well Phil... if you are going to be feeding them peanuts... then you too willl be in my sights... thoes nut feeders... giving them more than they need... so what do they do after collecting the peanuts.. they climb up 5 floors of the fire escape and across to my roof... where they did up the lawn and planters to deposit them for the spring.. knowing my planters and such will warm up months before the frozed groung .. and they will have a late winter feast... before the ground warms up enough for them to dig out their cache burried there...
Best not show up here.. I pull out pounds of peanue every year... much less reseed the lawn...
Gordon

I understand. I dig up peanuts each season too. I was actually just looking for other ideas on how to keep them from eating my plants, that's all. In fact, I was asking for an alternative - "Any other ideas about how to deal with our local city variety of fearless super-squirrels?"

Didn't mean to invoke such ire. Wow.

Phil, we've had some success with ground spices - red pepper and cinnamon, sprinkled on the ground around the plant we're trying to protect. Works best in containers. Have even resorted to hot sauce on occasion. I did worry at first that my cats might get into it, but they don't. And the squirrels don't like it. Don't know if this will work on sunflowers, but it does help to protect those delicious bulbs I like to plant ;)
Good luck!

BTW, have you found a really squirrel-proof birdfeeder? They seem to be able to reverse engineer everything we've tried.

Best,
Jen

Jen,

Thanks! I'm off to buy a big container of hot pepper tomorrow morning! (Another sunflower incident today - a squirrel actually jumped from the fence batman-style and took off the head of a sunflower on the way down.) I figure pepper along the railing and on the flowerheads might do it.

I found that the squirrels are less interested in the birdseed if it doesn't have sunlower seeds or anything large in it. So I've been getting the "plain" kind. Helps some.

Thanks again!

i feel your pain. any sort of sunflower-like variety (rudbeckia, helianthus, ganzania, etc) just get chomped right off by our squirrels. not eaten, just chomped off by the bit and left in piles around the plant. oh yeah, and they dig everything. my trilliums, chinese orchids, etc. and we have two bird feeders. so this spring/summer has been an all out war against my local gang.

the two things that have worked best (so far) -

- duncraft bird feeders. no, i don't work for duncraft. but after spending $$ on numerous different kinds of "squirrel proof" feeders, these are by far the best. i can't remember the exact name of our two models, but if you're interested i can find the links and post.

- hot seed spray. just bought this from the brooklyn botanical gardens, but i'm sure you could find elsewhere. it's from havahart so it's not toxic. sprayed a bunch on the usual route of these vermin, and so far i haven't seen a digging squirrel at all.

and btw, i also do chuck a little critter food in the way back corner of our lot. not every day, but once in awhile, and it does seem to be a reasonable alternative for them.

good luck!!

The other day I saw a squirrel attacking a sunflower. He spotted me approaching and ran under the fence out of harms way. I guess the sunflower was just too much to resist. He gave it some thought and even though I was within several feet of him, he ran back, gave the stem a few more bites and ran off with the flower.
Squirrels have destroyed almost every plant I've put outdoors. I've tried everything - even put seed pots inside mesh laundry bags. The squirrels ripped through the bags and dug up the seeds. We should send the Brooklyn squirrels off to war zones to fight for our country!