Squirrels are a common garden pest, and while they may look cute, they can wreak havoc on your garden by eating your plants and flowers. Gardens make the perfect playground for squirrels and they will willingly eat what’s available to them.
Squirrels tend to enjoy chowing down on flower bulbs, buds, and even some petals. They’re particularly attracted to tulips, crocus, and the flower buds of camellias and magnolias, but are also known to munch on dandelions, too. So if you’re looking for an easy way to deter them, then there are a few plants that they will hate that can also fill your garden with extra blooms.
Alliums
Squirrels are averse to alliums due to their strong odours, meaning that if you have these in your gardens, they’ll definitely stay away. Alliums consist of vegetables and herbs such as onion, garlic, shallots, leeks, scallions, chives.
Pest Pointers explained that when alliums are crushed or otherwise injured, these plants release their strong, powerful smell into the air. Squirrels pick up this scent from afar and aren’t likely to get any closer due to the overpowering scent.
Squirrels need their sense of smell to find food and avoid predators, so when they can’t smell, they feel they are in danger, which is what keeps them away from certain areas where alliums are planted.
You can plant alliums near to your other plants or flowers so they can deter squirrels from feeding on your blooms.
Daffodils
Squirrels also hate daffodils, so if they’re planted near other flowers, they’ll keep away the animal. There’s also a bonus to planting daffodils, not only working as a deterrent but also resulting in beautiful flowers growing in the garden.
Gardenia.Net explained that daffodils contain lycorine, which is poisonous to rodents. Instinctively, squirrels know this.
Planting daffodils in your gardens or around your pool will keep squirrels far away as they will immediately deem your outdoor space unsafe.
Hyacinth
Hyacinths also produce a rather pungent perfume for squirrels. Pest Pointers likened the scent to when someone is wearing a really floral-smelling perfume and it gets stuck in your nose.
Similarly, this works for squirrels. While hyacinth bulbs are not necessarily poisonous, they are less appealing to squirrels compared to other bulbs like tulips, making them a good choice for gardeners concerned about bulb damage.