I've never had them dig em up.

What about a cone of poulty fabric or hardware cloth seated several inches in the soil till they get big enough?

Later you'll likely have theft from the buggers. I've only found one permanent solution for that. Check your local game laws.

Here in Houston I have a real problem with squirrels, but rarely do they go after my tomatoes. I've noticed that plant size is a definite factor. I don't know what your planting dates are there, or when you started seed, but you might want to consider starting them a bit earlier so you'll have larger plants to set in the ground/pots. Other than that, your options are basically to kill the little bastards or try a repellent. I think I remember someone here mentioning a product called Repels All (?) that supposedly really works.

i have some larger plants i can put out there. so gues s i'll try the hardware cloth and check gaming laws because i have seen a huge huge amount of squirrels. i tried a repellent didnt seem to help. ty you very much for the help. i never had problems with the squirrels this year it's out of hand. they did the sam ething over my folks house. weird i wonder why all of a sudden?

I have a couple of squirrel traps that work real well. I put a few pecans in the traps and they will go right in and step on the lever that shuts the cage door. Then you can relocate them to a nice forest or park. My mother bought them at our local farm store. They were about $36 each (kinda high) but they should last many years. Theresa

I've found they like to dig up things that have been freshly planted - so if the dirt is 'settled' somewhat they'll more often leave it alone. I'll water stuff to make it look like it's been in the ground for a while. Or grow a few early girls. They won't touch them. :)

I had the same problem last year. Darn squuirrels were diging up my tomatoes near the root zone. These were tree squirrels. I put cayenne pepper down and that stopped them for a few days but then they came back after the pepper lost its punch. I found out that my neighbor next door was feeding them and they were taking there surplus of nuts and burying them in my garden thus digging up my darn tomatoes. I asked her to stop feeding them for the spring and summer and she said no. So I told her "if the squirrels are on my side of the yard they are fair game". You can trap and relocate them. I wasn't that nice. Good luck!

Squirrels????? I didn't even think of those being in my garden.

This is my first year for a garden and I thought I had prepared for everything.....Now I have to worry about squirrels. I live near woodland so my backyard is filled with squirrels. I love watching them. Or should say "loved". If they are going to tear up all my hard work I'm going to have to call mom for her squirrel gravy recipe.

If you typed squirrels into the search engine here, my years of posts will pop up on this topic! here is how fresh this topic is to me. On Momday we had 5-8 inches of rain. I came home to water dripping out of my ceiling. Why? I had this happen before..knew what it was...the squirrels chewed off the lead caps/boots on my vent pipes and water/rain dripped in down the pipes. So yesterday i signed contract to cover all my pipes with steel covers to keep them out!
The last few years they have started to mow down my bananas, ginger, cannas. I tried Cayenne. It works ok...but lately I have been using Tony Sacherie's(sp?). Fox urine is sold in the store but it is expensive and I was told it is rank. I don't think I could catch all of them, and shooting them is too creepy.
I have TONS of tomatoes. They have never dug up or eaten them!Weird!
But I read in the Texas forum a lady put LAVA rock in her potted plants and that kept the squirrels out of the pots.
So maybe try that?

"This is my first year for a garden and I thought I had prepared for everything.....Now I have to worry about squirrels."

ROFL, well you're in for a good time! Be prepared for all-out war.

"I have TONS of tomatoes. They have never dug up or eaten them!Weird!"

They generally don't bother mine, but last year something stole almost every fruit off about 5 Romas. I thought it was squirrels, but coulda been coons, skunks, rats, who knows? We've got 'em all.

The squirrels in my yard dig up and kill anything they can get their paws on, whether freshly planted or a couple years old. I lost three iris rhizomes to them just this past month, that I'd planted two years ago. And just today I found a daffodil bulb that they'd dug up, shredded, and left behind. They didn't even eat it. They just destroyed it. They dig up my garlic, my potatoes, my tomatoes, my Brussels sprouts, my carrots. Anything they can get their grubby little paws around, they destroy. #$*!@&^ tree rats!

Fox urine crystals don't phase them. Squirrel repellent doesn't work. Cayenne pepper flakes and garlic juice seems to be seasoning to them. I bought a "squirrel-proof" bird feeder, but the squirrels have found a way around that, too. They can't get into the feeder, but if the jounce it around enough, the seed spills off onto the back porch floor, and the squirrels eat their fill, leaving a mess for me to clean up.

Tulip cages work for bulbs although they're expensive. The squirrels just can't dig through the metal grill. Liquid Fence and Hot Pepper Wax work to keep them away, but you have to keep reapplying it.

The only other thing I've found to work is simply overplanting, with the hope that the squirrels won't destroy every plant.

Good luck. Squirrels are evil. E-V-I-L!

I have five mature oak trees, half a dozen or so dogwoods, and a freaking squirrel superhighway on my lot because the neighbors on either side put out field corn for the little buggers, who then nest in my oaks. In spring and fall my yard looks like a miniature battlefield replica from all the digging the tree rats do. The most effective deterrent that I have found for my suburban situation is a 102 lb yellow lab/ mastiff cross whose last job was hunting wild boar. As an added bonus, prior to putting the garden in (first one since we moved here) she was a 110+ pound dog. Oh, and now that she has declared war on the squirrels I have discovered that my dogwood trees actually produce some sort of fruit too. Who knew they could busy themselves with pounds of corn, birdseed, nuts, filling my attic insulation with pee, leave little piles of tree rat poo on my shed, and still find time to strip my dogwoods before I even saw any fruit! Now wonder the 'hawg dawg' takes after them! :)

As someone residing among oak giants that line the roads and are everywhere, I know there is no easy solution.
We lost over 100 tomatoes in the course of a week last year. The solution, if you are opposed to thinning them out(as most of nature does or we occasionaly need to do to all prolific animals.)is to somehow keep them out of the garden.
Some people claim human hair works, but I have never tried it. The barbers say that lots of requests are had for the cuttings off the floor.....yuhuk
I resorted to a structure made of galvanized welded wire,(5'x9' w/ 4" squares. poultry netting, (Stretched and zipped tied to the panel),then bird netting over the top.

Just the other day I heard alot of noise and went out to find that a squirrel was chasing my cat up a tree, after having chased him through the garden, I had to get a ladder to help my cat down!
Kat

Squirrels are rabies carriers, ya know. Just kill 'em, I say. Kiiiiiillll 'em!!!

The might be diggin up young plants in hopes of finding a nut at the bottom of the root system. Most nut trees still have the nut attatched to the seedling for weeks or months after it's broken the surface, and that nut is still edible. That or you planted where they buried something.

Without an ample supply of Hawks, Owls and Bobcats we need to supply the predation nature would have provided, especially around those that supply artificially high amounts of low energy expense feed for them.

The rural and semi rural gardener have fewer roadblocks to accomplish this. For urban and suburbanites, its a lot tougher but I'd think all areas have some methods in place to legally allow protection from pests.

In my state, they are considered small game, belong to the people of the state and all aspects of interaction with game are regulated. Pest level populations have exceptions but are still regulated. Penalties for non compliance including anything that could be considered "Harassment of Game Animals", out of season taking, taking without harvest or taking by nonprescibed methods are fairly severe.

The trick with all game cuisine is to not over cook them.

Here is a link that might be useful: From Tree to Table

A follow up from MDC online,

"ANIMAL SUSCEPTIBILITY: While all warm blooded animals may develop rabies when exposed to rabid animals, some are more susceptible than others. The most susceptible animal is the fox. The skunk is the second most susceptible; cattle are third; dog is fourth and cat is fifth. Fortunately, human beings are not highly susceptible to rabies. Various authorities on rabies state that in this country if 100 person were seriously bitten about the face, head or neck by a known rabid animal, 25% would develop rabies if no first-aid or anti-rabies treatment was administered.

The raccoon, opossum, ground hog and muskrat in Missouri are seldom rabid. The Missouri Division of Health Central Laboratory has never isolated rabies from a bird, fox squirrel, gray or ground squirrel, chipmunk or field mouse, wild rat, rabbit, nor from such pets as white rats, mice, hamsters or guinea pigs."

While beef is inspected, I thought it was interesting that they showed a higher susceptibility to rabies than squirrels which "The Missouri Division of Health Central Laboratory has never isolated rabies from a ... fox squirrel, gray or ground squirrel,"

Here is a link that might be useful: Rabies

I have already declared war on the little bastards and also have to be discreet about eliminating them so I use a crossman air rifle works every time and is very permanent. You either want a garden or you want to watch squirrels run around your yard, you cannot have both. PERIOD.

Dale

Not a long-term solution, but very satisfactory, I have discovered that the squirrels in my backyard HATE being hosed down. So I bought a sprayer that can shoot a stream of water to the top of the tree, and I give them a good soaking every time I see them.

Carla in Sac

I've been putting up small gardeners fences around my beds (forgot one though, and that got hit by bunnies... urgh).

My beds are small and square or long and narrow, I think fencing them - though its only 2' tall, laughable for a squirrel - makes the bed feel too claustrophobic to be worth digging in.

I did catch a resident rabbit hopping into my garlic bed to inspect things, so I ran out and scared the dickens out of it (it bounced all over the place and got caught on a fence portion and ripped some of its fur off). I could've killed it with a shovel, it was trapped in its panic. I think it learned its not safe inside those fences, and hopefully it spreads the word... my only recourse is to terrorize them and make my yard unfriendly.... as flying lead is frowned upon in my close proximity.

good luck

They rode my tomato bushes and broke them down, and ate many of the tomatoes. They took EVERY ONE of my papershell pecans.
Husband put a scope on the .22. Now I just step out the back door and ding 'em. Of course, I don't live in town. Cats got to where they would just hang around waiting for me to knock them out of the tree so they could eat them. Patio was littered with teeth, and toenails and tails. Didn't have any tomato trouble with them last year, and only caught one in one of my pecan trees. Maybe they got the word out.
I don't seem to have trouble with deer in the garden, but I brush our Golden retriever and then I take the hair and sort of scatter it around the outer edges and up and down the rows.
justsaymo

I'm considering buying the dog some tree spurs for my birthday, as I just discovered they nipped off an entire truss and only took one bite then left the rest laying there. Guess they don't like green brandywines?

To sum up, I think we've determined that squirrels are BAD NEWS for gardeners. Fence your gardens or discreetly (but with severe prejudice) snuff them out.

Uh, "extreme" prejudice...yeah. Doh!

Last year I tried everything. There is only one cure unless you have only a few squirrels. I lost many tomatoes last year because I did not cover my tomatoes sooner.

I have seven tomatoes covered. ItÂs also easy to cover them when it freezes.

Work fast. DonÂt let half of your tomatoes get eaten before you take action.

See my Flicker PhotoÂs of my tomatoes covered with chicken wire.

Karyl

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken wire over tomatoes

My biggest problem with squirrels is that they take a bite out of each my low hanging tomatoes just to make sure they don't like them!

My solution this year: I've got an "Attack Poodle" by the name of Nikita! You can see her guarding my raised bed through the screen...

When the tomatoes start ripening, I'll release this fearsome beast on those little rodents!