Squirrels in the garden can be cute, however the squirrels in our neighborhood think we have opened an all you can eat restaurant. When it comes to pomegranates, last year they ate every single one!
We have tried a number of ways to keep them off the pomegranates.
- Ultrasonic pest control – those electronic devices didn’t do a thing to keep the squirrels away.
- Hot pepper sprays – didn’t phase them a bit, maybe they like spicy!
- Rodent repellent powders – they have an odor of garlic, or other things the squirrels are not supposed to like. Did not help.
We even built a large cage of poultry fencing around the pomegranate trees and put some bird netting over the top. They chew right through the bird netting. The netting was also hard to manage as the trees grew fast enough to send shoots through the netting making a mess of the whole thing.
Next attempt was using that poultry fencing to make individual cages around each pomegranate. That did seem to protect the pomegranates, but the poultry fencing is hard to work with and difficult to install.
The latest idea is basic window screen, formed into a flexible bag and tied around each pomegranate. Still a bit of work to cover each one, but fairly quick to make and install. Here are the details on what we have done. The pomegranates are still there and harvest time is a couple months away. Hopefully these protectors do the job this year.
Making Pomegranate Protectors
The basic idea is to make small “bags” to fit over the pomegranates. We chose to make them 12 inches long and about 5 inches in diameter. So for the diameter we cut the screen about 18 inches long. This seems to be a good size for our pomegranates. For larger or smaller fruit the sizes can certainly be adjusted.
Tools and Materials Needed
- Standard fiberglass window screen material
- Wide sticky tape (Duct tape or Gorilla Tape)
- Velcro Cable Ties, 6 inch length
- Tape Measure
- Scissors
Instructions
- Cut screen to desired size. We used about 12″ x 18″
- Fold screen into a “tube” shape 12″ long
- Tape the overlapping seam
- Fasten one end of tube with a cable tie
- Put open end of the resulting “bag” over a pomegranate and fasten the top around the stem with another cable tie
Results – Update
We had these protectors installed on about 40 of our pomegranates. There were just a handful of bare, unprotected pomegranates scattered here and there. Our hope was if the squirrel found most of them protected, he would stop looking around and not find the unprotected ones.
In the middle of September the pomegranates were getting ripe and all was still looking good. No damage found on the pomegranates. However, by end of September, the temptation of ripe juicy pomegranates enticed that furry varmint into launching his attack. We found a couple partially eaten pomegranates that had been cut off the tree and the screen protecting them gnawed on and removed.
One approach for the squirrel is to chew through the stem holding the pomegranate to get the pomegranate and protector on the ground. Maybe even opening the top tie on the protector to make it really easy to remove the tasty pomegranate.
Another approach may be to just start chewing through that fiberglass screen. A mouthful of fiberglass shreds may not be enough of a deterrent to stop the attack. However, since some of the chewed screens had pomegranates with only a small amount eaten, it does appear to have slowed the squirrel, at least a bit.
In a few weeks, 5 or 6 pomegranates had suffered attack. It was mid-October and some of the pomegranates were not fully ripe yet, but we decided on a preemptive strike and picked all the remaining pomegranates. We harvested 35 pomegranates, so our survival rate was over 80%.
Conclusion
In reviewing the process of creating the screens and putting them on the pomegranates, it was not too difficult or time consuming. To rescue 80% from probable near total destruction, we’d do it again next year. We rate it as a successful deterrent.
Now one of the things we have noticed over the years is the personality and preferences of the squirrels change over time. The squirrels appear to be very protective of their territory, so the alpha squirrel in our yard can change. In past years we’ve had squirrels start munching on the green pomegranates very soon after the flowers have faded.
This year we had mockingbirds nesting in the yard, not far from the pomegranates. They did a great job of homeland security agents in keeping squirrels away in early summer. Those mockingbirds would also give us warnings when we were in the garden!
Next year may give different results, depending on the squirrel, if mockingbirds are on security detail again and other factors. We’ll use the protectors again next year and hope for a good repeat success.
Zanganeh Garden 