How To Keep Squirrels Away from Your House, Garden, Bird Feeder

In short, it is very easy to keep squirrels away from getting into a house, or attic, but it is very difficult to keep squirrels away from a garden, tree, flowers, birdfeeder, or any other outdoor area. For outdoor squirrels, if you absolutely must keep them away, I recommend an aggressive program of setting several live cage traps, and trapping and relocating many of them quickly. That works very well.

NOTE: I have received so many requests for professional help with squirrels, that I have made this complete listing of hundreds of professional squirrel removal experts serving every city in the USA.

How to Keep Squirrels Away From Your Garden: Unfortunately, this is very difficult, unless you completely screen off and enclose the garden in steel fencing, or have an indoor greenhouse. Other than that, you can try an aggressive dog in the area. You can also sprinkle coffee grounds all around the plant - some say that works, but I'm not sure. I have heard other people say that cayenne pepper powder works the best! Once a week dust the plant with the pepper powder, and dust the ground around the plant. If it rains wait until the plant is dry, then dust them again. Some people think that squirrels gnaw on certain types of fruit or vegetables like tomatoes or pumpkins because they are thirsty, and they suggest putting out a bird bath so that they have an alternative to drink from. But I'm skeptical of that, and generally think that improving the resources in an area will only encourage more total squirrels. As a nuisance wildlife operator, my general approach is to set a whole bunch of cage traps and trap and relocate many of them quickly. I can easily set ten traps on a property and walk off with six or seven squirrels the next day, and relocate them ten miles away, and that really seems to drastically cut down on problems like this. Read my squirrel trapping tips for more info.

How to Keep Squirrels Away From Your House: Although you can't really prevent them from crawling on your house (unless you install shock track on the entire building), you can completely prevent a squirrel from getting inside your home. This is fortunate. It's easy to keep a squirrel from getting inside the house - you just need to make sure that there are no openings leading inside the house, anywhere. Do a full inspection of the house, from top to bottom. Look for any openings that lead into the architecture. Pay particularly close attention to vents: roof vents, the dryer vent, ridge cap vents, and gable vents - these vents are often screened with a flimsy screen that has holes in it. Look for areas where roof lines meet, and eaves touch against roof. Any wildlife professionals that I have listed here on this site are experts at keeping squirrels from getting inside a house or building.



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How To Keep Squirrels Away From Wood: If you've got chewing on the wood of your house, that's a problem.  Squirrels are rodents, whose teeth grow continuously, and they have to gnaw to wear their teeth down. They chew all the time, on many surfaces, including wood, and they chew on wood in order to get inside a hole in a tree, or more often, a hole in a roof of a house, to get inside the house. How do you stop them from chewing? You can sprinkle, or better yet, use a paintbrush, to spread super hot sauce on the wood. I mean, the hottest you can find, like Ghost Chili Pepper sauce. Squirrels don't want to chew that. Cayenne Pepper Powder doesn't work as well as a spray, because it won't stick. You can also try mace, or a product called Ropel. The problem with these products is that they wash off, and it's also a pain in the butt to apply them all over all the wood on your house. But if a squirrel is chewing one specific area, go ahead and use hot sauce.

How to Keep Squirrels Away From Your Bird Feeder: Ah, an age-old problem. Squirrels are masters at stealing seeds from birdfeeders. Luckily, many people have worked on this problem for a long time, and the squirrel baffles, as they are called, work pretty well. Just go online and buy one. But I must say, at times mother nature prevails, and these amazing adaptable, agile creatures somehow find a way around baffles and to the seed.

More articles by me - How to catch a squirrel - Squirrels in the chimney - Photos of squirrel damage - Squirrel relocation - Squirrel removal tactics - Squirrel repellent analysis - Squirrel trapping guide - Squirrels in the wall - Electrical problems from squirrels - Squirrels inside the house - How to keep squirrels out of my bird feeder

How to Keep Squirrels Away From Fruit on Trees: Again, I don't see any solution here. I guess you could spray the fruit with hot sauce, but then that ruins the fruit for you. There's just no way to keep squirrels away from trees, that's their natural habitat, and they are master climbers and jumpers, of course. Again, I think that a good program of aggressive squirrel trapping and relocation is your best bet here.

Can't I Just Use a Repellent to Keep Away Squirrels?: I wish there was a good product to effectively keep away these animals, at least from inside homes. Many such products are in fact marketed and sold, but they are absolutely useless. Most are just mothballs or predator urine, and squirrels absolutely don't care about these repellents. Mothballs poison the environment and can cause you cancer, by the way. Those high pitched ultrasonic electronic noise machines are totally bogus, and the FTC has issued a fraud warning about these crappy, worthless machines.



How to Keep Squirrels Away From Your Attic: That's what this website is all about. If you already have squirrels in your attic, go to the home page and read it, or hire one of my wildlife control professionals in your city. But to prevent it from happening, as stated above, you must find and seal shut all open holes leading into the building, and you must use steel, like flashing or steel screen, to do it, so that they can't chew their way in.  That's the most important principle there is when it comes to keeping squirrels away from the house.

How to keep squirrels away from tomatoes - keep the tomatoes fenced in, or get a dog to roam the garden, or sprinkle coffee grounds around the tomatoes. Cayenne pepper powder, sprinkled on the plants, may also help, and that applies to the below plants as well.
How to keep squirrels away from pumpkins - keep the pumpkins fenced in, or get a dog to roam the pumpkin patch, or sprinkle coffee grounds around the pumpkins, or the cayenne pepper powder.
How to keep squirrels away from sunflowers - keep the sunflowers fenced in, or get a dog to roam the area.
How to keep squirrels away from apple trees - no cure. I think trapping and removal is the only effective approach.
How to keep away squirrels from bird seed - See above, in the bird feeder section - there actually are effective squirrel-proof birdseed containers.
How to keep squirrels away from corn - keep the corn fenced in, or get a dog to roam the corn field. Put up a scaresquirrel, which is basically a scarecrow, but with more squirrel-relevant features.
How to keep squirrels away from flowers - keep the flowers fenced in, or spray Ropel on the flowers, or sprinkle coffee grounds around the flower beds.

The bottom line is that you can keep them away from the house, attic, soffits, eaves, or chimney, and that's the most important thing. Other than that, it's hard. You can keep them away from your birdfeeder if you have a good enough baffle, but if they're eating your crops in your garden, flowers, tree bark, or chewing on wood, that's a tough situation. There is no easy and effective repellent or sound/light/electric device to keep them away. You can read some of my below articles for more information, or give me an email, or call a wildlife pro in your hometown by clicking here, and they can do a full squirrel-proofing preventative work on your house.

Squirrel Situation from Reader: Dear David, Our squirrel problem is this: We live in a mobil home park and cannot use any kind of fire arms to kill squirrels. They are getting under our house and taking our insulation. We are finding it all over the yard. They are also chewing up our american flag, our hammock, destroying our mulch beds, flower gardens. We have used decon, antifreeze. We cannot afford to hire anyone to trap them. What do you suggest? We are open to ANY kind of solutions. Would alka selzer wrapped up in peanut butter work? Hope to hear from you soon. Oh by the way, our squirels are the gray ones and ground squirrels. Sincerelly Ron

My response: Ron - Please don't attempt to poison the squirrels! The best way to keep away squirrels is to trap them in live cage traps and relocate them. Otherwise, as far as them getting under the house, it's easy to just install an exclusion barrier around the perimeter of the mobile home - just buy quarter inch steel mesh from Home Depot or another supply store, and screw it in around your house, into the ground, and then no squirrels will be able to get under. Permanent solutions like that are better than trying to constantly battle the never-ending stream of squirrels in your area. - Sincerely, David Seeveld

Tips On How To Keep Squirrels Away - Finding out how to keep squirrels away means finding out how not to make squirrels feel at home. You should know what it is that is attracting the squirrels to your home. In most cases, that means that the squirrel is finding food in your property as well as some type of shelter. Since that is the case the first step is to take those two things away. It may be difficult if you do not know what the food is and where to find the shelter, but with a little thinking you will be able to find those two sources. Check your attic and basement for shelter and change your garbage removal habits. Another thing that can do wonders when answering how to keep squirrel away, is to keep brush and tree limbs away from your home. This can help keep them from getting to your room or in your cellar. Often trimming the branches and removing a tree can be the quickest way to getting rid of these tree rats. Repellents are really not a great option, because in most cases they do not really work, or you have to spend a lot of time and money making sure that the repellent is fresh and who has time for that; especially when your pooch can do the job for free.

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