© 2025. The Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright Complaints
1229 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
News, Arts and Culture from WFIU Public Radio and WTIU Public Television
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Some web content from Indiana Public Media is unavailable during our transition to a new web publishing platform. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Squirrels

Squirrels are such fun to watch and quite admirable in the way that they go about organizing the gathering of acorns each fall so that they are well equipped for winter weather.

However, they are such good climbers that those fences we use to deter the rabbits and groundhogs don’t usually work to stop them. Fortunately, there are a few commercial products that can be used to deter them.

To keep them away from your bird feeder, spray the seed with cooking oil, such as PAM, and then sprinkle the seed with cayenne pepper. The birds won’t mind, as they do not have taste buds.

Also, provide water in your garden so that the squirrels have lots to drink, as it seems to deter them from eating plants for moisture.

Some gardeners put gravel, stones, and even old CDs on the surface of their pots of flowers to deter squirrels from digging in the soil in them.

I have also heard that to deter squirrels climbing, one should use chicken wire fencing. Leave a foot of floppy rolled wire at the top so that when a squirrel climbs the fence, the whole fence falls back and this stops the animals from getting over it.

Squirrels are such fun to watch and quite admirable in the way that they go about organizing the gathering of acorns each fall so that they are well equipped for winter weather.

However, they are such good climbers that those fences we use to deter the rabbits and groundhogs don’t usually work to stop them. Fortunately, there are a few commercial products that can be used to deter them.

To keep them away from your bird feeder, spray the seed with cooking oil, such as PAM, and then sprinkle the seed with cayenne pepper. The birds won’t mind, as they do not have taste buds.

Also, provide water in your garden so that the squirrels have lots to drink, as it seems to deter them from eating plants for moisture.

Some gardeners put gravel, stones, and even old CDs on the surface of their pots of flowers to deter squirrels from digging in the soil in them.

I have also heard that to deter squirrels climbing, one should use chicken wire fencing. Leave a foot of floppy rolled wire at the top so that when a squirrel climbs the fence, the whole fence falls back and this stops the animals from getting over it.

This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on squirrels.

Stay Connected