bambooweb.info

My local garden center sells something called "imustgarden Squirrel Repellent". Do you think this would be safe to spray/dump (it comes in both a granular or spray) around my moso shoots? The squirrels dug under my plastic fencing and right up to a 4" moso shoot. For some reason they didn't bite into the shoot, fortunately.

I'm going to have try some of that. I never had any problem with the squirrels until a couple years ago they discovered vivax shoots were good. Now they seek them out and wreck a lot of them. They have not touched shoots from any other variety so far.

I tried deer/rabbit repellent that I use for work. The squirrels seem to mind the smell less than I do.

I guess I'll spray a bunch of it on a smaller shoot and see what happens.

What do they list as the ingredience? Rgds

Active Ingredients
Garlic 1.25%
Castor Oil .94%
Lemongrass Oil .47%
White Pepper .31%
Clove Oil .23%
Cedarwood Oil .23%

Inert Ingredients 96.57%
Water, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Xanthan Gum

Should be able to replicate this easily and cheaply. Abt. 3% active is a bit concerning. My squirrel damage has picked up. I just tried mixing my deer repellent with other stuff to ward them off. I'll experiment for a while then try I've been using homemade deer repellent for several years. Just checked the stuff sold and replicated it. I'll try the squirrel stuff if I fail. Thx for the info.

Experiment thru 2 weeks - I have sprayed my new shoots with the following cocktail with good results. Too early to shout mission complete. I use a hand sprayer with pump. Crack open 6 eggs (older the better) and add 6 cups of water and about 2 tablespoons of liquid detergent. Beat eggs etc then strain a couple of times and add to sprayer. Add 3 to 5 tablespoons of ammonia and about a tablespoon of hot sauce. Shake all in sprayer. This is a combo of stuff I use for deer and skunk repellant.
Spray new shoots asap then spray once a week. If the straining of the egg combo is not sufficient the sprayer may clog after awhile. Cleaning of sprayer bottom cap strainer may have to be cleaned. I'll update results.

Bad news. Two new shoots destroyed. I saw a interesting program on W. Virginia. They still enjoy squirrel stew. May be time to unpack my .410, and as they say , kill two "squirrels" with one stone. Or, I can buy marijuana now legal in CA. It may be interesting to see how stoned rodents react. Will I hear disco music at night? Yours defeated.

Sorry to hear about your shoots. Yea, I've thought a lot about how to get rid of my squirrels. I relocated 5 of them using a live trap, but I stopped doing that because it was too much trouble. Driving in rush hour traffic with a squirrel in the back feels kind of stupid.. I guess I'll just let the fox take care of them for now..

A glutton for punishment: Went on line to check out home remedies for squirrel repellants. One remedy is placing rags soaked in ammonia around plants. I had ammonia in my previous remedy but was a small amount. Instead of rags, I'm spraying the area around plants (with 100% ammonia) that are shooting. I used ammonia as a skunk repellant and it worked. Let's see how it does vs squirrels. By the way ammonia is cheap. Rgds

Be carful handling the ammonia. The ammonia that I had been dealing with was pretty old. When I purchased a new bottle and opened it, the smell was pretty overwhelming. Handle with care.

Sprayed ammonia around new shoots and around trees that allow the rodents to travel. I used respiratory gear. I focused on about 1/2 acre where most of my bamboo is planted. As opposed to others, I have not seen squirrels concentrate on specific species. California rodents may be more liberal. I have altered the approach suggested on the web. They put ammonia soaked rags around infested areas. My infested area is big, and neighbors would not like a dump like environment. Lastly, the grey squirrels who most covet my bamboo appear to be illegal immigrants.

Introduce squirrel predating animals around your bamboos like owls or hawks. I guess it could be done by training a hawk or building nesting places to attract owls.

I hope the smelly deterrent works!

Tarzanus wrote:... by training a hawk...

Best suggestion yet!

I looked into the owl nest option a couple of years ago. There is a disease that is transmitted to humans in the nesting area. If you are talking about acres of land it seems ok. In smaller areas like mine - pass. I'll take the pellet gun route as a last resort.
Found two more home made repellents on the internet as backups.