Squirrels Making You Squirrelly?

Some of us live in an area that is overrun with squirrels. As cute as they are they can drive us a little crazy especially when our plants are small and we are trying to protect them. Sometimes we can find ourselves running into the yard, arms flailing, screaming at an unsuspecting small black ball of fluff to "Get OUT!". I may, or may not have done this myself...recently...maybe...

Although squirrels are not usually after our plants, they can cause quite a bit of damage. Especially when our plants are seedlings.

Here you can see one of my beautiful squash seedlings has come up and the other also came up and was promptly dug out and left to die by a rodent with too much time on it's hands.

As much as I would like to wonder about how cozy a squirrel coat would be in the winter, there are a few things I need to remind myself of:

One - Squirrels have very small brains. Their main delight is to dig. They are not after my plants, they are not trying to make me upset, but if they could dig all day in freshly disturbed dirt then they have found heaven. Most likely they think the disturbed dirt means some other squirrel has recently hidden something tasty and they would like to dig it up and steal it for themselves.

Two - I can easily protect my baby plants by covering them with a bit of wire, mesh, or something that can be laid over the plants so the squirrels don't take interest in the dirt thus digging up my favorite squash.

Three - In a few weeks time, my plants will be large enough and their roots deep enough that a squirrel digging won't harm them and the eyesore of a mesh can be safely removed.

Looking online I also see that squirrels do not like cayenne. I can not confirm this as I haven't yet tried sprinkling my garden with cayenne. I can tell you it doesn't deter deer...at least not my deer...but that's for a different post.