I love to garden and unfortunately there are a LOT of squirrels in my area.
In past years when my garden was left unprotected, they have caused a significant amount of damage.
They are especially fond of tomatoes, leaving half-eaten tomatoes in my yard, on the ground and even tomatoes still on the vine with teeth-marks in them.
For other home gardeners who may have had similar problems, I wanted to share my experience with a homemade habanero pepper spray and other methods I have used to protect my garden from squirrels and other uninvited guests.
Last spring, when shopping for vegetable seedlings, I purchased a few habanero pepper plants.
My husband loves spicy food and has always said the jalapeno and hot cherry peppers I have grown in the past were not hot enough for his taste.
The four little plants grew very well and we ended up with many more peppers than we could use.
I decided to make a solution from some of them to protect my ripening tomatoes from squirrels.
The spray would supplement the other repellent methods I was already using and add another layer of protection...
always a good thing.
I roughly sliced five peppers, ground them up in a food processor and soaked the mushy mixture overnight in a cup of water, stirring it occasionally.
If you try this recipe, be sure you wear gloves and show the peppers and the liquid a lot of respect.
Habaneros are one of the five hottest peppers in the world and if you touch the sliced pepper or liquid without wearing gloves, it will be very painful if you unknowingly rub your eye.
The next morning, I strained the pulp put of the liquid and sprinkled that on the ground around the base of the tomato plants for more protection.
I poured the strained liquid into a quart spray bottle, added a few drops of dish soap (to help the solution "stick" to the plants) and topped it off with more water to fill the bottle.
I sprayed the mixture on the plants, tomatoes and on the ground and fencing around the plants.
Make sure you wear gloves, long sleeves, protective eye wear and a mask when applying the spray.
It is potent and may cause some sneezing, coughing and watery eyes if you don't protect yourself.
I ended up using the entire quart on about 20 tomato plants which takes up about 100 square feet in my garden.
After a week away on vacation, we returned home to plenty of ripe tomatoes on the vine and NO evidence of any squirrels anywhere in the garden...
and there were more ripe habaneros for my next batch of spray! I used the recipe several more times that season with no squirrel problems.
Habaneros are usually available in your grocery store or local farmers market if you didn't grow them this year in your garden...
but be sure to put in a plant or two next year so you have your own supply of peppers.
After experimenting, I found the effectiveness of the spray lasts about a week before it needs to be reapplied, sometimes sooner after a heavy rain or watering.
Preparing and straining the mixture every week quickly became a chore and I currently only use it as an occasional spot treatment on plants that have already had damage from animals.
Although I don't mix a batch every week because of the work involved, the spray does work great to supplement the other repellent methods I use on a regular basis.
They include a new commercial, organic spray from HavaHart called DeerOff (which has significantly longer staying power than my homemade spray...
up to 90 days) and a new motion-activated sprinkler that scares the animals away if they approach my garden.
My best advice...
a combination of several different repellent methods always works best in providing maximum protection for your garden.