Ways To Keep Squirrels From Chewing On Patio Furniture
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Also, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.–
Squirrels are very common small animals that many people see out in their yards. Its very possible that you might find multiple squirrels near your property at any given point in time because of how ubiquitous they are in many areas.
The problem with squirrels is that they can wind up messing with things in your yard. Sometimes theyll eat certain things off of your plants, and some people have even had squirrels chew on their patio furniture while they were away.
Squirrels are generally smart enough not to get near patios when humans are close, but you arent going to be able to watch your patio like a hawk all the time. If youve spent a pretty penny on nice patio furniture, then you almost surely dont want the furniture to be ruined by squirrels.
Is there anything that can be done to protect your patio furniture from squirrels? Read on to get important information that can help you to keep squirrels away from your patio reliably.
Prune Trees And Shrubs
First and foremost, you need to prune tree branches and large shrubs so that they are several feet away from your roofline, ledges, windowsills and balconies. While this is not going to help discourage rodents to leave your yard, it is going to help to ensure that your outdoor rats do not find their way indoors.
Giving your trees and shrubs an even bigger pruning may help deter rats from making their homes there, which should be high on your list if you have already found at least one rats nest in one of your trees.
Fence Off Your Porch Deck And Patio
You may have noticed that older farmhouses have fences around the house, flower gardens, and deck. Thats because fences are effective at keeping chickens out. However, fencing off a porch or deck is often undesirable for many people. There are many fencing options. These include
- Full fencing and rail
- Chicken wire or wire cloth
- Yellow ribbon
- Hotwire or electric fence
These options have different benefits and drawbacks to them. Lets go over your options.
Full Fence: A full fence or rail option should be 5 feet high. Even chickens with their wings clipped can often get over a 4-foot fence if they are determined enough.
If your chickens have plenty of roaming space, then a shorter fence will be more effective than if your chickens are crowded. Fences can be made of all types of materials including stone, wood, or wire.
Chicken Wire or Wire Cloth: Chicken wire is not very strong, but can be effective if you are trying to block off a forbidden area. Wire cloth seems to be more effective and is more popular for chicken owners.
Wire cloth can be used over the chicken wire or placed on the ground to keep chickens from digging in the flower beds around your porch. Several chicken owners recommended using a short fence, the height of your hens, to discourage hens from crossing the border into your porch.
Don’t Miss: Removing A Sliding Glass Door
Pam Mae Madfallod Ar Fy Nghyntedd
Lizards generally come into a house or make their home on a porch because they are following an easy food source. Spiders, flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches and other nasty bugs are all tasty meals to a lizard. They will follow the food source and if the best food source is outside, they will stay outside.
Secure Or Replace Your Garbage Bins
If you keep your garbage bins in or near your backyard, make sure the lids securely fasten so that rats cannot use them as a hunting ground for food. If your trash cans cannot be properly sealed at all times, it is time to purchase new ones that can. Rats love trash cans. It is also important to keep the area around your trash cans free of trash, food scraps and spills that might attract rodents to your yard.
You May Like: Washing Outdoor Cushions
Ydy Pine Sol Yn Gwrthyrru Madfallod
Defnyddiwch lanhawyr peraroglus. Fel rheol, rydw i’n glanhau fy arwynebau â sol pinwydd, ac o leiaf nes i’r arogl wisgo i ffwrdd, ni fydd y madfallod yn dod yn agos. Gallwch hefyd gymysgu’r glanhawr pinwydd â dr rhan gyfartal a’i roi mewn potel chwistrellu. Yna spritz lle bynnag mae’r madfallod yn hongian allan.
A Little Bit About Squirrels
A squirrels diet is primarily composed of the tree nuts that it spends most of its time foraging and hoarding. However, they will readily eat flowers, fruits, vegetables, twigs, and insects. Nature has made squirrels opportunistic. They will chew just about anything put in front of them to see if it might be edible and, like all rodents, a squirrels sharp front teeth constantly grow throughout their lives, enabling the constant gnawing of their environment.
They are, of course, prolific climbers. A squirrels hind legs are double-jointed. Their feet can rotate 180-degrees, making squirrels the only animal capable of climbing downward face first. This allows them to race at full speed up and down a tree trunk, utility pole, or the side of your house. Additionally, squirrels are incredibly nimble, pulling off high-speed, death-defying stunts, using their tails as a counterbalance.
They are also very clever. A full 20% of squirrels dont even forage their own nuts but simply steal from other squirrels. So, to thwart potential robbers, squirrels will go through the motions and pretend to bury a nut to fool other animals watching them.
Dont Miss: How To Get Patio Screen Door Off Track
Also Check: Patio Door Cover Ideas
Sut I Gadw Madfallod O Ddodrefn Patio
Dim ond rhai o’r planhigion sy’n gweithio fel ymlid madfall yw pupur, ewcalyptws, garlleg, winwns a lemongrass. Mae gan garlleg a nionyn arogl pwerus nad yw madfallod a phryfed yn ei hoffi. Os ydych chi’n hongian winwns ger eich porth, bydd madfallod fel arfer yn cadw draw, ac felly hefyd chwilod.
Ydy Finegr Yn Cael Gwared Madfallod
Lizards hate the smell of vinegar and lemon, while chilli powder can cause irritation to their skin, eyes and nose. Create your own vinegar, lemon and chilli powder spray to repel lizards from surfaces sprayed with this mixture. Put the mixture into a spray bottle and shake well.
Swyddi cysylltiedig
Recommended Reading: Wood Stain On Concrete Removal
Move Your Vegetable Garden Far From Your House
If you have a vegetable garden, move it as far away from your house and outdoor living areas as possible. As long as you have a vegetable garden offering foods they like to eat, rats may still be attracted to your yard. However, if it is tucked away in a back corner of your yard, at least that may help keep them away from areas where your children play or where you spend time with your family or guests.
How To Keep Squirrels From Chewing On Patio Furnitur
Read Also: How To Create A Pea Gravel Patio
Don’t Miss: How To Build Patio Cover Attached To House
If Raccoons Are Eating Out Of Your Bird Feeders Re
Raccoons sleep during the day and venture out at night.
Shop Rascally Raccoon Bird Finger Yard or Garden Statue …
3dRose Raccoons Polyester 27 x 18 in. Garden Flag | Wayfair
Garden & Pond Covers | Ponds backyard, Pond netting
Raccoon Proof Garbage Cans, Dog Proof Garbage Cans, Animal …
How To Keep Squirrels From Pooping On Deck Grass …
29 best Raccoon and possum proof cat feeders images on …
30% Off Design Toscano Bandit the Raccoon Garden Animal …
How to Keep Raccoons out of Your Garden – Dengarden – Home …
Homemade Natural Possum Repellent | Home Guides | SF Gate
Leave the radio for a couple of days to scare the animals. Also, double bag your trash so it’s harder for the raccoons to smell it. If the spot is on a deck or patio, you can just move around some furniture.
Sut Mae Cadw Geckos Oddi Ar Fy Patio
Household Solutions If you have eggshells, you can place them around your home to scare off geckos. If you have mothballs, you can place them around to repel geckos. If you have coffee and tobacco, you can make a gecko poison. If you have garlic cloves, you can use them to repel geckos with the odor.
Also Check: Vintage Metal Lawn Chairs Original Colors
Use Fake Predators Keep Chickens Away
Owls, snakes, and hawks are common predators to chickens so chickens have a natural aversion to them. However, simply placing a plastic owl on your porch isnt likely to keep your chickens away long term.
Chickens are smart and will quickly learn that the owl isnt really dangerous. Thats why many chicken owners purchase mechanical predators to scare chickens away. To be effective, you will need to change the position of your preditors, the volume, and location. This keeps your birds from becoming as accustomed to them. It also takes some time and commitment your birds alert.
But as a side benefit, these predators can help to keep other real predators away from your chickens. You can also buy rubber snakes and move them around various locations.
You will also find that different types of chickens are more flightly than others. As a result, you will have varying success with decoy predators to scare away your chickens.
Leghorns and Buttercups are more flighty and will likely stay away from a fake predator. Cochins or Brahmas are less flighty and more likely to realize that the predator isnt real and then ignore the warning.
- The variety of chickens will impact how flighty they are when encountering fake predators
- Predators will need to be moved around and repositioned for effectiveness
What Squirrels Will Chew
Squirrels will chew just about anything, but they prefer to chew things that have softer textures and taste woodsy. This is why you will find that squirrels like to chew on things such as tree branches, baseball bats, and lumber. They also like to chew on objects that have been exposed to other squirrels urine and feces.
You May Like: Patio Chair Webbing Replacement
Simple Tricks On How To Keep Cats Off Furniture
If you are wondering how to keep cats off furniture naturally, you are not alone. That has been a problem for countless cat owners and is one of the more challenging aspects of owning cats.
How to keep cats off furniture
Cats do not just use the furniture to rest, but may also scratch and tear them. After having spent a large amount of money on home furniture, it is heart-breaking to see your furniture being damaged by your adorable cat.
It can also be bothersome finding the fur of your cat on your couch, sofa, door mats, carpets and bed and could be even unhealthy.How to keep cats away from furniture? Well, this needs considerable effort on your part.
Training the cat or your kitten at an early stage can help them keep away from your furniture. Once the cat is familiar with using the furniture of the house, it becomes difficult to train it to keep away from it.
Read Also: How To Pave A Patio For Cheap
Assault The Senses To Keep Squirrels Away
You can use your knowledge of the five senses to keep squirrels out of your backyard. Here are a few things that stink, disgust, or just taste plain awful to squirrels.
Smell / Taste
- Coyote or fox urine. It sounds gross, but it works. Use a lawn sprayer to spray the urine over your garden, lawn, or spray a line around your patio. Dont worry, you dont have to go out into the wild to find some. You can purchase these products at most home improvement and garden stores.
- Deer repellent. Spray deer repellent around the perimeter of the patio, on the edge of the back wall, and any rain-spouts the squirrel could climb on to get to your outdoor living space.
- This is a great option to also protect your patio furniture, as you can spray deer repellent on the underside of your furniture without causing damage .
- Apple cider vinegar. Soak rags in apple cider vinegar and place them around your patio. Re-soak the rags once a week to keep critters away.
- Soap. Rub a circle of soap around edges of the patio or along the railing if you have a deck, the smell will keep squirrels away.
- Mix a cayenne concoction. Pour cayenne pepper in a line around the perimeter of your patio. Remember to redraw the line whenever the supply gets low, such as after a rain storm.
Sight
Sound
Feel
Read Also: Antique Rod Iron Patio Furniture
Grow Peppermint Plants Around Your Patio
For a longer-term mint scent, consider planting a few mint plants around your patio. Not only will you repel mice, but youll have some fresh mint for summer cocktails!
This guide from Bonnie Plants gives a more in-depth look at how to grow mint in your garden correctly. Heres the process, in a nutshell:
Also necessary: Keep your mint plants potted. Mint will quickly overrun your garden if left to its own devices. Unless you really like the smell of mint, keep it out of the rest of your gardens soil.
How To Keep My Dog Off The Outdoor Furniture
Ways to Keep Dogs off of Patio Furniture
Also Check: Cleaning Patio Furniture Cushions
Spray A Combination Of Onion And Pepper
Hot pepper works effectively against raccoons, but sometimes, temporary irritation isnt enough to keep them out of your property. So you may want to try a combination of onion and pepper of an equal mixture boiled in water.
This combination will irritate their sense of smell while releasing an unappetizing smell that may help keep raccoons away.
Despite its pungent smell, though, onion and pepper mixture will only last for a few days. The scent diminishes over time, so if you want to keep raccoons out of your property for good, you need to use this combination at least twice a week.
You may also need to spray it in places that they use as their habitat to teach them that getting inside your property will only get their olfactory receptors irritated.
While this is an option, really its a temporary solution as is with using ALL scents. They go away after sometime!
Wrap Poles With Metal
Instead of a disc-shaped baffle, you can wrap a portion of your deck post in metal. This can be sheet metal, stovepipe, or any other smooth metal surface. The metal portion should be at least 24 inches long and 48 inches from the ground.
- Wrap your deck posts with 24-inch sections of smooth metal, such as stovepipe.
- The metal-wrapped section should begin 48 inches above the ground and at least 24 inches above any railing, tree limbs, or other platforms raccoons can leap from onto the deck post.
Raccoons are crafty creatures and excellent climbers. They will climb nearby trees and other structures and leap onto your deck posts to continue climbing. Make sure your prevention measures take these factors into account.
Don’t Miss: Leveling A Brick Patio
Get Better Garbage Cans
We saved the best for last. Quality garbage cans can be the best way to handle pesky raccoons that just wont quit. And, you dont have to spend an arm and a leg to acquire them.
Sure, you might be thinking about going to get raccoon proof garbage cans at Home Depot, but we have a better solution. Trashcans Unlimited has some of the best trash cans in the business, and we have a wide variety of cans that will help you deal with any pesky raccoon–and other pesky trash-lover–infestation. Dont hesitate to get in touch with us with any questions, or start browsing our product lines right away.
What Damage Can Cats Do To Outdoor Furniture
You may already know the trouble that can be caused by a cat sitting on your outdoor furniture. However, if this is new to you, this is how neighborhood cats can wreak havoc on your patio furniture.
- Scratching or clawing at the furniture, especially wicker, will cause it to deteriorate quite quickly .
- If you have cushions on porch furniture and stray cats are laying on it, there could very well be fleas, ticks, or bacteria on the cushions.
- Hair. Lots of cat hair. Nothing like having friends over and watching them walk away with cat hair covering their clothes. Its embarrassing, and its made even worse if its not even your own cat sitting on the furniture.
Also Check: Replacement Straps For Lawn Chairs