Squirrels appear to be chewing on our tomatoes, just when they get ripe.
(a) Does netting deter them?
(b) It's been very dry here. It was once suggested here that rodents are often looking for water, and if you give them another source, they'll stay out of your garden. Has anyone ever tried this?
(c) Anything else? Trapping seems ineffective. Shooting is not an option. (Nearby school, laws, being a bad shot, ..) Nor is poison. Habitat disruption would be a very major effort.
Thanks, George
Yes. drape inexpensive bird netting over them down to the ground. I buy it at Ace hardware.
I have heard putting a clean pan of water near the plants they're going after helps. It didn't work for me. The drought caused a failure of nuts this year so they're going after our garden for the first time.
Fence the yard.
Get a dog.
Works for me!
Interesting thing, global warming...
We've had so much rain here this year, Pecan branches are breaking under the nut load.
The squirrel population is probably going to boom next year.
If the squirrels were large enough for me to hit them, a BB gun wouldn't be adequate to take them down. Plus, if they were that big and I killed one ... It just keeps getting uglier. This is not a good path to go down.
G
Chicken type wire with the small openings. It doesn't make for an attractive garden, but it is effective.
Our tomatoes are in pots up on a third story deck and darn if that houdini squirrel can't climb up the siding and eat our tomatoes anyway. We put up with some loss. Can you tolerate some loss or are they eating all your tomatoes?
marcella
Squirrel is delicious.
I can kill a squirrel with a BB gun at 10 yards easily.
Improve your marksmanship using tin cans.
Rifles are not as difficult to improve with as pistols are.
On the other hand, there are motion sensitive sprinklers. I think they are called "scare crows".
That might work but so far, other than fencing and keeping a dog back there, the chicken wire idea sounds like the best suggestion.
We're not getting a lot of yield this year, so every one is precious. Moreso because they seem to taste better than some years.
G
That would be wrapping the plants in chicken wire? We do that with our (meager) blueberries. It can be frustrating stuff to deal with, if it's not nailed down.
G
Depends on how tall it is. Try some 4 ft. and see if that works.
Bread/trashbag ties are cheap. ;-)
Use some tall stakes to wire it to, or whatever you are using for supports?
Honestly, I have squirrels in the yard and I've never had them eat tomatoes.
But, I have dogs. A pair of lab/chows that would happily make short work of them if they caught them. ;-)
I've used the 2" chicken wire over the ground (successfully) to prevent them from digging up bulbs.
It hasn't rained here in almost 4 months. All we've had are a few light sprinkles. Our property is a disaster with dead and dying trees and shrubs.... there are too many things to try and save.
I feel for you. We have lived with drought a lot in the past few years. On the down side, I got NO figs.
The global weather patterns are really weird right now.
I wish y'all the best!
I wouldn't think a BB gun would be that accurate. What about a pellet gun?
I never found a real significant difference, but Pellets are ballistically superior to BB's for sure due to their shape. :-)
So, that might help.
Practice practice practice. Plinking with BB/Pellet guns can be fun anyway. It's all in the aiming and trigger control.
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