Argh! How to Keep Squirrels Out of Potted Plants

We have a giant oak tree in our backyard, which I love for its shade. However, it also provides a ton of acorns, which draw squirrels from far and wide. They love digging in my potted plants to bury their acorns, not knowing that those pots will be out of their reach when winter arrives. Sometimes, the digging is obvious, especially when they have uprooted or broken a plant, and I manage to dislodge the buried “treasure,” but sometimes I miss them. 

If squirrels are making a mess of your outdoor flower pots or containers, there are some tricks that I’ve picked up over the years to thwart them. First, recognize that squirrels are indeed looking to store food (or find food). Second, they love digging in soft dirt.

1. Make a Barrier for Your Pots

Make the exposed soil in your containers as tricky for them to get at as possible.

1. After you plant your flowers or vegetables in pots, add chicken wire or plastic netting to the top of the container. Just cut it to fit well. Seedlings will grow up through it, but if you are starting with larger plants, you’ll have to cut the wire to fit around the base of the plants. Pin the wire down with metal ground staples so they can’t pull it out. 

2. Cover the top of the exposed soil with small rocks, mulch, or spiky pine cones, which they won’t appreciate having to dig through.

3. Go a step further and stick sharp objects into the soil. Bamboo skewers, toothpicks, nails, or plastic forks tines up may deter them.

2. Deter Naturally with Strong Odors

Squirrels have sensitive noses and hate the smell of peppermint, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, citrus, vinegar, cayenne, and eucalyptus.

1. Soak cotton balls with herbal oils such as peppermint, eucalyptus, clove, cinnamon, or lemon, and place them near your plants to make the squirrels look for somewhere else to bury their nuts. You must replenish the oil as the odor fades to keep them from returning. A small dish with lemon juice or vinegar positioned near the plants might also work.

2. You can try sprinkling a small amount of dry spice such as cinnamon, cloves, garlic powder, or cayenne on the soil but it will have to be replaced each time it rains or you water the plant so it is not a very cost effective method. Instead try poking a cinnamon stick or clove of garlic in the soil or sprinkling a few whole cloves or some hot pepper flakes on the soil. They will keep their odor longer than a ground-up spice.

3. Make an irritating spray by diluting hot sauce with an equal amount of water and adding a tablespoon of dish soap. Spray it on the pots you wish to protect. If you find you need to spray the actual plant, try it on a small area before you douse the whole thing to make sure it does no harm. Squirrels are not fans of spicy foods and will leave. Many people have found that mixing cayenne pepper with birdseed will keep the squirrels from raiding their birdfeeders. 

4. Other smells they don’t like include fish fertilizer and blood meal. Watering your plants with stinky fish fertilizer might be enough to keep squirrels at bay while feeding your plants. A little blood meal mixed with the top layer of soil can have the same effect. Just don’t overdo it and over-fertilize your plants. 

3. Grow Plants That Repel Squirrels

Some plants squirrels naturally avoid, usually due to their fragrance.

1. If you grow herbs, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, and lavender have fragrances humans love, but squirrels hate. If you have room in a mixed planter, add an herb plant or two to keep the squirrels away.

 2. If you want to keep your pots floral, try growing some nasturtiums or marigolds, which also can repel them with their odor.

3. Slip a cactus or two into a mixed container. After being poked by a sharp spine, your squirrelly friends may decide to move on.

4. Scare Them Off

If you have dogs and cats that spend time outside, you probably don’t have a problem with squirrels digging in your container plants, and many predators would make a meal out of a squirrel. If you trick the squirrels into thinking they are about to be eaten, they will avoid your plants altogether. (Keeping my cats out of the garden is another story!)

1. Dog hair is smelly enough to keep them at bay. Ask a dog-owning friend for some of their floor sweepings, or get some from a local pet groomer. Scatter it in and around the planters you wish to protect. The best thing about dog hair is that it gets smellier when wet! Some folks think human hair has the same repellant effect.

2. Try predator urine if your squirrels are brave and nothing keeps them away. If they think a fox or coyote is lurking, they will pack their bags and leave town.

3. They also are preyed on from above. Get a plastic owl or a hawk statue to keep near your containers, and they should keep away until they figure out that the fake birds of prey are not a real threat. 

4. Not so sure about this one but it wouldn’t hurt to wrap a rubber snake around a pot you want to protect. Some squirrels may have had bad experiences with the slithery critters and stay away. Keep in mind garter snakes are good for the garden!

5. Noise can be scary, too. Go high-tech with an ultrasonic device that makes sounds only animals can hear, or low-tech with windchimes or banging pie plates.  That said, you need to move them around or animals get used to their placement.

6. Flashes of light and motion can also scare them. Try pinwheels or lawn ornaments that spin in the wind. Hang shiny mirrors, old CDs, or strips of aluminum foil that will spin and reflect light in unpredictable ways. 

5. Grow Your Plants Out of Reach 

1. Windowboxes at the second story level will be hard for your squirrely friends to reach as long as they cannot leap from a nearby branch. Be sure to install the boxes where it is easy for you to tend the plants from inside.

2. Hanging baskets are perfect for keeping plants safe from rodent harm. Please make sure they are at least 6 feet from any surface a clever squirrel could launch themselves off from to reach it. If hanging the basket from a pole or shepherd’s crook, use the same kind of baffle you would use to keep them from climbing up to a bird feeder. They also hate anything sticky or greasy, so you could spread some tanglefoot or petroleum jelly on the pole to deter them.

Do Coffee Grounds Keep Squirrels Away? 

Coffee grounds may smell pleasing to humans, but apparently, squirrels don’t like the odor. Mix them in with the top layer of soil; hopefully, they will keep the critters away.  The jury is still out on the effectiveness of coffee grounds. Maybe it has to do with the type of Java you drink. Decaf? Flavored? It’s worth a try while adding a few nutrients. They’re a nitrogen-rich green garden material.

I hope you found new ideas to keep the squirrels out of your pots. Whatever lengths you go to protect your plants, make sure you are not doing more harm than good. No poisons or lethal traps that could also take out other wildlife or a neighbor’s pet. Definitely do not use mothballs, which are loaded with highly toxic chemicals. Keeping the squirrels at bay will not be easy, so you must be diligent and try a combination of methods until you hit on the ones that work for you. When all else has failed, there are commercial squirrel repellants.

Find more tips on keeping pests out of the garden.