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Squirrels digging holes in my lawn

(16 Posts)
susytish Fri 29-Sep-23 12:46:51

Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop the little dears digging holes. I know why they are doing it, just wish they would do it somewhere else! Doesn’t help to have 2 big oak trees in neighboring gardens.
I even bought a water pistol one year but doesn’t bother them as spray didn’t go far enough to hit them.
I have tried most things, now looking at the deterrents that look like real owls, and you place them in the garden, the head swivels round with the wind. Varying prices.
I wondered if anyone had tried them.

SparklyGrandma Fri 29-Sep-23 12:51:10

Maybe feed them nuts during winter?

Ilovecheese Fri 29-Sep-23 14:14:28

They would scoff down the nuts and keep on digging.

Joseann Fri 29-Sep-23 17:53:59

You're lucky, we had wild boar digging our lawn. The best deterrent was our stroppy cat!
Those owls sound fun! 🦉 🦉

Visgir1 Fri 29-Sep-23 18:17:16

Cheeky little things. On one occasion we were collecting leaves and Acorns from the lawn, directly behind DH was a squirrel digging holes and putting in the Acorns. I stool near it watching not worried about us in the slightest.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 29-Sep-23 19:03:03

Oh how lovely. They are so busy this time of year trying to ensure that they survive the winter without starving to death.

I would welcome them with open arms/lawn and promise them extra throughout the long cold winter months.

Liz46 Fri 29-Sep-23 20:28:24

We have a squirrel who digs holes in our lawn. He also runs off with bulbs that he had dug out of the pots.
Our next door neighbour complained that our cat had dug up her bulbs so I phoned her when the squirrel was digging them out and asked if she wanted to chase the squirrel!
She also complained that our cat had a wee on some stones in her garden and she had to wash them.
She used to have a cat so I don't understand.

AreWeThereYet Fri 29-Sep-23 20:55:45

I would welcome them with open arms/lawn and promise them extra throughout the long cold winter months.

Possibly not when you ended up with a garden full of oak trees. It's taken us all this year to clear the front and a small part of the back. The roots are deep even for the tiniest plant. The beautiful Photinia hedge we planted three years ago now has oak trees growing up the middle and I've no idea how we will get them out without digging up the hedge. And no, we don't want another dozen oak trees thanks.

rubysong Fri 29-Sep-23 21:06:28

Wretched things. They take everything I put out for the birds, steal bulbs and plant oak trees everywhere. They are just fluffy tailed rats but apparently make good eating. However I would love red squirrels in the garden, but of course the gray ones have killed them with their squirrel pox.

Callistemon21 Fri 29-Sep-23 21:35:33

We have the greys too.

They bury nuts in the lawn but mostly in my pots.
They also love munching tulip bulbs.

There's not a lot you can do apart from getting a small dog (a terrier?) which would chase them away.

susytish Sat 30-Sep-23 12:20:12

Thanks for comments.
The problem with giving them nuts is that they would dig more holes to bury them!
My garden looks like a battlefield, and only at the beginning of the season.
I have just sprinkled hot Chilli Powder on the back fence to see if that slows them down.
Looking again at the owl deterrents!

mokryna Sat 30-Sep-23 12:23:34

My DD has the problem of them digging up her spring bulbs.

Marmin Sat 30-Sep-23 12:28:23

We dont have this problem but have the solution should the need arise. His name is Parker and he is a very fit whippet.

AreWeThereYet Sat 30-Sep-23 15:41:21

We tried cayenne pepper a few years ago and it works for a short time. It's not a very nice deterrent though - the squirrels can get burnt paws, burnt eyes and burnt throats from the pepper and it can lead to a slow, nasty death for squirrels that can't eat properly.

We tried oil on the bird feeder poles and moved them away from anything the squirrels could climb up and jump off. Mineral oils are poisonous so we used coconut oil. It was fun for a while watching them leap up the pole and slide down again over and over but they liked the coconut oil and started eating it off the pole.

Cherrytree59 Sat 30-Sep-23 16:09:58

We have squirrels that scuttles across the road in front of our house to bury acorns in our lawn, my only fear is the road they have to cross, we sadly lost a couple of squirrels on the road last year 😢.

The lawn however was fine/ is fine, no oak tree saplings.

I do have to grow most of my spring bulbs in pots.
Dh has made me metal grids with rim round them to give it some height (iyswim) to go over the pots.
I remove once the bulbs foliage starts reach it.

DamaskRose Sat 30-Sep-23 16:10:27

We only have reds where I live and they’re quite shy, we’ve done everything to entice them into the garden! Sorry if you’ve got greys OP.