With a fondness for fresh veggies, fruits and flowers, the squirrel has always been a menace to home gardeners. These wily critters pluck cherry tomatoes from vines, yank geraniums from window boxes and strip fruit trees quite like professional pickers. While they’re especially active in autumn when they stock larders for winter because of their instinct for hoarding, you might have to deal with their foraging forays at any time of year. They look cute but cause damage so many people ask, “What is the best way to repel squirrels?” and the simple answer is to hire professional squirrel removal Kitchener.
Putting Up a Fight against Squirrels
Rather than start the battle when squirrels are nesting in your attic, bring the fight to the squirrel by squirrel proofing the garden. Remove or net off any plants or fruits that are obvious favorites, including bird feeders, to encourage them to move on.
At the same time identify and seal any cracks in your house to avoid using the house as a dray during winter and then search for how to get rid of squirrels in attic to prepare just in case.
People swear by so many ways to keep squirrels away from the yard. But these rodents can be stubborn. You need to adopt a combination of tactics to repel them for good. For instance:
- Get a dog. Squirrels don’t have many natural enemies but they don’t like dogs. It could be because they resemble their natural predator, the fox.
- Scatter pet hair around the yard and the attic. The smell of a dog is often enough to scare them off.
- Use ammonia to keep them away from your attic. Dampen a cloth and leave it in the attic to drive these rodents away or leave a tray of old cat litter up there for a while.
- Protect your plants and repel squirrels by sprinkling pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or garlic pepper around your plants. Sprinkle on the plants if they’re ready to bloom.
- Consider interplanting veggies with marigolds, nasturtiums, and mustard, or plant them to create a border around your herb garden. Squirrels don’t like how these plants smell either.
- Invest in electronic scare devices for 24-hour protection. You can find funny, spooky, and sophisticated devices including motion-activated sprinklers that can scare squirrels away with a sudden spurt of water.
As well as being amazingly agile and dexterous, squirrels are smart rodents who have been pre-programmed by genetics to register patterns that could help them find food before hibernation. That includes learning your habits because you are in their territory, not only to know when the food in your garden is ripe for the taking. You can put this instinct to use. Rather than trying to win a losing battle, set up a squirrel feeding area and invite them in. Their antics will provide hours of entertainment and if you get lucky, they might show their gratitude by leaving something else in your garden alone.