Squirrels eating branches of plant

roxy257 · July 24, 2017

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed some of the leaves/branches of my tomato plants have been chewed off by some critter/pest. I attributed it to hornworms, so sprayed BT liberally over the plants and it seemed to help the issue.

This morning, I went out to check on the plants and caught the bandit red handed... or red clawed, for that matter. A squirrel was sitting on the fence, happily chewing on a leaf. I chased him off and took a closer look... and yep, several branches had already been gnawed off.

It's bad enough that they eat my tomatoes, now they're going after the plant itself? I threw some bird netting over the top as a deterrent, but I need to go full war on these guys -- I'm royally P/Oed about this! Any suggestions beyond the usual "no chew"/red hot spray?

Thanks!

July 24, 2017	#1
roxy257 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 2	Squirrels eating branches of plant Over the past few weeks, I've noticed some of the leaves/branches of my tomato plants have been chewed off by some critter/pest. I attributed it to hornworms, so sprayed BT liberally over the plants and it seemed to help the issue. This morning, I went out to check on the plants and caught the bandit red handed... or red clawed, for that matter. A squirrel was sitting on the fence, happily chewing on a leaf. I chased him off and took a closer look... and yep, several branches had already been gnawed off. It's bad enough that they eat my tomatoes, now they're going after the plant itself? I threw some bird netting over the top as a deterrent, but I need to go full war on these guys -- I'm royally P/Oed about this! Any suggestions beyond the usual "no chew"/red hot spray? Thanks!