My praying hands
 

is about to flower.

The squirrels have eaten the last 3 out of 6 leaves as they were being produced (essentially I have like a 8-10' stems with 10% having actual leaf matter)
They hit the flower top already (just before the actual flower pushed out of the heart)
I set up my decoy owl today to help stop them.

Bastards.
Maybe I will light firecrackers off tomorrow morning. I heard that works.

And thanks to Chris for the plant sometime ago.

Re: My praying hands
 

I HATE squirells!!!
It's weird that they're eating leaves, times must be hard in the woods too nowadays.

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Tony, I would try pepper spray on the leaves if the owl decoy doesn't work. Otherwise, a dog seems to keep them at bay if there is no overhead access like other trees or power lines.

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They hit the leaf as it starts rolling out; when it is young and tender.

We have two HUGE oaks around us, and fruit trees etc. This last year is when they started doing it.

My new lab is 16 weeks old. She will definetly be taught to chase those buggers!!!!

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My neihbor has a lab mix named "Socks", (white feet) that catches a squirell nearly every day and there are still many around. I may need to get out there and help her :2723: .
I've considered making a pile of sunflower seeds far away from any trees to give her an advantage in catching them.
The little devils eat every fig from my trees as soon as they ripen.

Re: My praying hands
 

Hey Bo,
Squirrels are very difficult to deal with...they will start nailing the bananas too...they get about half the avocados and mangoes and many bananas...I would try the pepper spray...
Good luck my friend!
Chris

Re: My praying hands
 

I HATE squirells! They pul my figs off, take a bite & leave them on the ground as with other fruits & veggies. 2 yrs ago they ate every grape! Last yr I borrowed a trap. I trapped 70 since last June. I give them swimming lessons in my pond but they seem to fail every time :). Last summer I got to eat some grapes & figs - finally.
Get a trap!!! They love peanut butter BTW
I put a small dent in their population here.

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i shot 87 of them last summer and i got 2 today i would get a small 22 with subsonic bullets it dont make no noise when i shoot them so if your in town no one can here u shooting the gun and the bullets travel at a really low feet per second so if u miss it wont rickashay off things sound kind of like a air bb gun

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If you're in a suburban neighborhood like me even a 22 with cb caps is a little too dangerous. If you want to remove a few invest in one of the high end pellet guns. First I would try the pepper spray or even some powderd blood meal will sometimes help. Good luck.

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My chow chow used to catch them. Isn't that every dogs dream?!! He died a few years ago so now the squirells are laughing at me - till they get in the trap. I was using a 22 cbr pellet gun but I have a crappy neighbor who would call cops if he heard the pop. Trap is silent & effective. One day I caught 5 of them. Was a lot of work to get rid of them & reset trap right away. I got 2 this week but gotta wait for snow to melt now.
The thing with pepper spray is it washes off in rain. It only keeps them away when the spray is on. I want to get RID of them. I can't think of one reason to keep squirells around...they only cause damage.

J, you get 'em on that end & I'll get 'em here :)

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They can be amazing resourceful and destructive and have an insatiable appetite...

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I'm having a similar problems with ducks. The local pond (retention pond) dried up (dry season here) and the ducks that hung out there came into people's yards. Of course people feed them. And get their patios pooped on.

My little bananas, just coming up with new leaves after that 3-freeze winter are getting chewed to fibers by ducks. Whether for food or water I am not sure. Once the plants get their leaves above 2 feet or so, they are left alone. :mad:

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You could try rubber snake, maybe wrap it around the stem and over a leaf,might work for a couple of days.

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My squirells would try to kill it & eat it...& then laugh at me.

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Aye, and pepper spray just makes it "Cajun Style".

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:ha::ha::ha::ha:

I was right the first time with spelling squirrel. I changed it to squirell & it didn't look right & now after looking it up it's 2 r's, 1 l...duh
Bob, what does powdered blood meal do?

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You know, KJ, ducks are very tasty!

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Patty ,powdered blood meal will keep deer away for a time,until it gets washed away. I think it would do the same for squirrels which are primarily vegetarians. If you look at it as strictly a repellent , then it's also a free source of nitrogen. It actually doesn't smell "bloody" to me at least, kind of like chocolate.

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I tried the blood meal.
The squirrels walked thorugh it to get to the plant.
I also bought some spray to spray on the plant that deters animals (it too was made of blood). I literally JUST sprayed the leaves today, around 11 I went outside and lo and behold they walked though the powder jumped on the wetted leaves to try and gnaw at the tender leaves.

However, I have been having success (and fun) throwing loud fire-cracker like objects from my second floor windows at them when I can catch them. It deters them for a day or so.
I imagine eventually I would have to work up to M-80's to illicit any sort of response from them. :nanertank:

Pepper spray makes me leary after spraying the blood stuff (it came back in my face a bunch of times) LOL.

The battle rages........

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How about cayenne pepper sprinkled around the ground (so it gets on their little paws). If their paws are moist when they walk through, it will burn. Or, if they try to clean it off with their tongue....ZING! You can get a fairly good size can at your local supermarket - not that expensive either.

Also, I have tried granulated fox or coyote urine (yes they actually sell the stuff). The scent is supposed to immitate a predator that is bigger, who will eat them, ha, ha. I used it to keep cats from crapping in my pine needle mulch. Cat sh**t is more disgusting than all others combined if you asked me!!! Seemed to work pretty well, but you''ll go through a lot during rainy periods. The brand is called "Shake-Away" and you can get it from a number of online vendors - just Google it.

:2723: