The last thing you want is for your precious roses to be eaten by animals. But can you blame squirrels for eating your roses. Do these cute little creatures eat your roses or is some other animal to blame.
It turns out that squirrels do eat roses. Let's explore why and what your can do to deter them.
Why do squirrels eat roses?
Roses are some of the loveliest flowers in the world. It’s no surprise they’re so attractive to people. Unfortunately, these blooms are also very attractive to animals, especially squirrels because of their color, scent, and taste.
There’s still no exact explanation as to why squirrels love to munch on roses, but most people whose rose gardens get attacked by these animals notice that squirrels love to munch on new leaves and buds.
How do you stop squirrels from eating roses?
A squirrel infestation is definitely a huge problem. Instead of seeing your roses blossom, you’re going to watch all the time and money you spent on growing those roses get eaten up. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with the problem:
Cover up the scent of your roses
The scent of roses is one of the things that make them very attractive to squirrels. So if you want to keep these pesky animals away from your garden, you need to find ways to mask the scent of your flowers.
One of the easiest solutions for this is to let your dog pee near the garden. You can also spray predator urine around the perimeter of your garden to make the squirrels and other animals stay away from your plants.
Now, if you don’t find animal urine appealing, you can actually use dog sheds or even your own hair. Just scatter it around your roses. If you have any used air fresheners or bar soap remnants, you can also place them near your rose garden.
Some gardeners even plant cloves, garlic, or mint near their roses to mask the scent of the flowers blooming, thus keeping the squirrels from eating them.
Build a fence
It might not be the best solution out there, but building a fence is still a smart way to deter squirrels and animals from eating your roses. A fence can also help make your rose garden look better.
Just make sure that you extend your fence at least a couple of inches below the ground to keep squirrels from digging under. You should also use materials that squirrels will not easily destroy.
Some even use electrical fences because it can effectively keep these animals away and it’s portable enough that you can remove the fence if you don’t have any squirrels in your rose garden anymore.
Make your roses taste bad
Aside from their wonderful smell, squirrels are attracted to roses for their taste. If you want to get rid of these pesky animals, you have to find ways to make your roses taste bad.
One of the best solutions for this is to create your own pepper spray using 1/3 cup of hot sauce, 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup of liquid dishwashing soap, and three eggs.
Just mix these ingredients together and put them in a spray bottle to spray all over your roses. The smell of soap and the taste of pepper will easily scare the squirrels away from your rose garden.
You should re-apply this solution after it rains until there are no more squirrels running around and eating your precious flowers. Just make sure to use goggles and wear gloves when spraying since the hot sauce may sting your skin or burn your eyes.
Go on a battle with the squirrels
If you have the time to deal with these squirrels yourself, you can always try to get physical with them using animal deterrents that you can buy or make on your own.
It could be sprinklers or water guns that you can use to scare these animals away. You can let your sprinklers go off if you see squirrels running around your garden to make them go away.
You can also use noisemakers that move and shake whenever squirrels touch them, although your neighbors might not appreciate the noise if you are living in a busy neighborhood.
The only downside to using these noisemakers is that squirrels eventually get used to them and they wouldn’t mind hearing the noises. They will just ignore it and go on with their business of munching on your precious flowers.
Feed them
If all of your strategies have been unsuccessful, you might want to try one last solution before you call the professionals.
Some homeowners call a truce with these squirrels and actually feed them in a designated area away from their rose garden. It does work sometimes. You can leave bird seeds, oats, or corn for the squirrels to enjoy so they don’t make your roses their snack.
This can be a little tricky, however, especially if you have a lot of squirrels running around in your rose garden because they might learn to depend on your food.
Foods you can feed them
- Acorns
- Avocados
- Apples
- Asparugus
- Berries
- Blueberries
Conclusion
Although squirrels like to eat roses, there are some things you can do to deter them. It will take some time to put a plan in action and see it work. Squirrels, like all animals, need to be trained that eating your roses is bad.
