Squirrels are one of the most annoying pests. They are not especially dangerous, they will not come near you or attic you but will do something rather odd, they tend to yell at people who obstruct them. Squealing madly at a person who just hosed away one of their hard built nests behind an air conditioner. It can be frustrating just having them on your property but when they go after your garden things get personal. It’s especially frustrating when they eat a garden of vegetables that your family relies on. There are many ways to fight this attack on your property, some of them work better than others, but if you do at least three of them you will reduce the squirrels on your property. Take note that in Ontario Squirrels are protected wildlife and harming or killing them is against provincial law.
The number one rule for dealing with squirrels and all wildlife, birds and pests is not to feed them. This may seem obvious but you do not realize how much access to maybe giving these animals to food on your property. Every time you feed your pets outside, every time you have a BBQ or outdoor party, every bird feeder you hang and every time you send your children outside to eat their melting ice cream you are bringing pests to your property. It is of the utmost importance that you clean up all food on your property and remove all feeding stations. You cannot feed pets outside or children as they are too messy and will leave food that animals and pests will be attracted to. This also goes for your garbage. If the container is not locked tightly animals will get in, even squirrels have the strength to lift a heavy lid, especially if there is more than one.
Make sure to remove and pick all ripe fruit before it hits the ground, the smell of rotting fruit and vegetables is a smoke signal for squirrels and other animals. The smell can travel miles and attract animals from all over the neighbourhood.
As mentioned the hose is a very effective method of assaulting a squirrel. It is not illegal in anyways and actually recommended for dealing with them. Make sure the spray is pressurized and give every squirrel a good blast from the hose to remind them they are infiltrating your property. Motion-activated sprinklers are great but can also drench children and pets that go on your lawn.
You can also get a pet, a dog is best and makes sure the property is fenced in or the dog is trained. Let it out and will go after those squirrels like a wild animal. If your dog kills a squirrel it’s no issue, and if the squirrels are causing severe damage to your property it is legal to kill them with a BB gun. This is the last resort and you do not want to be the person shooting squirrels.
Squirrels can also be deterred by strong smelling oils and spices. Clove oil is unbearable to all rodents and spicy things like paprika and chilly flakes and Cayan pepper mixed together and sprinkled around the bases of all the plants in your garden will do a great job of turning squirrels away. They cannot handle the flavour of such powerful spices and the smells of strong oils. This can be very effective but be careful not to kill off important insects that help your garden grow strong.
The last and best method to get rid of squirrels is to exclude the actual garden. You can do this by digging a trench around the garden and laying down steel mesh one foot down and one foot out which will stop burrowing animals. Then make sure it is tall enough that you can fold the steel mesh over the garden, seal it with twist ties and you will have a garden nothing can get into.
