Myth or Truth: Human Hair as a Rabbit - Squirrel Deterrent
Myth or Truth? Does anyone know if there is any truth behind the myth of human hair deterring animals from your garden? I'm having some trouble with rabbits and squirrels, and have been successful with trapping and releasing, but am growing weary. Any other suggestions? They are loving my lettuce and beans.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7414
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Hard to believe anyone has a problem with squirrels. For many years I have always had 12 to 14 squirrels and they never bother anything in my garden except sun flowers and ripe corn. I plant sun flowers for squirrels and birds to eat. When I see squirrels eating corn I know it is time to harvest. I put up 2 squirrel nesting boxes they have 2 families of squirrels every year, spring and fall, usually 4 baby squirrels every time. Rabbits can be a little problem sometimes but I usually scare them away I chase them down the street a few blocks away they never return. I use to have more trouble with turtles than rabbits.
I can't speak for squirrels, there is no keeping them out of the garden, but "deterrents" are all useless. For a vegetable garden a fence is the key. The only deterrent I have tried that actually keeps animals from eating the plants is the rabbit/deer spray with rotting eggs etc and that is definitely not for edibles.
Myth. Rabbits and deer are deterred only by a fence, chicken wire securely fastened to the ground, or buried a couple of inches, and an eight foot high deer fence. All that stuff advertised as deterrents will not work. I have many, many squirrels in the neighborhood and they never get in the garden. Both rabbits and squirrels get the .22 treatment if they become a problem. Lucky for me, the bobcats are keeping the rabbit population down and the squirrels show no interest in the garden.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
The main problem I have had with squirrels is eating all the bird seed and tearing the bird feeders apart. Now that we have invested in heavy duty squirrel proof feeders, that is taken care of.
But while we were figuring all that out, we did try the squirrel table. We had one just like this:
The ear of seed corn sits on a spike. It is very cute watching them eat at the table.
We also had a whirlygig corn feeder like this:
Good for lots of entertainment. The squirrels jump on it, ride it around eating as they go, until they fall off and then run back up and try again.
So these were amusing and entertaining. But they did not stop the bird feeder destruction in the slightest. We had lots of squirrels and squirrels will eat any given amount. Remember they are not just eating the corn and seed, they are storing it for winter. So they will fill their cheek pouches full and run off to their nest. Come back a few minutes later emptied out to do it again. When they could manage to get the corn off the spikes, they would carry a whole corn cob off with them. Does not slow them down at all from eating everything else.
But I'm with Gary. They like nuts and seeds. They will if allowed come and take bites out of tomatoes to get the juice. I never saw them eating anything else from my garden.
I am interested to see how it goes this year. We do have squirrels at our new place also, though fewer, since it isn't as woodsy. But we have a dog, who stays in our fenced in yard a lot of the time. His favorite sport is squirrel chasing (fortunately he can't catch them). So I think we have the squirrel issue taken care of.
But while we were figuring all that out, we did try the squirrel table. We had one just like this:
The ear of seed corn sits on a spike. It is very cute watching them eat at the table.
We also had a whirlygig corn feeder like this:
Good for lots of entertainment. The squirrels jump on it, ride it around eating as they go, until they fall off and then run back up and try again.
So these were amusing and entertaining. But they did not stop the bird feeder destruction in the slightest. We had lots of squirrels and squirrels will eat any given amount. Remember they are not just eating the corn and seed, they are storing it for winter. So they will fill their cheek pouches full and run off to their nest. Come back a few minutes later emptied out to do it again. When they could manage to get the corn off the spikes, they would carry a whole corn cob off with them. Does not slow them down at all from eating everything else.
But I'm with Gary. They like nuts and seeds. They will if allowed come and take bites out of tomatoes to get the juice. I never saw them eating anything else from my garden.
I am interested to see how it goes this year. We do have squirrels at our new place also, though fewer, since it isn't as woodsy. But we have a dog, who stays in our fenced in yard a lot of the time. His favorite sport is squirrel chasing (fortunately he can't catch them). So I think we have the squirrel issue taken care of.
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RogerBirdy
- Newly Registered
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 3:26 pm
- Location: England
I have found that human hair is very good for deterring slugs in my plant pots. I scatter it around the edges of the pot and I think it must be the texture or dryness of it that stops slugs and snails crawling onto the plant. Very useful for protecting my tomatoes!
As for squirrels, I've found that a wire globe type bird feeder stops them getting at the seed - available here https://gardenbirdlife.com/ and as they can't eat the seed, there's no food for them and therefore they don't hang around my garden as much.
As for squirrels, I've found that a wire globe type bird feeder stops them getting at the seed - available here https://gardenbirdlife.com/ and as they can't eat the seed, there's no food for them and therefore they don't hang around my garden as much.