my plants in the past 5 years. Guess there's just that much abundance of food and water. We live in a rural community and a completely natural property other than the house itself. I have had a war with aphids once but the lacewing larvae just decimated them as well as adult lacewings I released.

Well, I shouldn't have said anything about the squirrels...I think they were listening. This morning they completely ruined a small container of live sphagnum moss and dug into another, larger tray that had a few filiformis growing in it but didn't damage it very much.

Relentless little creatures they are.

I ran across this short article regarding squirrels. Pretty good writing, I enjoyed it and had a couple of chuckles. It managed to relay some of the emotions regarding squirrels. I agree, they're relentless!

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq3675.html

I bait and shoot, pcp air guns is the way to go. Slap a silencer on, no one knows nothing! My dogs loves the meat. I have a shooting mat made out of squirrel fur. I always get compliments. Happy growing or shooting.