OT - I went out to check my tomato plants which are planted in containerss. I found pieces of stems and leaves all over the ground. The main stalk has been broken off. Does this sound like squirrels? There aren't any actual tomatoes yet, just formerly healthy plants with blooms.

Any idea how to stop this? The plants won't survive another attack.

Gayla
Jackson, Mississippi
Canon XSi and S3 IS
Zone 7b; Heat Zone 9 (Ugh)

Well I have the same problem with my containers. The squirrels just love digging and rolling around in them. It seems they favor the containers with fewer plants almost like they are attracted to the dirt. Next year I will pack more plants in I guess. They also do damage in my raised bed which is kind of like a big container and that's where my tomatoes are. Some of them got broken but are recovering. I only lost the littlest one so I guess I'm lucky. I wish I knew more to do but the squirrels are really pests!
Joann

Sorry, Gayla, I can give any help but you've provided a good platform to vent about the little blighters [euphemism]. Just yesterday, one plucked nearly all the flowers off the Fuchsia!

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9

Gayla, Are your containers big enough for a tomato cage? If not, maybe you could craft one. Pennys pretty crafty, maybe she has some ideas.

birdlegs
zone 5
S.E. Lower MI.

That does not bode well for my neighbor. Saturday she planted tomatoes and I think other stuff in big pots and lined them up at the back of her yard next to the woods. This place is crawling with squirrels! I was curious as to why she planted in containers because she has lot of ground. I believe the vacant lot on the other side of her belongs to her too.

Linda
ne AL
zone 7b

Hmmm, I often have dead & dried trimmings off rose bushes & sometimes the nasty blackberries that proliferate in my area. They tend to accumulate until I have a pickup load I can haul away. If I were plagued this way by squirrels, I would stick a lot of these stems into the pot, forming a natural defense barrier against them.

Now, about my neighbor's cat that uses my freshly planted flower beds for its litter box..... I haven't managed to put the fear of the wild banshee in him yet! Gotta get my collection of pots & pans together (for banging together noisily) and lay low to launch a scare mission against him.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Patrick, If you figure out how to keep cats out of your flower beds please let me know.

Linda
ne AL
zone 7b

Every spring I quietly suggest to my neighbors that they stop feeding the birds until fall. Even the local sparrows move to an insect diet during the breeding season so they won't be starving them and our side of the road isn't good squirrel habitat without the feeders.

Linda...hide in the bushes and jump out, charging at the cats and yelling & hollering at them?! Timed just right...about the time they're starting to squat over the spot they've just prepared...might upset & scare them mightily. It's amazing how fast a cat can scale my chain link fence when I'm in hot pursuit. I belive I can convince them I have a "wee bit of the divil in me".



Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

OOOH OOOH OOOH! I have an idea well it isn't entirely my idea I just enhanced it a bit. You get a piece of vinyl flooring or even using the non stick vinyl floor tiles for pots that are 12 inches or smaller. Cut the vinyl to fit the top of the pot. cut out a circle in the center to fit around the plant and cut through the center to the outer edtch so you can easily slip it around the plant. Poke a few holes around the vinyl ring for water to get through and no more critter digging in your pots.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Good idea Penny. It will also help to keep those chipmonks out of the pots. They are always digging into mine, to do what, I don't know.

birdlegs
zone 5
S.E. Lower MI.

Okay, so it is a tedious idea, but my solution to keep my cat out of newly planted pots and newly planted areas of my flower beds is to stick plastic forks, tines side up, all around to make it annoying for him. Of course I do have to deal with people coming to my house asking me questioningly "ummmm......forks?" Yeah, I know, it would do no good for a large area. Patrick, when my husband has done battle with a cat before it was with a squirt gun filled with ammonia water.
dell

Dell, I've been known to grab a handful of pea gravel and shower down all around a cat. The objective is not to hurt the cat...just scare the dickens out of it. Of course, I still combine that with running, arm-waving & yelling. It's effective for the moment...just don't know how good it is at disuading a determined cat.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

OT, but Sandy mentioned chipmunks...

I found a GREAT deterrant: mole repellent. Choose the kind that uses castor bean as it's main ingredient. It says to wet it, but I don't. (That causes a gas to form, and I don't want to hurt them.) Rain just renders it inert, so no worries there. It just works. I haven't had a mole, vole, chipmunk or anything tunneling since I poured it areound the perimeter of my garden.

They just moved. Now they've tunneled all around the big oak [behind my garden] I put the wild bird seed under, and they're competing with the cardinals for the sunflower seeds, lol.

Maryjane
W Ga
Zone 8a