Hey WP! Glad to see you around.

I have seen a million threads on squirrels in almost every forum and it seems the consensus is that it is a losing battle. The one thing you could try is to place some hardwarecloth/metal screen in the planter, open holes large enough to plant through, and then cover with soil. This would deter the squirrels from digging because they'll hit the metal. Some have recommended mulching with gravel as a deterrent. Squirrels apparently recognize freshly dug or soft soil and will go right for those spots. So you could also try really packing the soil down and/or mulching in order to hide the surface after planting.

Yeah, I'm still here... I lurk more than I post these days.

Poopoo squirrels! they were at it again this morning. The problem seems to be a vicious cycle, because when they keep digging the soil it's always freshly dug, if that makes any sense. Unfortunately I don't think the screen will work too well... these are planters that already have a lot of plants crowded into them, and I'd have to cut it in really funny shapes to get it around them all.

I'm going to try putting on a new layer of mulch and pack it all in. And maybe mix in some cat fur for good measure; I don't know what good it'll do but heck, I have lots of it so what can it hurt. if not it might have to be a patchwork of screeny kind of stuff.

I'll try to have some pics of my mess, I mean my balcony, sometime soon, to warm up those of you in the cooler states.

I'm going out of town for a week at the end of April, and I shudder to think of what my deck is going to look like when I get back. My Jack Russel will not be there to look after my plants and scare them off. I agree, poopoo squirrels!!

Kill 'em all, let Nature sort 'em out!

Short of that, can you borrow a dog or cat for a few days to scare them off?

Good luck; so far they haven't really found my balcony, but it's only a matter of time . . .

Jim (practicing with his slingshot)

Thank goodness I'm WAY above the trees and they haven't figured out a way to get up to my place yet. Of course that doesn't stop the pigeons. :-\

It could be worse. My new upstairs neighbors like to put out nuts to feed the cute squirrels, which take them and promptly scurry down to bury them in my planters (and unearth my fresh plantings). In fact it was worse: they used to throw platefuls of pasta or rice out the window, I guess to share their dinner bounty with nature's creatures.

Hehehe... rather ironic that squirrels are burying acorns -I have a trio of red oak acorns out on the balcony and a black walnut I found and I hope the darn squirrels don't find them since they haven't sprouted yet.

Hehehe, I have a peanut giver. =D
Every year for the past three years I have found about one peanut per container with no noticable damage to the plant or soil. lol He/she seems to be a good gardener.

The funny thing is that I keep my containers right by my back screened porch and have never caught anything digging around in them. Ah well, if my peanut fairy doesn't bother my plants I'm not going to bother my peanut fairy. lol

Some squirrels seem to be better gardeners than others. like I said, this has happened before, judging from the oak trees. but it's never been a problem. I have also had birds that peck in the boxes (maybe digging up the acorns?) that haven't made big messes. oh well.

I'm about to move to a sunnier balcony. and it's screened! (jumping for joy.)

Whytephoenix, this may or may not work depending on the size of your containers and the type of plants that you have in them. I use layered bird-block on the surface of the potting mix successfully. This is a mesh plastic that looks like a hair net and I got it at Home Depot. (It's used to throw over fruiting trees to keep the birds and other critters from eating the fruit).

On my large containers with huge Alocasia, I simply have it layered around the base of the plants. On my smaller containers where bulbs, corms, and tubers are just sprouting up - I have it draped over the plants and tuck it beneath the base of the container to keep the squirrels from tossing it aside. Hope that helps!

You know, I would almost rather have squirrels than what my balcony seems to attract - I get bananna slugs! I'm still trying to figure out how the heck they get up to my balcony.

You might try mixing some cayanne and oil, putting it into a spray bottle, and spraying down the top of the soil, and all the edges of your balcony (railings, etc) They might do it one more time, but I bet after that they might leave you alone.

ohmygosh! I had the hugest slugs too for the longest time. They were like the slugs Ron horks up in Harry Potter 2. They would leave those nasssty slime trails all over everything. But they never ate any plants. They were composters apparently.

Luckly they just went away, for whatever reason. I only found about two dead ones, so maybe that was all there was. Mine must have come from the tree near the balcony.

Ewwwww.... Banana slugs?! UGH!

Okay, you win (or "lose" depending upon how you look at it) - I'll take squirrels any day over huge mucus monsters!

Somebody told me once to plant Peppermint in your garden where Squirrels are a problem and they'll leave you alone because they're allergic to it.

I can't remember who told me that, but they said they got it off the TV so I don't know if there's any truth to it or not but you could try it.

Best Wishes
Amino-X

MOTH BALLS ! I use Moth Balls, and I am also practicing with MY Sling-shot !

I don't have oak trees, but I do have PEANUT plants growing in mine. A lady in the next yard feeds the birds raw peanuts, and the squirrels just have to irritate me with their style of gardening. I did find, though, if I sprinkle small gravel around the top of the soil, I have almost no problem. I found this out quite by accident. Apparently, gravel irritates their paws.

peanut plants! that's cute :) I hope they're easy to get rid of!

Last year, I had no squirrels at all. But this year they seem to have noticed that something is going on. Did someone say Cayenne pepper can kill them? I'm thinking they'll take one whiff and decide to go and bug someone else... I don't have much, so I have to protect it.

Here is a link that might be useful: I did a photo journal of the incident.

Cool pictures Sal! Although I know that squirrel digging would have made me scream! And you have those trees right across from your balcony where they can just leap over and have a ball. I'm already screaming because the pigeons keep trying to nest on my balcony again. I have to literally block up every corner any any spaces under tables or chairs or the bench because they think I'm the Ritz Carlton or something. :-\ I've already run out the 2nd pair of nesters in the past couple months.

I have been feeding several squirrels and about 6 raccoons from my balcony for the past two or three years. Last year I had wanted some small containers of something or ruther.. So I planted some strawberries and a tomatoe plant and some rosemary. The only thing that lasted were my rosemary plants.. the squirrels stole the strawberries as soon as they got red and ripe.. and even swiped my lonely one tomatoe that grew. When the stawberries were gone the little turds started digging the plants up.

I had totally forgot about the squirrels and raccoons while planting my garden.. Now this year I have not planted anything because of my little theives.. I love watching them come eat tho and play and fight.. so cute..

Is there not something we can do to live in harmony.. maybe make something special for them too?

Hmmm, I know nothing about squirrels and hope they don't find my deck anytime soon. But can you provide something completely irresistable to them so that they preferably go to that and leave your other stuff alone? I have no idea what that would be, though.

This is no actual help, but I had the funniest thing happen this year. I had huge sunflowers start growing in many of my containers. They look so good I Kept them. I finally figured out that "my" squirrel planted them last fall! I finally figured it out when I found pecan seedlings in the pots and we have no pecan trees. I thought at first he had planted seed from a bird feeder, but from the looks of the plants they are the wild ones that grow here. Oddly enough I had been meaning to collect seed from these for my wild garden but never got around to it--so he did it for me!!! Talk about your volunteers!!!
Betsy

several sticks right into the soil make them stop. I use fallen branches or dry branches from the butterlfy bush in all my containers. You just need to make it as uncomfortable as possible for them.

Put used cat litter waste in alittle pan on the plants. They won't come near them.

Stones.

I had a bad squirrel problem with my container plants too, but putting those decorative stones in a variety of sizes on the top of the pots absolutely stopped them from digging. Now I've watched them as they come up to the balcony looking for places to dig, peer over the tops of the pots, then just walk away! It's like another poster said: they get inspired by broken up, uncovered soil -- they either think something is hidden down there, or it makes them want to hide something!

i had just moved into a new neighborhood and caught a squirrel (i've named them all "Charlie") digging in my containers out front, so i started waving my arms and yelling "Charlie Squirrel, you quit digging up my plants! You should be ashamed!" then i looked up and saw a bunch of my neighbors gathered across the street staring at me. it's been 2 years now and i still haven't made friends with those same neighbors... :)

LOL

I do that when the pigeons come roosting if I'm here to run out there and chase them off. One of my sisters showed me where a squirrel managed to find some soil to hide an acorn under a full mass of impatiens in one of her urns. The tell-tale dug soil was littered on the ground beneath the urn and a hole with the acorn was found in the container. Unbelievable. It's not like there aren't soft beds all around the house and yard to hide nuts and that don't require jumping up and balancing on a small pot.

Squirrels climb the bricks and any type of material that is like it...I have watched them before on my balcony and my old apartment and parents house.

Try Cyan powder, but it has to be fresh and not old since it is the spiciness that they do not like. My parents have had good luck with that on veggies in the summer...just sprikle some on the surface of the plant it eats or on the soil...it gets on their paws and such...

We have had success against these garden beast. Getting a Have a Heart Trap was the answer. Put peanut butter inside one or two hours before you leave the house and you can usually catch them . I relocate them in a wooded area 5-10 miles from my home on my way shopping and try again next time I leave the house.
Some seasons it has been 7-9 and others it has been as many as 26 to get rid of them. Stay at it and you can be succesfull.

Oh wow... this post is almost a year old! It turned out that we just got a new apartment. Not because of the squirrels, but a sunnier balcony was part of my requirement, so I can do away with sneaking plants onto the roof.

Trapping squirrels would be an interesting plan at this apt. There are scads of them. I'd have to relocate them by the truckload.

My credentials:

I have a large patio full of containers, and 50 pecan trees.

The squirrels are a problem, but I've solved the ones they make with the container plants.

I go to a rockyard - and buy river rock. I prever the flattened shape. The biggest ones that I can fit around the plant on top of the dirt. They work like mulch in that they shade the soil and keep it from getting splashed out when watering. I have one pot that is about 3 feet across, in it, I have smaller stones, and they are 3 stones deep across the whole pot. All my pots with this type of mulch are squirrel free. No digging, no holes, no seeds.

The ones that are as big as my hand, and flattened look like giant lozenges are my fave, because it is easy to remove them when you want to repot. Don't have to sift through to find them. But this is the only thing that has worked. Hot pepper is enjoyable to them. I thought about getting my husband a paint gun and letting him scare them off, but that would create other problems. Red and yellow squirrels for one thing.

I have two suggestions:

First, there is a product called Shake-Away that is out now. I have not tried it but some people have appeared to have had good success with it.

Secondly, I had heard that moth balls will keep possums out of your garden. This is my first year to have trouble with digging squirrels, so I purchased some moth balls and placed them out in the garden in 1 or 2 in each of my pots. The squirrels usually hit me first thing in the morning. So far, no sign of the cute little buggers.

I'll let you know if the moth balls work or if I will be investing in Shake-Away!

Good luck and happy gardening!

Paul

I think it might be moles digging , I put ground red cayenne pepper around them has anyone heard of anything else I can use

My cousin a few blocks away was plagued really bad. The squirrels had a runaway across garage roof scratched out to his tomato ad cucumber plants until he bought a bag of Blood Meal and sprinkled it around plants and threw on roof. He said they dont like the smell (fresh kill?) and it scared them away.

I bought some to try since the little bugger buried a BAGEL in my strawberry tower. Strawberry plants ripped out dead, so he could save his breakfast? Strange thing, I have a decent sized yard with fruit trees and bushes in ground, but noooo, he had to take out a strawberry tower right by the back door on concrete side, so now its war.
For me cayenne pepper didnt work or hot sauce I reduced and painted on small pieces of wood and placed around and in pots. They are used to spicy food here since they rip open and steal garbage in NYC. We saw one eating a chicken leg sitting on top of neighbors open can last Fall.

I dont know what kind of mutant squirrels these are, but they ain't taking no nuts.

I mulch my planters with pine bark and this has deterred them. Maybe my neighborhood squirrels are just too dense to realize there's fresh potting mix underlying the bark?

I also really like the idea of giving them something more alluring as a distraction. I recall someone putting out bird feed (they love bird feed) to distract them from eating their fruiting trees, which was the only solution that worked for them. In your case, where the problem is squirrels burying acorns, maybe just use a throwaway 5-gal planter full of expired potting mix?

I'd try that in conjunction with the mulch, if only to make the potting mix decoy even more alluring.

Blood meal and making net and wire cages for some stuff seems to have worked so far. I found another piece of bread buried in a potato sack before I put nets over them.
They can visit my neighbors bird feeder all they want, I'm not encouraging them or contributing to the problem.
They dont take any fruit, just used to steal eggplants so I dont grow them anymore. Its the burying bread that messes up my plants. I never heard of squirrels burying bread before. If it rots I'm afraid it will attract flies and rats.

To the person with banana slugs, I am in Spokane and we have them. Though, they aren't the yellow ones but they get as big. Try Sluggo pellets, technically organic but have some chelating compounds (making the active ingredient more absorbable) so watch your pets if you have any.

As for squirrels, it wouldn't look the greatest but can you put a small "skirt" of chicken wire, pointing down and out, around the base of your patio? If you can without landlord/HOA issues might be worth considering. And you are also welcome to borrow my cat. We used to have tons of magpies in my yard... Then Miss Murderball decided she wanted to be outdoors again. Magpies thought they could dive bomb her, now they stay far far away from my entire neighborhood. She is also really handy for keeping marmots out of my garden.