Every night the local squirrels that seemed only to have reappeared during the last two weeks, have been digging in the soil of every tub every night and making a bloody mess.
Are there successful solutions?
TIA
Alan
I use wire netting on my pots to stop them, It's not pretty, but it works.
"Hardware Cloth"
I placed a piece of 1/4" mesh hardware cloth over a decoration out front of the house, to prevent rabbits from having families on top of it (two families so far).
It seems any "feature" you put on a property, must be properly explored by the animal kingdom, for the opportunities it offers.
*******A squirrel "recognizes" fresh digging, as a sign another squirrel has buried food there. It is considered proper etiquette for squirrels, to dig up another guys stash, move a few feet, dig another hole, and bury it. The squirrels memorize where they put the stuff, then go back when they're hungry later in the year, and dig it up again.
If you did not use hardware cloth, you would need a means of disguising the "look of fresh digging", so no squirrel will use "squirrel math" to figure out what to do. An untampered piece of ground, will still receive random examination for food sources, but not a lot of theft activity.
It's both the "flatness" of the ground and the "colour" that matters. If you tamp down a fresh dig... that's not good enough to fool a squirrel. The change in ground colour, the squirrel knows there are nuts under there, to be stolen. The hardware cloth costs money, but at least it's a mechanical barrier.
Each hole does not receive multiple items. You might find a single acorn in a hole. Or, an unshelled peanut (when the neighbours feed such stuff to the animals). A squirrel "leaf home" holds more items, but I've not examined one to see how they're furnished. (Little squirrel sofa, little squirrel TV set.)
Paul
Bury a few holly leaves just below the surface of the soil. You don't need to do it to every pot. The squirrels soon get the message.
I guess you could trap them and go for a drive ten miles way, and release them there. They are rodents of course, and will eat most things even electrical wiring as I found to my cost some years ago on an out door mains cable to a shed. No dead squirrels though, but there were a lot about around that time. Not seen, or should I say, heard any for some time. Brian
get a pine marten as a pet.
I don't have holly but I something else with prickly leaves. The first night they disturbed everything but no mess. Since then, nothing. Brilliant solution. Thank you.
I don't expect a BSA underlever Airsporter would help Brian but it can be extremely effective.
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