Tree rats in the city

MartyB

Yamadori
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Laval, Quebec
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6a
Anyone have any tips on how to repel or not have those darn grey squirrels from destroying years of work? I am growing with the greatest of patience a small olive tree and two seasons in a row a urban tree rat has chewed off what little nebari and taper I was able to create. I came home today to find a dime-sized chunk missing from the very base of my tree, and I had to apply some wound sealant as the wood was exposed. What used to be the top of a surface root is now gone and I am back to a stick in a pot. I am livid and frankly emotional and angry...

How do you folks keep these little twerps from vandalizing your work? I can’t use a pellet gun as I am in the heart of downtown big city and even if it feels worth it I would rather not go to jail....
 

0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
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Anacortes, WA (AHS heat zone 1)
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I have squirrels, but they never have touched any of my trees. They do plant things, though; mostly horse chestnuts, but also walnuts a neighbor apparently tossed out for them a couple of winters ago, bulbs and I don' t know what else. A raccoon has knocked over a plastic pot or two and broken some branches off one tree that was planted in my landscape is about the size of it for me.

I don't know what squirrels are looking for when chewing on trees. The squirrels around here seem to like the black oil sunflower seeds that my wife puts out for the birds. My thinking is that if critters cannot be kept away (by fencing, for example) then give them something 'over there', away from my precious stuff, to enjoy. I'm not at all sure what I would have done had this not worked from the get-go. I don't think there is any way to exterminate them.
 

AZbonsai

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Squirrel Launcher
 

Carol 83

Flower Girl
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We have a ton of squirrels here. They mostly just dig in the pots. I have random stuff come up every winter, when I bring the tropicals in.
 

Jzack605

Chumono
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Western Long Island, NY
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Blood meal, coyote/fox urine (pellet form is easily available), hot pepper wax can be used with decent success as long as you keep up with it. Perhaps substituting blood meal for your nitrogen source as it is an organic source for N. It is an organic derived fertilizer so it will be slow release= less worry of burning out plant. A program of blood meal application early and late season combined with more applications of the other two I mentioned may work well.
 

MartyB

Yamadori
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Laval, Quebec
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Blood meal that sounds easy... ill try that. Hot pepper wax never heard of that, will google. Thx!
 
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