Homemade Squirrel Repellent Recipe 🐿️ - House of Hawthornes (2024)

FAQs

Homemade Squirrel Repellent Recipe 🐿️ - House of Hawthornes? ›

Here are a few recipes you can try: Hot Pepper Spray: Create a homemade squirrel repellent by mixing water with cayenne pepper and a few drops of dish soap. Transfer the mixture into a spray bottle and apply it to areas where squirrels are active.

Here are a few recipes you can try: Hot Pepper Spray: Create a homemade squirrel repellent by mixing water with cayenne pepper and a few drops of dish soap. Transfer the mixture into a spray bottle and apply it to areas where squirrels are active.

Galanthus, or snowdrops, contain a toxic compound called galanthamine which is unpleasant to squirrels. Planting these bulbs around the perimeter of your garden can help keep them out.

Cinnamon and Spice

Squirrels distance themselves from hot pepper smells, like jalapeño, cayenne, and black pepper. Because of the spicy nature of cinnamon, you can also use this to repel squirrels from your home! To use pepper as a deterrent, mix three spoonfuls with a half-gallon of water.

Use apple cider vinegar.

You can make a DIY repellent concoction with apple cider vinegar. Pour some in a spray bottle with peppermint oil or cayenne pepper and spray it near your plants or wherever you want squirrels to detect the unpleasant scent. The more scent deterrents in the mix the better.

Now that we know more about them, we'll discuss the scents they hate! The scents on this list are: Peppermint Oil, Capsaicin, Coffee Grounds, White Vinegar, Garlic, Cinnamon, Predator Urine, Irish Springs Soap, Dryer Sheets, and Rosemary.

Try sprinkling cayenne pepper, ground chili peppers, or pepper flakes around your plants when they are ready to bloom. Peppers have “capsaicin” which squirrels hate, so it's a natural squirrel deterrent. Or, make a pepper spray; you can mix dried pepper with apple cider vinegar.

Adhesive Materials: Polybutenes. Polybutenes create a sticky lubricant that can deter squirrels from scaling railings and buildings. As they walk across the material, their feet may become stuck, which could cause so much irritation that they don't return.

Coffee grounds are a natural repellent for squirrels, and they're easy to mix in with your soil. Instead of discarding your leftover coffee grounds, sprinkle them around the surface soil in your potted plant. You can use your fingers to gently rake the grounds in.

The pungent smell of pure apple cider vinegar repels the squirrels. ACV is readily available and can be sprayed directly on the plants and flower pots without harming them. Spray it as often as needed to keep the little creatures at bay.

Do squirrels hate Irish Spring soap? ›

I still have a squirrel problem in my garden. They eat my veggies and destroy things, and since I started this series on squirrel deterrents, people have told me to try Irish Spring. Apparently squirrels hate the smell. I'll say that it worked really well, but only as long as the scent lasted—which wasn't very long.

Squirrels are primarily scared of predators such as hawks, foxes, and snakes. They also have a natural fear of loud noises, sudden movements, and unfamiliar objects. Understanding what scares squirrels can help prevent them from becoming distressed and ensure their safety in their environment.

To keep squirrels out of a birdfeeder or other parts of a yard, spray the property with a mixture of tabasco sauce and water or sprinkle ground pepper throughout the area. This can also work for crawlspaces and attics, although if applied as a liquid solution, it may discolor hardwood surfaces.

Scents like white pepper, black pepper, and garlic are naturally unpleasant to a squirrel. The same goes for sweet smells such as peppermint. Try spraying your plants and flowers with water and then sprinkling on pepper or peppermint oil to deter squirrels.

Fumigation

Since fumigation is conducted underground, it's safer for non-target species while also effectively eradicating ground squirrels. Like trapping and baiting, burrow fumigation is most effective in the early spring, when the soil moisture is high enough to contain the gas.

Squirrels hate both the feeling and sight of aluminum foil. The shiny glare from the foil is usually enough to scare off any squirrels, but if any brave squirrels do approach your plants, don't worry! When the squirrel steps on the aluminum foil, it feels slippery and makes some sound.

Any repellent (granular or liquid) that contains cayenne or capsaicin is very effective against squirrels. You can actually mix crushed red pepper flakes in your birdseed to repel them from bird feeders (birds can't taste the heat).