Better Luck Next Year!

A little bit about my lost battle with the demon squirrels of Brooklyn.

First, here are some photos of the tomato devastation:

Here is a half-eaten tomato, still on the vine.

There were MANY other half-eaten tomatoes just lying around here and there too, however, they were never left and forgotten.  The squirrel ALWAYS came back and finished them.

In this photo, you can see the squirrel doing some body contortions just to finish this one:

I feel no love for this squirrel!  It frequently and happily tormented me.

The squirrel eating the rest of a bite of tomato. You can see some more tomato devastation on the top step.

The smattering of red dust you see on the steps was my attempt at deterring the squirrels with ground Korean hot pepper.  It did absolutely NOTHING.

I sprinkled it EVERYWHERE and often.  I wanted to keep everything chemical free.  It has its downsides.

Next, I tried this stuff:

It is entirely possible it ATTRACTED more squirrels.  It certainly did not deter them in the slightest.

Fortunately, I can get my money back – love those 100% satisfaction guarantees!

A friend of mine suggested Squirrel Stopper.  It had been suggested before I wasted my money on Shake Away, but I originally thought I would prefer to sprinkle damp and clumpy particles all over the place, rather than use a spray.  FYI, it is MUCH easier to use Squirrel Stopper spray, which is also organic.

I couldn’t believe how well the Squirrel Stopper worked!  It allowed all of my tomato plants, which had been completely stripped of ALL ripe and unripe tomatoes, to grow a second round of big, beautiful tomatoes.  While the bottle says one spray will last up to 30 days, I found that I needed to reapply it every  2 weeks at first, and sometimes every week.  Keep in mind that this is due to the extra demon nature of Brooklyn squirrels.  Other squirrels may not need so much reapplication to deter them.

I never sprayed it on the tomatoes themselves, just around the base of the plants and every other inorganic surface on The Veranda.  I also used the “stream” setting to spray it on the branches that the squirrels were using to easily access The Veranda (as well as my neighbor’s veranda a bit, stealthily, of course).  As it mentions on the bottle, if you hit the leaves, it will turn them yellow.  I did notice this when I inadvertently hit the leaves surrounding the aforementioned branches.

Eventually, when my tomatoes started to ripen, I saw some new squirrel action. So…although the Squirrel Stopper works extremely well, it is not perfect.  I have learned many lessons this summer that will prepare me well for a more successful and squirrel-free tomato crop next year!  There will have to be a lot of chicken wire involved, unfortunately.