Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

August 13th, 2007

Here’s a good overview of techniques I found online:

How to stop squirrels eating the tomatoes

I’ve never known squirrels would get into a garden, but they’re eating my tomatoes. I was just talking with my neighbor and she said they were into hers as well. I kept seeing tomatoes over by the property line that had bites out of them and were tossed into our yard, but I thought it was the neighbor’s little grandkids. One granddaughter in particular is a pip and likes to pick things. She’s three and very cute, but still a pip.

I kept finding these half-eaten tomatoes tossed into our yard, but just picked them up, gnats and all, and put them into the compost bin. Hey, more compost goodness, that’s what I thought.

Until today and I found six half-eaten tomatoes of my own. That changes everything.

I had seen a squirrel (or maybe chipmunk…I couldn’t really tell through the window) trying to get into the compost pile. Or maybe he’d just been and was getting out. I bury kitchen waste pretty deeply into the compost to get it going (and to prevent temptation by any rodents), so I wasn’t sure if he was just trying to find something or found something.

Oh, I’m livid! I had my eye on the first Brandywine. It’s been ripening and I’ve only seen tomatoes this size on TV and at state fairs. It was HUGE. H-U-G-E. And it was missing. I was picking tomatoes and thought, what happened to that big Brandywine? There it was, half eaten, on the ground and it had a tiny snail on it. Ugh.

If I wouldn’t have gotten a bucket load of ripe tomatoes just now, I’d be really upset. I’m mostly upset about the Brandywine, darn it. But there are more coming and they’re big too. (Is that red plastic mulch working??? My tomatoes do seem bigger this year.)

So I’ve googled, and it seems that sometimes squirrels need the liquid. I don’t know if they’re thirsty or hungry, poor little guys. I AM SUCH A SAP!

Several years ago when I lived in Illinois and had moved into town, my cat became an indoor cat. Having always lived in the country and let my pets into the yard, I NEVER had animal problems because the cats and dogs kept them away. I got squirrels at that place and got so excited about them I started feeding them. It was grand and they were cute and tormented my cat through the window. They would actually squirt him through the screen with urine.

Then they made their way into the attic for winter and they ate all my cable wires. Had to totally have the cable rewired. I have not fed a squirrel since.

My previous neighbors had a big pit bull and a yappy little dog behind their fence, and I think those dogs kept the squirrels away. Now they’ve moved and I think the squirrels have moved in. We do have good trees.

What to do? Do I give the squirrels something else to eat to keep them from bothering the tomatoes, or do I try to run them off with Shake Away, a powder made from fox and coyote urine? Shake Away ran off wild rabbits, which was not my intention. I just didn’t want them in the garden, and I ran them all away.

Poor hungry little things. This is a quandry, and I’ve decided to do something really, really rude.

I’m going to get the Shake Away out, sprinkle it around the garden and not tell my neighbor. Then the squirrels can still eat hers. THAT IS TERRIBLE. OMG, I feel awful doing this, but I don’t want them to starve. Yet I don’t want to buy peanuts and start feeding them, or I’ll bring in more squirrels. They do damage if they get inside places. I’ve already been through that.

Plus, if I bought peanuts, DH would positively KILL ME. He’s never let me forget that they ate my cable wires back in Illinois. He still calls me Ellie Mae (Clampett).

He also calls me Swiss Miss off the cocoa box, which is kind of rude. I once put together what *I* thought was a cute outfit for an outdoor event: it was hiking shorts that had cuffs, my hiking boots and some socks, and I think it might have been a flannel shirt. Or maybe a tshirt. But I finished it off by wearing my hair in two braids. Big mistake.

I looked adorable, at least as a kind of outdoorsy, back-to-the-woods kind of look. Natural, cute outfit. Being the rude New York Lawn Guyland Italian American that he is, he immediately burst out laughing and asked me when the yodeling would begin. Not appreciated.

I still wear the outfit, just to annoy him, though I recently chopped off my hair so no braids.

I think the squirrels appreciate the look and they have expressed their approval by letting me know how delicious my tomatoes are.

Now I’m going to sprinkle Shake Away and send the squirrels to my neighbor’s garden.

I’m filled with guilt.

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