Fig Tree Squirrel Deterrents
Do squirrels eat figs? They sure do!
Minimize Squirrel Damage to Figs
Squirrels Digging Potted Fig Plants
This question recently arrived in my mailbox:
“I am having trouble with my potted fig trees. squirrels keep digging them up and chewing on them. Do you have any recommendations on how to prevent this.”
I’ve seen a few squirrel deterrents over the years.
Some squirrel deterrents work.
Many don’t.
In this post I’ll tell you what fig tree squirrel deterrents are worth your time.
Protect Young Potted Fig Plants
Prevent squirrels from digging up plants by excluding them with chicken wire. (In case you’re wondering, that’s not a fig plant in the photo.)
When it comes to squirrels digging up young potted fig plants, I’ve found the the easiest thing to do is to physically exclude the squirrels.
Chicken wire works well to prevent squirrels uprooting young potted fig trees.
If you’re having a bad year for squirrel damage, this is worth it!
I’ve come home to find an entire tray of young potted fig plants uprooted and strewn on the patio. Positively infuriating!
With newly potted fig trees, snip the wire so that it can be wrapped around the plant, and then folded over the side of the pot.
Or, make a small cage to cover a full tray of young potted fig plants.
One more idea: I’ve put an upturned laundry basket over top of trays of newly potted plants for a couple of weeks, so they have time to get established.
(Excluding squirrels works well for other plants too. My friend Claus uses it to keep squirrels from digging up his potted pepper plants.)
Squirrels Digging in Mature Potted Figs
Spiky bird-deterrent mat as a squirrel deterrent on a larger potted fig tree. The foil that was used as a baffle did NOT work.
I often get horse chestnuts poking up next to my potted figs. Every fall the squirrels eagerly bury the nuts in the potted figs…and then forget about them.
If this is a problem, you can physically exclude the squirrels as you would with young fig plants.
Chicken wire works well.
You can see in the picture the spiky bird-deterrent mat that a friend used to prevent squirrels digging in potted fig trees.
I don’t do this because it’s extra work—and the squirrels digging in larger pots with well-formed roots rarely causes damage to worry about.
Do Squirrels Eat Figs?
The pictures of squirrel-eaten figs below are worth 1,000 words!
It’s frustrating…because they don’t usually eat the entire fig, so some of it is wasted. And they leave those half-eaten figs right outside my kitchen window, on the deck railing, where it torments me!
(By the way, chipmunks eat figs too…)
Squirrel Netting on Fig Trees
An organza bag as a squirrel deterrent for individual figs.
I do not net my fig trees.
It’s a lot of work…both when you install the netting, and when you repeatedly peel it back to harvest figs.
But I’ve heard of people netting fig trees it, in the same way that people net grapes to keep out birds and raccoons.
Organza Bags
Small organza bags (the fabric mesh bags often used for wedding favours) are a simple way to exclude squirrels from individual figs.
This is not something that’s practical for a large tree with many figs—but if you have a small tree with special figs that you must try, it’s an option.
(I don’t do this with figs, but it’s how I manage to harvest pawpaw fruit in my squirrel and raccoon infested yard.)
Get Your Fig Trees Through Winter
And eat fresh homegrown figs!
Fewer Squirrels
Foxes: an all-natural squirrel deterrent!
I remember asking my fig mentor, Adriano, how he prevented squirrels from eating his figs.
“Get a cat,” he said.
I don’t have a cat, but one year foxes made a den nearby.
Those squirrels that survived a litter of 6 hungry fox kits stayed high up in the big maple tree that summer. And I did not have any squirrels eating my figs!
Foxes are an excellent squirrel deterrent.
Fig Colour
I love dark figs.
And so, it seems, do the birds and squirrels.
I’m sure it’s not that the squirrels are choosy…but green figs fly under the radar. They blend in amongst the green leaves on fig trees.
Fig Tree Baffles for Squirrels
This squirrel baffle didn’t help at all! Squirrels jump — so they must be well above the ground and beyond where squirrels can jump from neighbouring objects.
If you’re thinking of trying tree baffles for squirrels, the main thing to remember is that squirrels jump.
They jump quite well.
I don’t use baffles on my fig trees because there are too many nearby launch points from which they could successfully jump into my fig trees.
But if you had a stand-alone fig tree, with a tall, single-stem trunk to which you could attach a baffle—it could work.
(I do use squirrel baffles on my bird feeder poles in the winter: The key to success is having the baffle high enough off the ground, and having the feeder far enough away from anything a squirrel could jump from.)
A friend tried the baffle pictured at the right…and the squirrel just effortlessly hopped onto the stem above…
Scent Deterrents for Squirrels
Don’t get me started on this…it’s a scam!
When I lived in a rental house with a squirrel-infested attic, the landlord insisted the the powdered coyote urine he sprinkled on the roof kept away squirrels.
It didn’t. I listen to the squirrels skittering around the attic as I tried to work below.
Don’t waste your money.
(What worked? Exclusion. Installing a one-way exit, and making sure that there was no way back into the attic.)
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