Squirrels look awfully cute and fluffy but can cause a lot of damage. Not only do they eat all your bird food but also the feeder. Sometimes they create nests in your attic and your soffits and are pretty tough to get rid of. They house ticks and fleas in their fur which can cause a menace if you have house pets and can destroy your garden as well. The problem with squirrels is that they always move in large numbers. This means, you don’t have to get rid of one or two squirrels but an entire colony. Using poison might be effective but can leave rotting squirrels in your attic and create a bigger problem than solving it. There are better and more effective methods to get rid of these rodents.
If you plan on having a bird feeder, get one which is squirrel proofed. Most of these come with a lifetime guarantee and save the feed for the birds. It doesn’t take squirrels to consume a large amount of feed in no time. So please invest in a good quality feeder even if slightly expensive.
Keep the feeders clean. This will take care of squirrels as they don’t come to feeders which have nothing to offer. Keep the feeder in the open and away from any launching pads as squirrels can jump very high but are not so good on open ground. Keep garbage cans well covered. Squirrels will thrive on any kind of food left open, even if its leftovers in your garbage can. If the squirrels start to become a serious threat, use live traps with peanut butter and then remove the squirrels from the vicinity.
To protect your plants and your fresh veggies from squirrels, use a fence with is buried a good 12 inches underground. Squirrels can dig which makes it important that you save the bulbs and underground veggies from them. Just use a mesh with a fence to do the trick. However, if its blooming flowers that needs protecting from squirrels, use an effective squirrel repellent like Squirrel Away. Squirrels stay away from hot pepper. This can be cayenne pepper or even ground black or white pepper. These can be used as additives to bird food also.
If it’s your house the squirrels are chewing on or building nests in, you need to find all the entry points and seal them. The squirrels need to access your attics and soffits from some point, you need to find it and close it. Try using a method where you put a trap at the entrance so that any squirrel trying to get in gets trapped. This way you can collect all the little offenders and then relocate them to a nearby wooded area.
