How do you keep squirrels and other wildlife from shoots?

[entm]

I had a newly planted Vivax send up a nice new shoot; the squirrels finished it off within 2 days. Will chicken wire keep them off? I'm not opposed to the use of a pellet gun either, but I have yet to see them eating.

[marcat]

12 gauge
Marcat

[Matt W]

They have been easy to live trap for me. I planted 75 hickory nuts, they dug everyone and turned over the pots. Trying to get my dog interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOOYkGkP5GM&feature
He kinda has a live and let live attitude but he does like to find one in the trap. Just epoxy a hickory-nut or walnut to the trigger.

Matt

[Samajax]

My garden is overrun with squirrels, so I've got a two pronged approach.

A few years ago they started eating all my early shoots, so I started feeding the squirrels and spraying the shoots with a cayenne pepper/water mixture.

For squirrels, what to graze is a learned from others/experimentation thing, so once I started diligently spraying the shoots, the behavior almost stopped completely.

I have no problems with the gun/elimination thing, but once you make a population void, others will move in and take their place. Where the "gun" control might be handy is in the elimination of the single adult who is teaching others, or who might be the only culprit.

If you don't want to feed them, see if just the cayenne pepper spray alone works. It has to be applied almost daily, depending on the weather. I bought the cayenne in bulk form in the mexican spice section of the grocery store. It douse them with the mix until the shoots were a few feet high.

I rarely loose shoots anymore- but this is just my experience/experiment.

[BooManChu]

I'm with MARCAT on this one, although I use the 'ol .177cal BBgun instead... I'm in suburbia, so the shotguns outta the question...
You could always get one of those 'Have a Heart' cages to trap 'em and relocate them if your a squirrel hugger...

~BMC.

[marcat]

Sorry "Chu" but Samajax is right about the end results with the hot pepeer approch but then again it is a lot more work and not as much fun or tasty.
MarCat

[BooManChu]

No special trips for hot peppers for squirrels for me.
After the last few years, I've noticed my local squirrel population down considerably...
I have no problem takin' the tree rats out.

~BMC.

[kudzu9]

Where I live now, squirrels aren't much of a problem, but they used to devastate my shoots at my previous house, which was more wooded. I did try the hot pepper and hot sauce approach, which I mixed in with vaseline to make it stay longer on the shoots. This worked for about a month, and then I guess they just got used to it. I tried trapping, but more squirrels would just move in whenever I was making progress at de-population: I guess they appreciated me taking out the competition. Finally, I got a roll of wire mesh with half inch openings at Home Depot; it even comes with green plastic coating so it isn't as visible. Then I would cut pieces about 18" high and roll them into small tubes that I set upright over new shoots. I would either wire the tubes to stakes or just to a nearby culm. Once the shoots got to the height of the tube, they were usually hardened off enough that the squirrels weren't interested any more, and I could remove the protection. After I started doing that, I never lost another shoot. Just make sure that the tubes are small enough to prevent the tree rats from crawling down inside, and that the tubes are wired tightly enough to prevent them being lifted. When I cut the wire mesh, I always did it so there would be pointy, sharp pieces of the mesh sticking out from the top and bottom edges as further discouragement.