For the last 2 years, the squirrels have eaten ALL of the fruit off of my fruit tree before it ripens, leaving me with NOTHING. Not one piece of fruit. Before I go to the extreme (and expense) of building an giant ugly pvc frame with wire mesh to attempt to keep them out, I'd like to try setting up a motion activated sprinkler that will scare them off.
Has anyone done something similar, what specific hardware did you use and was it successful?
Parameters for my situation:
This can be via Hubitat or other. My Hubitat is a C-7, so if via HE it has to work with a C-7.
The tree trunk is over 50' from house/source of power, so battery operated may be better, and if zwave/zigbee probably needs to be long range.
I can run a hose to the location to spray the entire tree canopy.
I'd like a short run time to use as little water as possible - ie as soon as the squirrels go away the water stops.
I'd like a simple way to turn it on and off, because it is right next to a neighbors play structure, and the parents often stand in the shade of the tree in my yard watching the kids, so they could just turn it off, and either I hope they turn it back on or write an automation to turn it back on. Maybe even a cam that recognizes the difference between squirrels and humans, and connects to HE would be useful.
Hoping the braintrust here has some creative solutions!!
Added info:
It is a newer problem, probably cased because nearby "nuisance fruit" trees/bushes such as mulberries are no longer around, so the squirrels have switched to the fruit also desirable to humans. It will be a few years before the decoy undesirables I've planted elsewhere bear fruit.
Netting select branches to preserve some fruit does not work - the squirrels chew right through the netting to get to the green unripe fruit, pluck it, take two bites and drop the fruit...grrr. Another option is wire netting, but hoping to try the sprinkler offensive first.
Not an HE thing but they make a sprinkler specifically for this sort of thing. I use to use one by my pool to scare off birds, this was way back before I got into home automation. It not only shot out a spray of water it made a fairly loud noise with the flapper that made it spin. It worked for my use case. How well it would work for squirrels I am not sure. I can't remember the specific sprinkler I used, but I did a quick search for pest deterrent sprinkler and there are many brands out there.
Not to put a damper on things, so to speak, but squirrels live outside. Would a little fake rain deter them from a tasty morsel?
How about wrapping the trunk with a piece of (painted dark) aluminum-large enough so they couldn't do a vertical leap around it?
Can they get to the tree by jumping from a fence, another tree, etc? If not, they'd have to come up the trunk....although I know someone who claimed he had flying squirrels in his attic.
I was wondering how long until that showed up. Bad idea, squirrels are very "tit-for-tat" creatures, and the last thing you want is fifty of them in your back yard shooting holes in your siding. Plus, what if the tell the crows about you... [shudder]
Yes. They can easily jump from the neighbor's play structure. I've also watched them jump from two neighboring trees. The edge of one trees branches are only a bit more than 5' from my tree's branches so it is easy for them; I trimmed some of those but it is still close enough.
The other tree is WAY above and the d-- squirrel flew about 20-30' down & across right onto my fruit tree. I did not think they could or would jump either that far or that precisely until I saw it...
Happy to SHARE but these d--- squirrels take EVERY SINGLE fruit. My neighbors also have a similar tree and had the same issue.
Those actually work pretty well. I bought one last summer to keep the neighbor's chickens from tearing up our front flower garden. Even if they don't get wet, the noise of the sprinkler clicking scares them away. The motion sensor is very sensitive, but sensitivity can be turned down with a knob. It has got me more than once while mowing the lawn, but it is actually is kind of nice a hot day to get sprayed while mowing.
@danabw - thanks
Yes, considered the netting, but neighbors tried it and the squirrels chewed right through it in 3-4 days.
Have not considered the owl. However, since ths squirrels are seemingly not bothered by people I doubt they will be bothered by an owl...
Owls and birds of prey are their top predators... Squirrels know you can't get to them, but owls can. Might be worth a try. The head rotates! A must have!
I'd love to do that, but in the jurisdiction I live trapping is only allowed inside, such as in an attic. Also, there are so many I'd probably need 100's of these...at any particular time I can look in my city sized back yard and see at least 6-8 of them sometimes more.
What I'd really like is a Cam with AI smart enough to distinguish between a squirrel and a branch moving in the wind, and that can communicate with Hubitat. Then I'd just turn on the sprinkler...
Something I noticed ..after I pop a squirrel, it rolls around on the ground a bit spreading blood. I don’t see any squirrels for a few days after that. This has happened several times, more than a coincidence. Sort of like the other squirrels know to stay away.
I have had this problem in the past with deer, which are a bit easier to control with a fence, but since fences are so analog, I automated with Hubitat.
I actually use a sprinkler system to irrigate my garden, but I mounted some Hue Outdoor motion sensors to detect and deter the deer with a few second burst from the sprinkler. To do my sprinkler system, I installed a second sillcock valve on the exterior of my house by branching off of the existing one. I then installed this normally-closed solenoid valve on the new line and hooked it up to a Z-Wave on/off switch mounted in a project box to control it. Actually solid and works great for the deer.
If you’re looking to do your own setup with water, something like this might work, but I’m not sure what mileage you’ll get with squirrels. This past year I had a chipmunk and squirrel plague, and they ate almost everything… even stuff that they hadn’t touched in past years. Blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes. The only fruit they didn’t touch were my peppers. I even have a mulberry tree and wild cherry tree nearby, and those didn’t satisfy their hunger. So I was actually thinking about how I could modify this to deal with the squirrels and chipmunks, but I haven’t come up with any solutions yet. I was actually wondering about repositioning the motion sensors or adding more or even radar motion sensors, but not sure they will detect the small beasts.
We have a faux owl for 30+ years. Early on I think it chased away 90% of the critters tempted to feast in the vegetable garden, which only left more available for the critters that weren't chased away by the owl. The end result was a small reduction in what was munched on.
We had a large cherry tree. We tried netting around it to keep the birds away. The netting worked well, but it was a pain to put on the 20' tall tree and even more of a pain to harvest through. We did just leave it on all year. Back then the kids were little so we'd untie it from the trunk and let the kids inside to climb the tree and pick. We stopped using the netting the year a squirrel managed to get inside and then couldn't get back out. The remains were unpleasant for the rest of the family. (I didn't care)
Plus, what if the tell the crows about you... [shudder]
