How to keep squirrels away naturally

Spicy Odors

White pepper and cayenne smells frequently discourage squirrels, for example. If you sprinkle your plants with flakes of cayenne pepper, it might keep unwelcome pests out of your garden. Squirrels also dislike garlic and black pepper smells. Raccoons share this aversion to the smell of pepper.

Squirrels have a strong sense of smell, which they use food sources and shelter. You can repel squirrels using scents they hate such as, capsaicin, white vinegar, peppermint oil, coffee grounds, cinnamon, predator urine, garlic, dryer sheets, Irish Spring Soap, and rosemary.

You can sprinkle cayenne pepper, hot pepper, or hot sauce in the areas you want to keep them away from. Once squirrels get a taste of it or even a faint whiff, they’ll turn away. Pepper spray, like the ones sold for protection, will also repel squirrels if you spray it around the areas you want them to avoid.

Squirrels dislike vinegar and it can be used to repel them. The most effective vinegar for deterring squirrels is apple cider vinegar. You can make an easy vinegar spray to spray on your plants and protect them from squirrels. … Some other smells that work to deter squirrels include coffee, garlic and pepper.

To summarise, no, squirrels do not like cinnamon and yes, it can be used to deter them. You can either sprinkle ground cinnamon on your soil or make a cinnamon spray using diluted essential oils. Cinnamon is also said to deter chipmunks, ants and mosquitoes.

Bracikowski said the dryer sheets works for squirrels and mice as well. In his summer home, he’s going to place sheets by vents and doors to discourage the rodents.

Coffee grounds have a strong smell that is thought to keep many pests away. And with squirrels having the sensitive noses that they do, can it be used to repel them? Yes, coffee grounds do keep squirrels away in the majority of cases.

Some of the old-fashioned standards include naphthalene (moth balls), ammonia, bleach, and even human hair. The idea behind these repellents is that they simply create an unpleasant odor that squirrels don’t like, which encourages them to leave.

A layer of aluminum foil is all the squirrel repellent you need on potted plants. For whatever reason, they don’t like the stuff. As a backyard gardener, I had a problem this spring with varmints digging up my potted tomatoes and sweet peppers.

Coffee Grounds

While you might find the scent of coffee delicious, squirrels don’t. … Just sprinkle some fresh grounds on the soil surrounding the plants to keep squirrels away. Every two weeks, add a new layer of grounds. You may need to refresh the grounds more often if it has rained a lot.

Keep Squirrels Out of Your Garden

They chomp on flower bulbs and other leaves, dig up your favorite plants, and otherwise love to wreck your garden. Protect it by grating some Irish Spring soap around your plants. Squirrels can’t stand the smell of it and will stay away.

To keep squirrels from plants or beds, install a cage or cover. Hardware cloth, plastic bird netting, chicken wire, and summer weight row covers all provide effective protection.

Use a Slinky to prevent squirrels from climbing the pole

A Slinky is another quick and inexpensive solution to stopping the squirrel menace. All it requires is attaching the Slinky to the top of the bird feeder pole and letting it hang down to the ground.

There are some bulbs and plants that squirrels really avoid due to their taste and smell. Planting this type of bulb near your vegetable garden can do a good job of keeping the squirrels away. A few ideas for squirrel repelling bulbs are daffodils, hyacinths, allium, lily of the valley, peppermint and geranium.

Squirrels love to help themselves to bird seed, ripe fruit, and flowers as well as dig holes in your landscape. … Squirrels also like to dig holes in garden soil and planting pots, either to look for seeds or to bury food for later use.

Anti-bird spikes also work well at discouraging squirrels. Put spikes on the poles that support power lines or other cables going to your home. They also have a good track record when used along the top of fences where squirrels like to run back-and-forth and gain access to your home.

Squirrels and raccoons are excellent climbers and easily scale a pole or shepherds hook to reach a feeder. If your feeder(s) is hung from a pole or shepherds hooks we recommend using pole baffles.

A squirrel tries to eat birdseed on an Eliminator, a squirrel-proof bird feeder that closes the seed ports based on weight of the intruder. Another way to ward off the rodents is simple: petroleum jelly rubbed on a pole. Still another, tongue in cheek: Build a moat.