Squirrels look totally adorable with their black button eyes and bushy tails, but they soon lose their cuteness when they strip every last walnut from your tree. They’ll invade your bird table, trash your veg patch and nest in your shed, or even the roof of your home. Basically, they can be a real nuisance! So let’s discover how to keep squirrels out of your walnut tree and everywhere else.
What You'll Learn Today
How Do I Keep Squirrels From Eating My Nuts?
Many people believe that all squirrels hibernate, but this is actually not true. The ones which are the most bothersome don’t, although they do become more dormant over the winter period, relying on the stores they have gathered and hidden in their winter warehouses during the summer and autumn months.
In North America, there are a variety of squirrel species, but it is the gray squirrel or tree squirrel that causes the most problems. Not only do they steal your precious walnuts, but they’ll also strip any other nut tree in your yard and ransack your flowering bulbs and vegetable patch too.
This chaos usually occurs when they are at their most active in summer and fall when they’re busy filling up their winter stores. So how can you stop them from eating your nuts?
For starters, you have to realize that you’re not dealing with just any small critter. Squirrels are smart, real smart!
Excellent Memories – They have incredible memories and can recall exactly where they stashed their buried food sources, how to get to the best food sources, and how to find their way back to their nests. That’s why keeping squirrels from eating your nuts can be quite challenging.
Bird tables have been tested to see how they stand up to invasion by squirrels, and it seems these incredible animals can figure out just about any countermeasure put in place to deter them – like I said, smart!
Incredible Agility – They’re also super agile and would put a cat burglar to shame. Like rats, they find ingenious ways to reach food sources and have to be seen to be believed.
Use Multiple Lines Of Defense
This is why using just one method to keep them off your nuts won’t be enough. You’re going to need to employ multiple tactics if you want to defend against or eradicate them completely.
There are various methods you can use, from making your yard less attractive to them to using scare tactics that deter them.
Remember that squirrels aren’t just excellent climbers; they’re amazing jumpers too and can leap at least eight feet from a branch or a building to reach their goal.
Clean And Clear
Phase one should start with a clean-up operation. You want to remove anything that will attract squirrels into your yard. Food sources such as bird feeders, and access to nest sites such as holes that give entry into a shed or the roof of your home.
Barricade And Block
Squirrels can be prevented from accessing your house by using an inch square chicken wire to block any access points. This is also useful to block entryways beneath decks too.
Removing access to the roof of your home can also be achieved by cutting back tree branches that are closer than eight feet away. Pruning trees that are neighboring your walnut tree will also help stop squirrels from jumping from branch to branch.
Remove Access
Vegetation such as vines that are growing up the wall of your house also creates easy access for squirrels. You can maintain them by cutting them back and ensuring they don’t cover the final six feet of the wall before the roof.
Remove Rubbish
Get rid of all your piles of “stuff” that may be lying around, and get everything clean and tidy.
Secure Your Garbage
Make sure your garbage cans are squirrel-proof by using ones with tightly fitting lids that won’t blow off in the wind. It’s worth noting that rubbish attracts other unwanted pests too, such as raccoons, chipmunks, and rats.
Collect Your Ripe Nuts And Berries
Another readily available food source in late summer and fall is nuts and berries that are falling from your trees. These will quickly lure squirrels to your yard as they have an excellent sense of smell. Rake them up and remove them daily to prevent invasion.
Once phase one is complete, you’ll be ready to move on to phase two, which involves employing multiple ways of dealing with any pesky squirrels who may dare to enter your yard. Read on to learn more.
In this video, one gardener takes a hilarious look at the multiple ways he has tried to keep squirrels out of his yard, with varying degrees of success.
What Can I Put On A Tree To Keep The Squirrels Off?
Squirrels will get to the nuts in your walnut tree one of two ways, either by climbing up the trunk from the ground or by leaping from another convenient tree building or other structure such as a child’s swing that is standing close by.
Metal Band
To stop them from climbing the trunk, place a smooth metal band around the tree six to eight feet up. The band needs to go all the way around the trunk and be long enough so that the squirrel can’t simply reach over it.
Start by measuring the circumference of your tree at the location where you want to place the band. Cut a piece of metal, such as aluminum sheeting, which is easy to bend to the right shape.
Secure the metal band by drilling a hole in each of the four corners, then use wire to secure it to the tree by pulling the wire through the holes and tying it off firmly. This will avoid the need to drill holes into your tree and damage it.
Remember, squirrels can jump, so ensure the band is a minimum of six feet from the ground.
Anti Squirrel Tree Collar
You can also buy plastic anti-squirrel collars for trees that have a cone shape at the top. This prevents the squirrel from being able to climb up and go past the collar. These can be found at retailers online.
You can also put things on your tree to scare squirrels away, but remember what I said about them being super smart!
Dazzle Em!
Hang old CDs or brightly colored wind spinners from the branches. These catch the light and flash in the sun as the breeze moves through the tree scaring the squirrel.
Even old Christmas decorations can be effective, but beware! All of these will only work for a short time. Once they become familiar with them, you’ll need to try something else.
Decoys
Rubber toy snakes can be used to scare squirrels away by placing them in branches. You’ll need to move the snakes around every few days, however, or the squirrels will get wise to them not being real.
You can also try spraying the tree with a squirrel repellent, both store-bought and homemade. We will look at these in more detail later in the article.
How To Keep Squirrels Away Naturally?
Another option for deterring these adorable, but also annoying fury creatures is to install a motion-activated sprinkler.
This needs to be placed as close as possible to where the squirrels are causing problems.
- Automatic Water Sprinklers – These work by detecting the movement of the squirrels, or anything else, when it comes into range of the sensors. This triggers a water jet to be sprayed which frightens them off.
- Smelly Deterrents – Other ways to repel them include filling socks with ammonia-soaked rags from the limbs of your trees. Fill the sock and soak the entire thing in ammonia until it becomes saturated. Tie the top with some twine or a piece of string and hang it from the tree. These won’t last long and will need to be replaced regularly throughout the season.
- Protected By Law – It’s important to remember that in many places squirrels are classed as a game species. This often means they are protected by law so you cannot trap or kill them.
Even if you did decide to trap them, chances are as soon as you get rid of one, others will soon move into their territory.
What Is The Best Way To Repel Squirrels?
Squirrels will be repelled by frequent activity and movement and by predator animals.
- Activity and Pets – This is where your pet dog or cat comes into play. Even letting the kids play out in the yard will do the trick. As both cats and dogs will often chase things that move, they will probably also be inclined to go after any squirrel that decides to venture into the yard. The chances are they won’t actually catch it however as they are pretty darn fast!
- Scents – If getting a dog or a cat isn’t possible, then you can also try using products that have the scent of predatory animals. These can often be found at garden stores or online. The theory here is that the squirrels will smell the other creature and be warded off.
- Artificial Predators – Another thing you can try is using decoy predator animals. As I mentioned previously, toy snakes can work, but you can also try a realistic-looking bird or prey such as an owl or a hawk. The problem again is that once the squirrels work out that they don’t move, they will ignore them.
- Kites – One solution to this problem is to get a hawk kite that you tether to the ground. These fly around in quite a realistic-looking fashion, providing there is a bit of wind.
- Spice It Up – Squirrels can’t stand anything that is hot and spicy. Cayenne pepper, ground chili peppers, flakes, or even hot sauce. Luckily birds are unaffected by cayenne, so it’s fine to use on your bird feeder to repel squirrels.
Does Irish Spring Soap Keep Squirrels Away?
Some people swear by Irish Spring Soap for keeping squirrels out of their yard. Just scatter some around the perimeter and dot it around in places where you have a lot of squirrel activity and hopefully it will work for you too.
The reason why the soap works is because it has a pungent aroma that the squirrels seem to really hate.
What Plants Repel Squirrels?
There are even some plants that they don’t like as they have a pungent aroma. These include:
- Mustard
- Marigolds
- Mint,
- Nasturtiums,
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme
- Alliums
- Galanthus
- Hyacinths
- Geraniums
- Lily of the Valley
Conclusion
There are various ways you can employ to keep squirrels out of your garden. Be aware however that these creatures are incredibly intelligent and are very quick to work things out.
They’ll soon learn to avoid deterrents and to access your walnut trees in new and ingenious ways. If you block one path, they simply find another.
The best tactics to use are multiple ones and change them regularly.
Trapping or killing squirrels isn’t going to work either. As soon as you get rid of one another will take its place. They are also often protected in many states, so harming them is an offense.
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