The Squirrel Diaries: And So It Begins

The epic battle has begun. I was waiting for this. The first flare of battle. If you’d like to see the evidence for yourself, the proof of their first strike can be found in the picture below. (Warning: the following picture shows a graphic image of damaged fruit. Please feel free to stop here if squirrel-mangled peaches makes you squeamish.)

I found this yesterday when grooming the fruit trees. I was enjoying my time out in nature when I spied this poor, severely mutilated peach. It never stood a chance to that pillaging squirrel!

Look at this peach tree so full of fruit!

Do you blame me for wanting to have at least one of these delicious peaches? The problem is, the squirrels eat every last peach on the tree, before they’re even ripe! I have a theory. I think they’re actually after the pit which may be why they go for the fruit while it’s still green. If they just knew that if they waited, I would throw them all the pits they want!

If you don’t know the story, I described more about the history of my battle with these squirrels in a recent post. The true dilemma rests in the fact that my family and I are vegans. As a result, we have to find humane ways of dealing with these frutarian varmints. For example, here are the remnants of last year’s battle.

Bird netting. My cousin (a Master Gardner) told me that we could wrap designated fruit in this bird netting and it might protect them. We estimate it slowed the squirrels down a few hours. Possibly a day. But they won that battle. They ate each and every piece of fruit in all three of our backyard fruit trees. And some of these trees produce a lot of fruit!

We’re willing to share, but those pesky squirrels are so selfish, they eat them all. OK. Deep, cleansing breathing. I. Will. Be. Calm.

But I have a new plan for this year. (I LOVE having a plan!) Take a look at my new weapon of choice.

Matt commented on my previous squirrel-hating post and gave a recipe for cayenne pepper repellent. My husband and I went to Home Depot yesterday and bought this handy dandy sprayer. It sounds like a lot of work to spray down these trees every couple of days, but I think it’s worth it to realize our dream of eating fruit from our own back yard!

We did have a little laugh to ourselves yesterday though. Wouldn’t it be ironic if we finally got some fruit but it was tainted by the taste of cayenne pepper? We’re hoping that this cayenne squirrel repellent doesn’t seep into the DNA of the fruit! (Please, no!)

I’ll be updating you on this battle as the summer days progress. Wish me luck!