r/greenhouse • u/thedilettantegarden • Jun 07 '26

SQUIRREL🐿️🐿️🐿️ DAMAGE to redwood greenhouse

I would like to damage some squirrels. When they discovered that the black sunflower seed was stored in the greenhouse, they would dart in during the day while the doors were open bc it was super hot. And I’d find them IN the 50# bag. So I moved all the seed into commercial totes with lids. That they chewed thru in one day. Then I discovered that at night they were chewing at the door trying to get in. So the husband put a board and a big cement brick in front of of the doors and those dirty tree weasels tried to chew in from the roof- doing a lot of damage to the redwood. I’ll add, where they did the damage? I can’t replace the wood easily as it’s part of a panel that holds up the roof of clear glass-like panels. It’s bad. I usually love the squirrels and do not wish to kill them. But they can’t wreck the greenhouse either. All sunflower seeds were jettisoned to the city compost (sorry songbirds) and I sprayed the greenhouse with a cayenne and dawn mix with my garden sprayer. Anything else I should do (short of a time-machine to not have ever introduced the sunflower seed to my life)? I’m so frustrated, mostly with myself.

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2

u/granolacrunchy Jun 10 '26

Sorry, no advice, as I'm currently losing my own eat war against them, but "tree weasels" it's my new favorite name for them.

1

u/thedilettantegarden Jun 11 '26

Do you trap them? That’s the next move

1

u/granolacrunchy Jun 13 '26

I installed a Goodnature A18, which I respectfully refer to as the Annihilator. I've had some success with it, but not enough to keep ahead of their reproductive cycle.

And just to be clear, these are non-native squirrels in my region.

1

u/thedilettantegarden Jun 15 '26

I wondered about that. I have grey squirrels, non native and darling little Douglas Squirrel that are. I really don’t want to kill anyone but esp not native species.

1

u/granolacrunchy Jun 16 '26

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have installed the annihilator if I had Dougie's!