The Green Room

Jo-Anne Stevens writes:

Do you have any recommendations on how to deter squirrels? We have one who has recently chewed through the screen on our back door on two separate occasions. We’ve tried chasing him, but after a few days he returns. We don’t want to hurt him — we just want him to stay away. Is there some mixture we can prepare to spray on the door or the vicinity of the door to deter him?

Lindsay responds:

So you have a little more than nature in your backyard — he’s actually trying to get into your house! Well, I recently visited a great local birding store in my neighborhood and they propose a very obvious solution.

As you can imagine, they get a lot of questions about how to deter squirrels from bird feeders. Are you ready? The answer is, set up a squirrel feeding station! I’d recommend going to your local wild bird store and getting some information — expert advice for your local area and perhaps trying a squirrel feeding station.

Think of it like the gardening that we proposed folks try this year — instead of deterring insects, why not attract beneficial ones ? Or in your case, instead of banishing the squirrel from certain areas (like your living room), why not give him a place to hang out and eat? Just a suggestion.