Hi Aker,
What an unpleasant situation! I suspect that you also will find rats lurking out there at night. They have to be attracted to all those goodies!
Two thoughts for you.....
1. If you are renting then I would have your attorney write a letter to the landlord describing the situation, pointing out the vermine that is collecting and the problems that might result and ask the landlord to correct the situation. If you own the apartment then you should have your attorney write directly to your upstairs neighbors. Sometimes it is just wise to have a third party act on your behalf.
2. Chicken wire is the answer to your problem. Animals hate to walk on it. Unroll it, scrunching it up a bit and set your pots on it. If necessary, cut rounds of it to fit over the edges of the pots and over the soil. That should discourage the digging. Chicken wire is not a thing of beauty, but it will do the job for you.

Get some mousetraps. Anchor them solidly to the ground in the area where the squirrels have been digging. Cover them with newspaper, and sprinkle a little dirt on top. When a squirrel comes to dig, it will set off the traps. As the mechanism snaps, it will scare and throw dirt at the squirrel. Once it's scared enough times, it will find another digging area. Be sure to anchor the traps just in case the wind blows the newspaper off of them. If the trap is anchored, the squirrel will not get hurt.

http://www.almanac.com/garden/00.fall/squirrelwars.html

Here is a link that might be useful: another squirrel article

Thanks Nandina & Mystdrygn

You are right about the rats!! All the food is attracting them!! I like the idea of the chicken wire. That sounds like the best solution so far. I can cut it to shape I guess and lay it down. The plants could grow right through it too? As for the mouse traps I'd need a million of them, no kidding, they have hit every square inch of exposed dirt!! The squirrels are even jumping up onto our railing and then up into our hanging baskets!! I think they may actually be trying to get up to the balcony above us and their peanuts. I have half a mind to buy a tall trellis and let the squirrels have access to their balcony and their potted plants?

Would you, could you possibly move? I really hate to see anyone with this type of situation. Sounds like your neighbors are very self-centered.

I've been told that crumpled up pieces of foil will deter some animals. Probably because they wouldn't like the sound. It might be worth a try.

Good luck in solving this problem.

Do you own or rent? if you rent I would hve a talk with the landlord. If you own I would seek help from local authorities, maybe health department since its attracking rats and mice, I know its not fun to file a complaint on your nieghbors but enough is enough.

If all else fails and you can't move then have a friendly chat with your neighbors explaining that you have to put out poisoned bait for the rodents and the like that seem to be attracted to your yard area. That because of the nature of the bait that you are being forced to use may harm or kill the animals that they are feeding then they may want to discontinue feeding them, temporarily, then a little longer then finally that you are so relieved by not having to contend with pests that you hired a service to do the baiting on a long term contract.
As far as the birds, got any neighborhood kids w/ bb guns or put up a mylar shade that shines directly into their window/slider (just kidding about the kids or..........)

Have you tried using mothballs? A neighbour's cat was using my gardens as a litter box, so I put some out and it worked. We have a lot of squirrels, but they didn't bother the gardens, but I noticed that in the gardens where the mothballs are, the squirrels are not, yet they travel freely in another garden bed where the cat was not causing a problem and I did not put mothballs.
As per the Blue Jays, they are very determined...
Nicole.

Aker, have you come up with a solution to your problem yet?

Hi, again

I'm still tackling the critter problem. We've put a single layer of gravel onto the surface of all our pots and that seems to have deterred some of the squirrels. With some help we put down cut pieces of chicken wire into the larger containers and that has helped too.

The squirrels are not stupid ( like us humans ;-)and still manage hide their peanuts. I saw one yesterday hiding peanuts into the top of my 5'brugmansia which was wrapped in burlap!!

We've cut down the amount of digging the squirrels by about 80% which is a great improvement!

I am going to try the moth ball suggestion to especially for our hanging baskets and really small pots!!

Thanks to all for your help.

What a problem! I have a couple of comments:

***I've been told that crumpled up pieces of foil will deter some animals. Probably because they wouldn't like the sound.***

I used the foil oven liners to do the same thing for raccoons around tomato plants. It worked "pretty good"

***Have you tried using mothballs?***

That would be a good deterrent I think. We've used it when a bear was visiting us a while back. Not to deter it, so much, (grin) but to mask the smell of garbage which was attracting it.

BUT mothballs can be a problem to health--- many warnings on it. And if you're in a small area (apartment?) you would be breathing the odor too. Not safe.

****You are right about the rats!! All the food is attracting them!!***

Not to mention the ticks that pass on Lyme disease coming in with the rats and mice!

Hope you can resolve this problem.

cave76

You should continue to cover the plants with some chicken wire and maybe sprinkle some cayenne pepper around, that should discourage both the rats, cats and the squirrels (watch your eyes, though). Maybe you should have let the neighbors feed the cats, that would have helped with the rats, squirrels and the blue jays, with the cayenne pepper and chicken wire discouraging their pooping in your pots. Did you ask your neighbors nicely if they would scoot the feeders off the edge of their balcony so the mess wouldn't be so much on your deck?
Otherwise, wear mittens so when you wave at them, they won't know you are flipping them off. Also be glad they don't love great danes.

Gee whiz. I'm usually pretty nice but your neighbors are seriously immature -- they've got the sensibility of small children who think the world revolves around their whims. If you're not willing to talk to your landlord, then I think in addition to protecting your plants, some other way of getting the critters directly to them is a great idea.

Now trellis store bought is expensive, but maybe if you have help, you could get several real thin trim-type pieces of wood together literally like a little ladder, and fix it up so that it will lead ALL the critters directly up to their balcony. They can have the joy of personally feeding critters and cleaning up after them, they'll love it.

Then take some pepper spray (nothing that will hurt critters, but which they might hate), I think you could work out some kind of pump extension, and anything that hangs over their balcony so much as 1 mm, spray the thing above you (don't look up -- there's gotta be a way to do it without hurting yourself!) so the animals will avoid it or at least all the part of it anywhere near the outside.

Eventually if your neighbors don't figure it out (even if they do, so what), they will realize that for some reason the animals don't eat out of the ones off the edge and they do eat out of the ones on the porch. So they can just put out food ON their porch, since the critters are right there -- rather than hanging off it to try and 'get it to' the critters -- and falling into yours.

They get the critters close up, and you get less hanging over you stuff. That doesn't address where they bury things of course, but it might deal with the constant droppings issue. Give the smallest slant to the 'ladder' and the cats can climb it too.

I really like critters and feed them myself but wouldn't go about it in the way described, sheesh.

PJ

Have you tried planting some chives among your other plants? I am told these will keep deer and several other animals away; although, squirrels were not specifically mentioned. Perhaps worth a try.

This is just a thought and don't know if you'd be allowed to do this or if it would work... but what about putting an awning out from the top of your patio/deck... would that let the bits and pieces slide farther out from your patio and onto the ground farther away?

Like I said, don't know if this is an option OR if it would work, but thought I'd throw it out there.

-Bonnie

The closest suggestion to mine was the pepper spray but I think this will be easier for you and work better with less risk to the animals. Just sprinkle a good dose of cayenne pepper powder on your soil if you wear gloves when gardening. You don't want it on your hands. I bought some dried thai chilis which crush easily and sprinkled where I needed them. Critters get a snootful and decide it's better to go elsewhere. Rats might just dislike it as well.

The hot pepper sounds like it would be just the thing for the squirrels and rats. Before I moved into apartment had house with small garden and large mole problem. Used hot pepper sauce and it worked wonders. The critters get it on their feet, lick it off and don't come back. No, it doesn't kill them.

Hi aker---you got lots of good suggestions! Did they work? How are things now? I like the awning idea, bu it may not be practical---anyhow, it was fun to read your posts.

Your friend, Mimi-Ji