Which veggies do the squirrels attack? I have a lot of squirrel trouble in my fruit trees, especially lychees, but I can't recall them messing with my vegetables.

Squirrels don't last very long down here. Hawks and various other birds of prey will thin them out quite nicely. Darwin at work.

Something is eating my lima beans...picking out the seeds one by one. I haven't seen squirrels in them but that's my guess. There is a mocking bird nest in the vines but the mama gave up and didn't lay eggs. It was full of empty pods. Maybe it's a night creature like a rat or possum because I haven't seen anything in the beans. Sometimes the pods are plucked and have little holes along the edge where the bean has been pulled through. Sometimes they are left hanging on the vines beanless. But something has been feasting.

Get a Feist Hound. They are relentless at chasing squirrels, will even climb a tree if the limbs are low enough. Other than that, maybe a rubber snake or fake owl.

If they had enough food from elsewhere, would they leave your garden alone?

& I understand they don't eat true vegetables (leaves, stalks, buds), but prefer fruits, right?

Something was eating the sunflower seeds so my daughter put an old stocking on them. Dont know if it will work but she thinks it will.

The squirrels would pluck my tomatoes from the bush & take them up a maple tree just across the property line, in my neighbors yard. I found half eaten tomatoes on the ground where they had dropped them. The plants were beginning to decline, so last week I decided to close the squirrel cafe. There was nothing I could do to keep them away. I no longer attempt to grow melons. The squirrels always got to them just before they were ripe.

Well, now I'm discouraged. The hawks aren't thinning the herd enough. In the past 5 years that we've been in this house we've had at least 5-6 squirrels in the backyard/trees at any given time.

I have a squirrel village in my backyard. They were hosting the squirrel olympics on my roof this morning at sunrise. I know because they sounded like a herd of buffalo and woke me up.

Has anybody tried the fake snakes? Does that work.

Do you have one of those "Hav-A-Hart" type live traps? The coon-size model will catch squirrels just fine. Sometimes they put enough pressure on the treadle to catch themselves, and sometimes they need a little help. I run a fishing line from the door catch across the yard back to the house. When I look out the window and see a squirrel in the trap, and if he hasn't tripped the door himself, I just give the string a jerk.
My favorite bait setup goes like this: Cut a piece of about 3" off of a PVC pipe. Drill a hole in this piece and attach a piece of wire to it. Smear this PVC with some peanut butter and maybe sprinkle some feed corn or bird seed on it so it sticks to the peanut butter. Irresistable! Then hang it from the roof of the cage right over the treadle so the squirrel must stand on the treadle in order to reach the bait. If your trap is real sensitive, the squirrel's weight might trip it. If not, use the fishing line trick.
I have a friend who takes my squirrels when she goes to work many miles away, then returns the empty trap to me. It seems to keep the captive squirrels calm if the cage is covered with towels during handling.
I personally feel that EVERY gardener should invest in a coon-size live trap. I've come to consider it (and my .22 rifle) an essential gardening tool!

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
A landowner may lawfully live-trap or humanely destroy nuisance gray squirrels without a special permit or license.
A permit is required to transport live-trapped wildlife and landowner permission must be obtained before captive wildlife can be released on private land.
It is unlawful to release captive wildlife of any kind on public lands. Relocating wildlife is seldom biologically sound, the animal often does not survive.

You can receive technical assistance for squirrel problems by contacting your nearest FWC regional office.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrels: Sciurus carlinensis

I have had trouble with what I think are squirrels- but they may be rats, who knows? - eating tomatoes - finding teeth marks in my tomatoes both green & red- I am trying a few things- garden netting around the bush, which has not seemed to be very effective- I have cut holes in baggies at the bottom corners & bagged my tomatoes- so far no animals have gotten into any of those, but lets see how the tomatoes ripen - & then I have resorted reluctantly to sprinkling cayenne pepper around the bush & along the fence where the squirrels get into garden- that seems to be the most effective so far.

In the past I have have trouble with squirrels attacking my ginger plants. They really seemed to have a taste for ginger for a couple of years but this year they're leaving the plants alone. After much trial and error I found that leaving ammonia soaked rags by the plants deterred a lot of the damage. I've been told that the smell of the amonia is similar to that of certain predators. This year I think that between the hawks, owls, and my dad shooting the occassional over confident squirrel is really keeping their population under control. My dad lost any inhibitions about shooting squirrels after they started eating the lead boots from around the pipes on their roof and causing excessive damage in the garden. Only the overly bold squirrels get shot though.

Kara

I love my squirrels. I feed them peanuts. Most mornings when I go out to work there are two hanging on the tree yelling at me for their breakfast!

If you find a solution let me know. I didn't get any peaches or necterines this year or last year. I think I migt have to cage the trees to keep the squirrels out.
Sad thin is I wouldn't mind them eating some of might fruit, just not ALL of it. Greedy suckers!

Try using the Bird Repeller Ribbon in and around your trees. We have discussed this ribbon here on GW before and the people that have tried it like it.

A holographic, iridescent Mylar ribbon that creates an optical, audible and physical discomfort zone for birds and nuisance animals.
Hang in any breeze, it projects flashing reflective images and an unnerving metallic rattle.
Birds leave the area promptly and stay away as long as it's there.
Even animals as large as deer shy away from it when stretched in a spiral between two stakes.

Lou

I read somewhere that placing dog hair in your garden among the plants will discourage squirrels. I grow using pots and the dog hair seems to work about 60-75% of the time. I guess some squirrels don't fear dogs. Anyhow, I am using dog hair and it works better than some other things I have tried.

You don't need to go up to a coon-sized have-a-heart trap. The smaller one works fine. I had squirrels in my attic. They chewed a hole in the wall and moved right in. In the morning, they would come out and run down the fence to the garden or trees looking for breakfast. I took a couple of old shelf brackets and a plank of wood and hung it on my fence near the top where they traveled. I used a 1/4 piece of bread with a little peanut butter on it and tossed it in the cage. I caught 13 squirrels. One time, 3 in one day. I couldn't do it at night, because the rats would get the bread and trip the trap, but they could squeeze out between the bars.

When I lived up north the squirrels knocked out a large wood-knot in the soffit and got into my attic. They didn't set up housekeeping up there in the attic but only kept stealing the insulation to build their nests in the trees. By the time I noticed what was going on all my trees had pink nests way up top of the trees. When I went up into the attic to look, over half of the insulation had been stolen by the squirrels. The neighbors were inquisitive about all the pink nests in my trees so I told them I had a flock of pink flamingos nesting in my trees. I said they make their nests out of their pink feathers. I couldn't believe how gullible they were as they would come out and watch to see if they could get an eyeball on the flamingos in my trees. Some neighbors actually claimed they saw the flamingos!!

It was no fun replacing that soffit board three stories up standing on a ladder. The stuff you do when you are young and bullet proof. Now I get dizzy on the step stool getting something out of the top kitchen cupboard shelf.

Lou