How to Keep Squirrels Away From Gardens and Fruit

Although there is no proven SURE method, of keeping squirrels away from your yard, there are some things you CAN DO to deter them away from your vegetables and fruit. Different methods work for different people.

Looking beyond the aluminum pans and husband's homemade scarecrow (which does pretty well for the birds), I am sharing some of the different methods of repelling squirrels and letting you know which ones have or have not worked in my particular case.

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For the past few years we have had fruit trees that produce peaches and a couple of apple trees. We had a problem last year with the pesky squirrels stealing our peaches from the trees. This year they have eaten our garlic bulbs from the garden and have been checking out my strawberry patch!

The one thing that I have found is, whatever method you use, try to do it BEFORE the squirrels find out there is food there otherwise, it is possible no matter what you do, it will fail. So get your squirrels repellents ready after planting and the first sign of fruit blossoms.

Last year is the first time I started having problems with squirrels. It was already late in the year and we already had peaches when I started looking online for solutions. My peaches we're going down fast. They already had most of the peaches off of one tree and I wanted to save what was left on the other peach tree. I found out that you could fill knee high stockings with moth balls and hang them on the branches of the trees and lay them around the base of the trees. The squirrels do not like the smell of the mothballs. Now, I used the mothballs from my Dollar General. It did seem to help and I ended up getting many peaches from my tree. You need keep an eye on the mothballs because they will dissolve from the rain and weather eventually (but do last a long time). I read online that there is a difference in the brand of mothballs and that the Enoz brand found at Walgreens, has the most potent smell and will last longer.

This year, the squirrels have completely devoured our garlic bulbs and are eagerly waiting for the strawberries! I have many blooms and they are starting to form little green strawberries. Now I am out for revenge!

I know that squirrels do not like fox urine but I have also read that if you have cats in your yard the squirrels will stay away. So I have 2 house cats and have taken the used cat litter and have spread it around the strawberry box. But the squirrels we're back today and the cat litter did not faze them. So onto my next round of ammunition.

I found a great recipe for a homemade squirrel repellent on ehow and made some this morning except I put my spices into the boiling water along with the onions and jalapeno peppers.My buddy owns a book store where they had a squirrel problem and they said this worked for them.

I took an empty 2 liter bottle and filled it 3/4 of the way with water, poured it into a pan and boiled the water. Removed from stove after it started to boil and added

  • 2 chopped onions
  • 2 chopped jalapeno peppers
  • 1 Tablespoon of cayenne pepper
  • 1 Tablespoon of paprika

Brought the water and mixture back to a boil and then turned the heat down to medium and let it cook for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, strain and let cool. Put it into a spray bottle. (btw I saved all of the strained stuff and used that to put around the yard as well).
The article says you can spray onto the vegetables and stuff but I prefer to spray AROUND the trees and garden areas.

My kids woke up to the awful smell and couldn't get out of the kitchen fast enough, holding their noses. Yes it did smell up the house but if it works I don't mind because I can get rid of awful house odors using vanilla extract.

I had enough to spray around all of my fruit trees, strawberries, vegetable garden and around the areas of the yard that the squirrels like to hang out especially around the tall tree in the backyard. I also used the strained stuff to put around special areas of concern. In the meantime, here are some other ways that might help keep squirrels away from your garden and fruit.

Mothballs - seemed to work a little (Will definitely use again, trying the Enoz mothballs this year)
Fox Urine - have not tried
Used Cat Litter- did not deter the squirrels in my yard.
Homemade Squirrel Repellent - sprayed around the yard this past weekend. It didn't seem to faze them however I did not spray onto my vegetable plants as suggested. I only sprayed around them,so I cannot say if it works or not if applied properly.
Chicken wire- Only if I must.
Marigold flowers- (Squirrels do not like the smell. I may try this also.)
Put out food and water for squirrels - Apparently helps keep them from eating your plants if they have their own supply. Has anyone tried this because I'm afraid it will attract more squirrels?

Seems the only method, that i have already tried, that did anything to help keep the squirrels away, was the mothball method so looks like I'll be purchasing some knee highs and filling them with mothballs this year. I've come to the conclusion that all squirrels are not created equal and you just have to try what works best for the squirrels in your yard.

I really want to know, what are some of your methods for keep squirrels out of gardens and away from fruit?

Post Sources

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Posted in Renovations Post Date 02/16/2016


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