LESLIE: Rich in New Jersey is on the line and he’s got squirrels in his money pit. Tell us what’s going on.
RICH: Hi, Leslie. Yes, I have a nutty wildlife problem.
TOM: OK.
RICH: I have three oak trees in my yard and when the acorns start appearing, I have lots of squirrels having a feast. But the problem is they bury them all over the yard and they dig them up all year – all around the yard, all year long.
TOM: Wow. So they bury the food and then they dig them up again?
RICH: Yes. So I’ve got holes all over my yard, the lawn.
TOM: Oh, geez.
RICH: And I have live-trapped them and taken them to a nearby wooded area but they keep coming back. Not the same squirrels but …
TOM: Hmm. Have you thought about getting a dog?
RICH: That sounds like a good idea but my neighbor said to try chemicals; other neighbors say that’s going to pollute the nearby body of water. I’m not a hunter and I couldn’t fire a gun in this residential neighborhood anyway.
TOM: Yeah, it’s not a good idea.
RICH: Is there an effective repellant of any kind?
TOM: Rich, you’ve got some hungry squirrels there, man, don’t you?
RICH: Yes, I sure do.
TOM: It’s Thanksgiving every day at Rich’s house.
RICH: Come and get it.
TOM: Well, look, there’s a couple of things that you can do. One of the things that people have reported some success with is – and this is potentially a bit ugly. But that is to lay some garden netting at the outside perimeter of the lawns where the squirrels kind of enter the yard. If animals are afraid they’re going to get trapped in something, they usually go the other way.
LESLIE: They’re going to stay away.
TOM: And so you could put that down and pull it up kind of when you cut the lawn.
The other thing that you could do is there are a number of types of treatment that you can spray on the lawn that gives the lawn a bad taste. Now, I’m not so sure that they’re going to learn from their mistakes and not coming back. But there is actually a website that is completely devoted to keeping squirrels away from your yard, that has – is a good collection point for a lot of these products. You might want to take a look at Squirrel-X.com. Squirrel-X.com as in “yeah, I used to be a squirrel and now I’m not.”
RICH: OK. Ex.
TOM: Squirrel-X.com. But there is actually a solution that is called Whole Control that is designed for spraying. You kind of hook it up to your hose and you spray the lawn down and it discourages moles and squirrels and other animals from digging up the lawn, because it just tastes so darn bad to them.
RICH: Mm-hmm. Good, good.
TOM: Alright? So there’s a couple of options for you and I hope that that works out.
RICH: Good. You’re great, Tom. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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