Will two-inch chicken wire keep out squirrels? - Page 5

Hellmanns · April 15, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by mashermike

I'd like to have Lucy Lou over for a visit about once a week.

Feist are great dogs! Their only goal in life is to please their master, and rid his property of vermin. It's born in them no training needed. My 2 dogs bloodlines go back to the legendary, Hystyle Cadillac Jack, one of the best ever.

Here is a short video of Barney, he's 9 years old and a companion I'll never forget. He understands what I say to him like a person. Monday I looked out the back door and saw a fox squirrel about 75 yards away eating maple buds down on the pond dam. I told Barney there was a squirrel down by the pond, and then I opened the door and told him to get it! He almost caught it before it went up this oak.
https://youtu.be/HiErc8nuFgY

Susan66 · April 15, 2016

We have squirrels and chipmunks- neither cause problems, but have to fence the deer and woodchucks out of the garden. Baby rabbits cause a bit of a problem when we first put plants out in the spring. The garden is out near the road- you'd think that would discourage the deer. My aunt used to have a terrible time with deer eating everything in her garden, till my dad put up a sandwich fence around her gardens. Two layers of wire fence with plastic sandwiched between the two. Deer don't like plastic. He'd leave about a foot of plastic sticking out top and bottom on the fence. Around the bottom would discourage the rabbits and woodchucks, and the noise from the plastic blowing in the wind would discourage the deer. About a 5 foot high fence. Expensive, but worth it. She had a lot of deer hanging around her yard- near the woods, and a bunch of fruit trees in the yard. My other aunt discouraged deer by fencing in and roofing her garden with wire fence. Up to about 10 feet the deer can jump right over the fence. Hers was a clearing in the woods garden-right in town, but the property backed up to the creek. Deer highway.

Susan66 · April 15, 2016

I'm not sure even the sandwich type fence would keep squirrels out of the garden. We have so many oak and pine trees for them to eat seeds that they aren't a problem for the garden. They are bad on the bird feeders though. Easy pickins. They sure do plant a lot of oak trees, though. We're always digging oak trees out of the flower gardens and giving them to folks. Left a van parked in the yard for six months. When I went to start it up come spring, the entire engine compartment was packed with hickory nuts, walnuts, and pinecones. A squirrel stash equal to our freezer. I took about two bushels of nuts out of there.

Rosedude · April 22, 2016

There are three basic ways to eliminate vermin: (1) physical barriers, (2) predation, (3) habitat destruction. Each of these has costs and consequences.
If you put a metal screen between the squirrels and your tomatoes you can keep them out, but it will be harder to weed and prune your plants, it will be ugly, and it will cost you money and time. A screen that will keep squirrels out may not work to keep raccoons or deer out unless you make it stronger. If you get aphids or hornworms they will be harder to finger pick.
If you want to poison or kill the squirrels, or scare them into thinking you will kill them you are also going to have to spend time and money and deal with the consequences. Where I live, shooting them with guns of any sort (although personally satisfying) will result in armed police storming your house. Poison doesn’t always work and could kill your pets, Bambi, and Thumper too. Bringing in a predator animal like a dog, cat, hawk, owl, or falcon might work if your animal agent is on the job 24x7. If your dog or cat sleeps inside at night forget about it. Hawks and owls only hunt when they are awake and hungry. When you reduce the squirrel population from 50 to 5 the hawks may go to some else’s garden to hunt because they are opportunistic too. The hawk is only going to kill one or two squirrels a day so tomato season may be over before they eat them all. Meanwhile the remaining squirrels are breeding and training their kids to watch for hawks.
Habitat destruction is highly effective and can cause entire species to become extinct. For example, you could stop growing tomatoes and remove anything else squirrels like to eat. (No tomatoes and food)=(No squirrels). Or you can chop all the trees, telephone poles and other places squirrels live, or just go around and plug all the holes in the trees in your neighborhood and nail sheet metal around your tree trunks, telephone poles and walls so the squirrels can’t get their claws in to climb. Harsh and effective.
A combination of all three methods is probably best. If your neighborhood is infested with squirrels because your neighbors are feeding them and providing them places to live, then the steel curtain is your best bet. A dog that stays out at night might help. Trapping and poisoning can reduce the population to a level that results in acceptable losses to your tomatoes. If you keep an open area around your tomatoes any owls or hawks in your area will have an easier time spotting the prey.
I don't have a lot of squirrels now but I did at another house I lived at where I also kept dogs outside. The dogs were very effective keeping burglars and cats out of the yard but had no effect on the squirrels. One of my dogs could jump a six foot fence but couldn’t climb the 40 foot avocado tree where the squirrels were. They would nibble the avocados to test if they were ripe which totally destroyed their market value although they were still edible. The squirrels didn’t actually nest in that tree. They used the utility lines (phone, electric, cable) as elevated roadways to squirrel villages on neighbor properties. I was able to live with the situation because the avocado and citrus trees I had were heavy producers and there was enough fruit for everyone, including my dogs. One other problem with bigger dogs: they destroyed most vegetables in the areas they could access by trampling and digging holes. I planted my vegetables in beds outside the dog areas.

elight · April 22, 2016

For what it's worth, after a week of contemplation, I decided to do what I could reasonably do to try to salvage my plants, rather than give up and call it a season.

I started "marking my territory" every few nights, since I don't have any pets to do so. (Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I do this.)

I also put on a plastic water dish about 30' from my garden, and ran a dripper from my drip irrigation main line to keep it filled.

I ordered a squirrel feeder from Amazon, and installed it near the water dish on my fench, and filled it with peanuts. After about a week, all the peanuts were gone and I had to re-fill it, so I think that means it's working.

Some combination of these things has kept the squirrels away. Or perhaps they are only gone temporarily since after they ravaged my plants, there was nothing left to eat. But in the past week, the plants have completely re-loaded with fruit (thanks in part to the good weather), with no sign of animal damage.

Fingers crossed...

Rosedude · April 22, 2016

Call me skeptical. Squirrels have two litters a year. Right now you are probably between the first and second. The number of young depends on the amount of food available but can go up to 8 per litter, so twice a year you can add 400% to the population.

http://www.crittercontrol.com/servic...ife-cycle.html

I tried marking my territory a number of years ago. I didn't notice any effect but YMMV. That may only work on animals that are afraid of humans.

elight · May 5, 2016

Yeah, they came back. So much for that. The only thing left is an animal repellant I bought online and sprayed earlier tonight. I basically am back to not having any tomatoes on the vines except for cherries (and those get stolen as soon as they start to ripen). Hoping I can still salvage something this season.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

mashermike · May 6, 2016

Eight, what about a havahart trap and a squirrel relocation project? I have done this with a family of skunks that lived under my front porch.

At present I use my laser equipped pellet gun to fire very close warning shots. All I have to do is open my back door and they scatter. They are very nervous about being in the open places in my yard. The key from my perspective is to keep them in fear.

elight · May 6, 2016

Do you think it's likely that it's just one family that has settled down on my property? I always assumed that if I relocated them, there would be many others in the neighborhood waiting to take their place.

I live in a residential community with 1/5-acre lots - I don't think my neighbors would be fond of a pellet gun!

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

mashermike · May 6, 2016

Keep trapping until you can't catch anymore!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohenrdr7OQ4

tnc070911 · May 7, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worth1

The other day I had a big pretty cat in my yard and went across the street to see if it was theirs.
The woman answered the door and she came over to see if she could get her cat.
I have never met the woman but have talked to her husband many times but she always waves at me.

We got to talking about predators eating our pets and I told her that if she heard a gun go off at night here it was me killing a fox or coyote.

Her husband is an avid hunter and a Texan as well as she and she had no problem with it.

I keep a little 28 gauge with number 6 next to me all of the time outside at night.
No bullet is going to go into anyone's house and it is safe.

Worth

We live in the middle of the woods but I also keep a shotgun with me at all times outside around the house especially at night and especially for snakes.(mines just a short version I wear on my side

). Between the snakes and coyotes we don't go out at night without protection and a light. Don't have to worry about anyone hearing us shoot critters.

fonseca · May 7, 2016

Last year I lost the majority of my tomatoes to squirrels, it was incredibly frustrating. I am hesitant to use plastic netting again, because it doesn't seem to stop determined squirrels (I had lots get in and get stuck), and other animals get caught it in and die a slow death.

My plan for tomorrow is to buy 2x2s and chicken wire, and make giant cages to go over groups of tomatoes, stapling the wire to a wood frame. Does anyone have good results just wrapping individual caged plants with chicken wire? And if so, how do you keep the squirrels from digging underneath?

I'm not relishing the $100+ this will cost, but today I saw more than 15 different squirrels in my yard or on the fence at the same time. It's really quite ridiculous. I could get a depredation permit for free and buy some rat shot for my .22, but I have neighbors on both sides and I think they would have a problem with it.

Rosedude · May 7, 2016

I sympathize with everybody who has a pest problem. It's kind of a tragedy, because the animals just want to make a living the easiest way they know, same as everyone else. I've kept dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, geese and I know almost everyone one of them would eat me if I lay still and stopped feeding them and they couldn't find anything else more convenient. I only really trusted my pet canary (RIP) but I kept him in a steel cage.

I think something like a canary cage would stop the squirrels from getting in, especially if he floor of the cage is under your tomatoes. 2" mesh is too big. That stuff called "hardware cloth" with mesh around 1/2 inch or less will keep rats out, I know for sure.

elight · May 14, 2016

Well, I'm basically calling it a season with essentially of my fruit getting stolen by squirrels (and maybe mice). My last ditch effort was to spray a repellent I bought on Amazon, but it doesn't seem to have done much. There's still lots of cherry tomatoes on the vine, but they'll get taken before they change color. With 95 degree temps this weekend, the growing season is coming to a rapid end.

I'm considering options for the fall.

For my self-watering containers, I think I'll move them onto my screened-in pool deck. I'll plant only cherry tomato varieties in them. It will be tight, as there's not a lot of area that gets a ton of sun (small lot, close neighbors).

In my raised beds, I'll grow my larger varieties, prune them a bit (maybe 3 leaders each), which will help not only with the disease in Florida, but allow me to closely watch them and bag the fruit as they set. I have read that tulle works well for this purpose, but I know it's still going to be an experiment.

I continue to think about a trap-and-relocate project, but I feel like it will never end. And the thought of waking up every morning and driving a squirrel to work with me to release it doesn't seem realistic.

Cole_Robbie · May 14, 2016

Sorry to hear about the squirrels. It sounds like you need to build some sort of enclosure around the raised beds to keep them out.

April 15, 2016	#62
Susan66 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Western NY Posts: 133	We have squirrels and chipmunks- neither cause problems, but have to fence the deer and woodchucks out of the garden. Baby rabbits cause a bit of a problem when we first put plants out in the spring. The garden is out near the road- you'd think that would discourage the deer. My aunt used to have a terrible time with deer eating everything in her garden, till my dad put up a sandwich fence around her gardens. Two layers of wire fence with plastic sandwiched between the two. Deer don't like plastic. He'd leave about a foot of plastic sticking out top and bottom on the fence. Around the bottom would discourage the rabbits and woodchucks, and the noise from the plastic blowing in the wind would discourage the deer. About a 5 foot high fence. Expensive, but worth it. She had a lot of deer hanging around her yard- near the woods, and a bunch of fruit trees in the yard. My other aunt discouraged deer by fencing in and roofing her garden with wire fence. Up to about 10 feet the deer can jump right over the fence. Hers was a clearing in the woods garden-right in town, but the property backed up to the creek. Deer highway.

April 22, 2016	#64
Rosedude Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: California Posts: 124	There are three basic ways to eliminate vermin: (1) physical barriers, (2) predation, (3) habitat destruction. Each of these has costs and consequences. If you put a metal screen between the squirrels and your tomatoes you can keep them out, but it will be harder to weed and prune your plants, it will be ugly, and it will cost you money and time. A screen that will keep squirrels out may not work to keep raccoons or deer out unless you make it stronger. If you get aphids or hornworms they will be harder to finger pick. If you want to poison or kill the squirrels, or scare them into thinking you will kill them you are also going to have to spend time and money and deal with the consequences. Where I live, shooting them with guns of any sort (although personally satisfying) will result in armed police storming your house. Poison doesn’t always work and could kill your pets, Bambi, and Thumper too. Bringing in a predator animal like a dog, cat, hawk, owl, or falcon might work if your animal agent is on the job 24x7. If your dog or cat sleeps inside at night forget about it. Hawks and owls only hunt when they are awake and hungry. When you reduce the squirrel population from 50 to 5 the hawks may go to some else’s garden to hunt because they are opportunistic too. The hawk is only going to kill one or two squirrels a day so tomato season may be over before they eat them all. Meanwhile the remaining squirrels are breeding and training their kids to watch for hawks. Habitat destruction is highly effective and can cause entire species to become extinct. For example, you could stop growing tomatoes and remove anything else squirrels like to eat. (No tomatoes and food)=(No squirrels). Or you can chop all the trees, telephone poles and other places squirrels live, or just go around and plug all the holes in the trees in your neighborhood and nail sheet metal around your tree trunks, telephone poles and walls so the squirrels can’t get their claws in to climb. Harsh and effective. A combination of all three methods is probably best. If your neighborhood is infested with squirrels because your neighbors are feeding them and providing them places to live, then the steel curtain is your best bet. A dog that stays out at night might help. Trapping and poisoning can reduce the population to a level that results in acceptable losses to your tomatoes. If you keep an open area around your tomatoes any owls or hawks in your area will have an easier time spotting the prey. I don't have a lot of squirrels now but I did at another house I lived at where I also kept dogs outside. The dogs were very effective keeping burglars and cats out of the yard but had no effect on the squirrels. One of my dogs could jump a six foot fence but couldn’t climb the 40 foot avocado tree where the squirrels were. They would nibble the avocados to test if they were ripe which totally destroyed their market value although they were still edible. The squirrels didn’t actually nest in that tree. They used the utility lines (phone, electric, cable) as elevated roadways to squirrel villages on neighbor properties. I was able to live with the situation because the avocado and citrus trees I had were heavy producers and there was enough fruit for everyone, including my dogs. One other problem with bigger dogs: they destroyed most vegetables in the areas they could access by trampling and digging holes. I planted my vegetables in beds outside the dog areas.

April 22, 2016	#65
elight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Allentown, PA Posts: 349	For what it's worth, after a week of contemplation, I decided to do what I could reasonably do to try to salvage my plants, rather than give up and call it a season. I started "marking my territory" every few nights, since I don't have any pets to do so. (Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I do this.) I also put on a plastic water dish about 30' from my garden, and ran a dripper from my drip irrigation main line to keep it filled. I ordered a squirrel feeder from Amazon, and installed it near the water dish on my fench, and filled it with peanuts. After about a week, all the peanuts were gone and I had to re-fill it, so I think that means it's working. Some combination of these things has kept the squirrels away. Or perhaps they are only gone temporarily since after they ravaged my plants, there was nothing left to eat. But in the past week, the plants have completely re-loaded with fruit (thanks in part to the good weather), with no sign of animal damage. Fingers crossed...

May 5, 2016	#67
elight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Allentown, PA Posts: 349	Yeah, they came back. So much for that. The only thing left is an animal repellant I bought online and sprayed earlier tonight. I basically am back to not having any tomatoes on the vines except for cherries (and those get stolen as soon as they start to ripen). Hoping I can still salvage something this season. Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

May 6, 2016	#68
mashermike Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: GA Posts: 55	Eight, what about a havahart trap and a squirrel relocation project? I have done this with a family of skunks that lived under my front porch. At present I use my laser equipped pellet gun to fire very close warning shots. All I have to do is open my back door and they scatter. They are very nervous about being in the open places in my yard. The key from my perspective is to keep them in fear.

May 7, 2016	#72
fonseca Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 205	Last year I lost the majority of my tomatoes to squirrels, it was incredibly frustrating. I am hesitant to use plastic netting again, because it doesn't seem to stop determined squirrels (I had lots get in and get stuck), and other animals get caught it in and die a slow death. My plan for tomorrow is to buy 2x2s and chicken wire, and make giant cages to go over groups of tomatoes, stapling the wire to a wood frame. Does anyone have good results just wrapping individual caged plants with chicken wire? And if so, how do you keep the squirrels from digging underneath? I'm not relishing the $100+ this will cost, but today I saw more than 15 different squirrels in my yard or on the fence at the same time. It's really quite ridiculous. I could get a depredation permit for free and buy some rat shot for my .22, but I have neighbors on both sides and I think they would have a problem with it.

May 14, 2016	#74
elight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Allentown, PA Posts: 349	Well, I'm basically calling it a season with essentially of my fruit getting stolen by squirrels (and maybe mice). My last ditch effort was to spray a repellent I bought on Amazon, but it doesn't seem to have done much. There's still lots of cherry tomatoes on the vine, but they'll get taken before they change color. With 95 degree temps this weekend, the growing season is coming to a rapid end. I'm considering options for the fall. For my self-watering containers, I think I'll move them onto my screened-in pool deck. I'll plant only cherry tomato varieties in them. It will be tight, as there's not a lot of area that gets a ton of sun (small lot, close neighbors). In my raised beds, I'll grow my larger varieties, prune them a bit (maybe 3 leaders each), which will help not only with the disease in Florida, but allow me to closely watch them and bag the fruit as they set. I have read that tulle works well for this purpose, but I know it's still going to be an experiment. I continue to think about a trap-and-relocate project, but I feel like it will never end. And the thought of waking up every morning and driving a squirrel to work with me to release it doesn't seem realistic.

May 14, 2016	#75
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	Sorry to hear about the squirrels. It sounds like you need to build some sort of enclosure around the raised beds to keep them out.