Squirrel Control: Identify, Deter, and Protect Your Garden

Squirrels may be entertaining, but their appetite for bulbs, fruits, and vegetables makes them a gardener’s nightmare. Here’s how to identify gray squirrels and keep them out of your beds and bird feeders.

Why Squirrels Are a Problem

From Maine to Montana, gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) yank geraniums from window boxes, pluck cherry tomatoes, and strip apple trees. They’re especially active in autumn, hoarding food for winter. They don’t hibernate (though they may “lie low” in cold spells), relying on scattered buried caches. Their diet includes acorns, pinecones, nuts, bark, fruit, berries, fungi, insects, and occasionally bird eggs and bulbs. Sometimes they destroy flowers just for fun.

Identifying Gray Squirrels

Average weight: 16–24 ounces. Color ranges from gray, tan, light brown to dark brown and black; belly is white to gray. Body length 8–11 inches, tail 8–10 inches. Vocalizations: rapid “CRRK CRRK” or “QUACK QUACK” like a duck. Their bushy tail provides warmth, communication, and balance.

Squirrels have an acute sense of smell, which gardeners blame for bulb pilfering. Whether they actively seek spring bulbs or stumble upon them, the problem is real and widespread.

Squirrel Damage Signs

• Spring bulbs dug up and eaten in autumn—both for food and to use the holes for nut storage.
• Rapidly disappearing birdseed.

Control and Prevention

Getting Rid of Squirrels

• Citrus rinds: Freeze orange/lemon rinds over winter; bury just under soil surface in spring.
• Human or dog hair: Scatter around garden. One reader collects hair from their hairdresser twice a year and lightly digs it in; squirrels hate human scent.
• Blood meal: Sprinkle around the garden.
• Coffee grounds: Sprinkle on soil to deter tunneling.
• Avoid trapping/relocating: Squirrel populations are too high; relocation often separates mothers from dependent young.

Preventing Squirrel Damage

• Clean up bulb debris: Don’t leave papery bulb skins on soil; they attract squirrels.
• Protect bird feeders: Place 5–6 feet off ground, 8–10 feet from trees/structures. Use baffles (add before squirrels discover the feeder). Pulley systems help.
• Garlic and spices: Plant garlic cloves near bulbs; sprinkle garlic powder or cayenne pepper on soil at bloom time.
• Firm soil: Pack soil down after planting; loose soil invites digging.
• Wire barriers for bulbs: Line planting beds with 1-inch chicken wire, place more wire over bulbs. Plants grow through; squirrels can’t reach bulbs. Choose squirrel-resistant bulbs: daffodils, ornamental onions (Allium), snowdrops (Galanthus), grape hyacinths (Muscari).
• Avoid tulips and crocuses if squirrels are prevalent—they’re favorites.

Reader-Suggested Tactics

• Motion-activated sprinkler: Designed for cats/rabbits, may scare squirrels in small yards. Risk of overwatering/high bills if triggered frequently by squirrels, strays, or children.
• Mousetraps as scare devices: Anchor traps solidly, cover with newspaper and a little dirt. When a squirrel digs, the trap snaps, throwing dirt and scaring it. Repeat scaring drives them elsewhere. Ensure traps are anchored so wind doesn’t dislodge newspaper; anchored traps won’t hurt squirrels.

Share your squirrel tips below!