Keep Squirrels away with These Repellents

These DIY Squirrel Repellents were easy to make and did a pretty good job of keeping them out of my vegetable patch.

The squirrels have made a mess of both my crop of tulips, and my vegetable gardening attempts, this year, in a big way.  I decided to see what I could come up with to keep them away.

I must admit that I have been so proud of my vegetable garden this year.  It doubled in size of it from the one I had last year and it is now over 1000 square feet.

It appears that the squirrels were also proud of my efforts and decided to help themselves to the fruit.

My family’s favorite vegetable is a ripe garden tomato and I wanted to make sure I had enough to last until the frost which is about late October here in NC. So, I planted 18 tomato plants thinking that would be more than enough.

And it was, until a few weeks ago.  You can read about my squirrel disaster here.

After losing all my corn and much of my potential tomato harvest, I decided I had to do something.  I researched, and asked on my gardening page on Facebook for tips on how to keep the squirrels away.

Suggestions for dealing with squirrels

Suggestions ranged from:

1. Get a BB gun or air rifle
2. “Feed them something else so they won’t get your vegetables”
3. “I love my squirrels and they know and never eat my veggies.”
4. Put out water for them. They are thirsty.
5. Put out mothballs – they hate it
6. Put out cayenne pepper – they hate it
7. Make a spray of cayenne pepper – they hate it.
8. Trap them and relocate them. (check your state laws first. This is illegal in some states.)

You get the idea.

I contacted a good friend of mine who also writes a garden blog. She told me I was lucky it was not a drought year, or I would have NOTHING left in my garden now that the squirrels have discovered it.  She voted for #1.

I decided to try a combination of #5 and #6 for these squirrel repellents, but I have reservations about them as listed at the end of the article.  Please read the whole article. Moth balls are dangerous in many ways.  Be sure to consider this if you are an organic gardener.

DIY Squirrel Repellants.

Please note:  The comment section below should be used in conjunction with this article.  I am also learning as I experiment with gardening.

****Please be aware that these squirrel repellents are, by no means, an organic gardening method.  Mothballs are chemical in nature.  Also, this is not to be tried if you have animals or children in your garden.

Moth balls can look like candy and children might be tempted by them.**** Check out this article for natural squirrel repellents.

You will need these materials:

• Plastic condiment trays
• Glue Gun
• Glue sticks
• Moth Balls
• Cayenne Pepper
• Bamboo Skewers
• Scotch Tape
• Hole punch

Start out by punching holes all along the outer sides of the condiment cups.  This allows the smell to escape which is what the squirrels supposedly do not like.

Next, use the glue gun to attach the bamboo skewers to the bottom of the condiment cups and allow them to set. This part takes a while. Use a lot of hot glue and be patient.

At this point, your trap is ready.  Take the moth balls, cayenne pepper and tape outside to your garden.

If you have a problem with the moth balls being used, you could try just the cayenne pepper in the squirrel repellents to see if this will work.

It is easier to do this when they are in the garden than to put the stuff in the cups inside.  Plus not so smelly!

Add three or four moth balls (if you wish to use them)  and a liberal dose of cayenne pepper to the cups when you get to the place where you want to put them.

Adding the repellent ingredients

Tape the lid with scotch tape so it stays put.

Place the finished squirrel deterrents near the plants you think the squirrels might go after about every 8 feet or so.  

I put mine in a new patch of summer squash, since I know they like them.

That is all there is to it.  Very little cost (less than $5 for as many as you could use).

The hardest part for me was trying to find the condiment cups without buying 5000 of them at Sam’s club.

A very nice person at a bar that my husband likes to go to with his friends took pity on him after three days of searching and gave him some for me to use.  Thanks to the English bar maid at O’Malley’s Pub in Raleigh, NC.

Will these work? Time will tell.

Are these squirrel repellents safe for use? 

I am concerned about this. The smell of the moth balls was just horrible.  I only opened the box of them and could smell them for HOURS afterwards in the house.

Since they don’t actually sit near the vegetables themselves, I felt they would probably be okay, but am still undecided.  I am going to make sure that I wash anything I bring in that is anywhere near them just to make sure.

If you have used something like this to deter squirrels, please leave your comments below and particularly your thoughts on the mothballs.

I have heard of people who actually fill socks with them and leave them in the garden, so I assume a few moth balls will be fine, but be careful. I’ll add more info on this as it comes to me from research and comments.

UPDATE:  **Please read the comments below.**  I feel that it is important information that should go along with this article.  Many thanks to readers who took the time to write their comments!

In hind sight, the idea a cayenne pepper spray, is perhaps the best idea and I will write another article on how to make this and use it.  

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