Corn Thieves...

[likes2playinmud]

Ok...I know everyone has heard it before. I grow corn in grow boxes and they do wonderful to those little %$@#$%'s get in .
it. I literally have done EVERYTHING...The pepper spray, owls, dogs, I have hawks in my yard, radio, sonic devices, netting etc. I even gave them feed corn all the way on other side of property for an easy meal? Im ready to put coyote urine around my planters next. The squirrels are so brazen they tease my dogs and actually sit next to my owl decoys. Im not ready to give up growing corn without a fight. Please any advice?!

[JasonFL]

[ButterflyLady29]

Soon as you figure something out run out and put a patent on it. You'll make millions.

I never get peaches, the squirrels taste test them just before they get ripe. They steal my sunflowers leaving nothing but sad, lonely stalks. They steal popcorn ears in the middle of the day. They dig in my flower pots just for fun. They've got to my hardy "almonds" before I have for the past 3 years. And even today they raided my walnut stash which I didn't get hulled out. Oh, and forget getting any strawberries once the squirrels have smelled them.

[Allyn]

I would have tried the coyote urine first (okay next after I tried human urine). Those decoys have never worked for me.
In the end, I would have resorted to Jason's suggestion. Squirrels can be good eating if you have a decent recipe.

[rainbowgardener]

The deer/ bird netting works for me. Just stick stakes into the corners of your grow box and wrap it with the netting. Don't wrap it too tightly; loose and a bit floppy is harder to climb. When I had raccoons, I had to also put netting over the top. It's sort of annoying, because then you have to unwrap everything to get to your plants, but it saves your crop.

[jal_ut]

Squirrels? Shoot them!

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know where likes2play lives, but many of us live in cities where it is not a good idea to go shooting off guns.

[Marlingardener]

If you can plant a nut tree and wait a few years, the darned little bushytailed rats will leave your corn alone. We are surrounded by pecan trees and haven't seen a squirrel on our property in 10 years.
I'm not making light of your problem--it is frustrating (we have rabbits aka shorttailed rats) and the only solution we have found is a cat. Cats like to chase things, and can climb, so a cat might be as effective against squirrels as against rabbits.
Keep up the good fight!

[jal_ut]

Ever heard of D-Con? Ya, it is for mice and rats, but it will get squirrels too. Actually there are plenty of pest baits on the market. I am sure you can find something that will work to get rid of the lil pests.

You claim: I literally have done EVERYTHING...

Everything that is, except kill the rascals. Don't hesitate, just kill them!

[Gary350]

My 2 cats killed all the squirrels there are no squirrels anymore. I like squirrels they are not a garden problem except when corn is ripe.

There is a 15 acre forest 300 feet north of me. I never had a deer problem in 38 years until last summer. I put up a 10 foot tall fence with 4"x4"x10' posts, 2"x4"x10' three horizontal boards between posts and 1"x6"x10' vertical boards spaced 3" apart. Cats can walk through the 3" spaces but deer can not get through. All the wood is pressure treated put together with 1.5" long drywall screws. I built a 20'x20' square experiment it is working good so far to keep out the deer. 10 rows of barb wire or 10 rows of electric fence would work too but city code does not allow barb wire or electric fence in town.

[jal_ut]

Interesting a ten foot board fence.

Here 6 foot chain link fences are popular. They keep out most things. Deer don't seem too inclined to jump a 6 foot fence.
When I had a lot out on the river, I ran a cable on the ground with a pulley on it and a short chain tied to a hound dogs collar. I didn't want my hound dogs running loose, but this gave one the run up one side of the garden between the river and the garden. The lil robbing rascals would travel up along the river and come over into the corn patch. The dog was pretty effective to keep them out.

[sweetiepie]

I had to put up about a 5 foot fence but I am such a girl and am not much of a construction worker. I tend to use wire or twine a lot. So my fence is poultry netting and I use a hog panel gate for the back hoe or tractor to get in.

The fence also has two strings of electric fence. That is for the deer and raccoons. It also keeps my dog out. My dog has helped quite a bit with keeping the deer out of the yard, he pees on everything.

I use live traps for the skunk that still sneak in. My cats seem to stay out of my garden, so I have gotten a few squirrels with a muskrat trap.

I usually put poison in the plastic containers down in my tomatoes and cucumbers for the mice. Sticky traps will catch baby gophers that don't eat the poison. (Not my favorite way but pure desperation and then I usually drown them.)

Last year I had birds eating the plants as they came up and resorted to a gun. Muskrat traps also catch birds.

All these things have helped a lot but I live out on the prairie. They have fields and fields of food so they will never go a way entirely, one must be vigilant.

[imafan26]

I'm glad I only have to deal with the rats with wings (bulbuls), mice sometimes, and mongoose in the herb garden. There are no deer on Oahu, and we don't have squirrels, skunks, moles, muskrats, or gophers. Occasionally a pet rabbit gets loose, but they get caught fairly rapidly. There are a lot of feral chickens but they are not in my area. Feral cats are a problem at the community garden, but the way I garden, I have fewer problems than most. The feral cats actually eat a lot of the mice and kill the mongoose and probably some birds at the community garden so they are not all bad. Some of the other community gardens that eliminated all of their feral cats are now having to put out rat poison all the time because of the mice and rats. We did have a wild pig roaming our garden for a while and we called DLNR and they trapped it. Our biggest problems are people dumping dogs and cats at the community garden.

[Gary350]

Interesting a ten foot board fence.

Here 6 foot chain link fences are popular. They keep out most things. Deer don't seem too inclined to jump a 6 foot fence.
When I had a lot out on the river, I ran a cable on the ground with a pulley on it and a short chain tied to a hound dogs collar. I didn't want my hound dogs running loose, but this gave one the run up one side of the garden between the river and the garden. The lil robbing rascals would travel up along the river and come over into the corn patch. The dog was pretty effective to keep them out.

1962 we lived north of Chicago a small town called Kirkland. I remember seeing deer jump over 4 ft and 6 ft tall fence fairly easy. I don't know how high deer can jump so I used 10' boards that I had taken down from a 100 ft fence. It would have worked just as well to put those 10' boards from post to post and not use the 2x4 board but my Test fence would only be 8 foot tall with 2' of the posts in the ground.