Squirrels and growing veg!

[Starchild28]

This is my first year with a garden so I am growing (or at least trying to) my own veg.
I have lots of young courgette plants in pots I am waiting to get a bit bigger before planting them in the veg patch. The last two mornings I have come down to several them eaten. There are a family of squirrels that live in my and neighbours gardens so I am pretty sure its them. How can I deter them? I am also growing broad beans, runner beans, carrots, lots of tomatoes, peppers, chillis and herbs.
When I plant the bigger plants in the ground how can I protect them there?
Thanks :)

well... we would shoot them (grey's only). But I understand MN may not like that. Traps are also an option if you don't mind (grey) squirrel death but don't have a firearm.

If they are grey squirrels then they are officially pests.

Maybe try and put something out that is more tempting to them like cobnuts it may also encourage them though.

If you have something prickly you are willing to sacrifice like holly or gooseberry or brambles you can lay that around your plants or failing that upturned chicken wire. They apparently don't like onions or chillies either so might be fine with those.

Here is a picture of a lovely red squirrel who should be welcomed and offered all of your plants.

grey squirrel rat in comparison

It is the squirrels. I've never seen a red one. Aren't they extinct?

Are you sure it's the squirrels - we have loads of squirrels (unfortunately) but they are more prone to digging up plants, eating bulbs and stripping pine cones (all over my car) than eating any of the plants in the vegetable patch.
We found it was slugs, caterpilkers & aphids which so far have been successfully deterred from eating my remaining courgettes/cucumbers/pumpkins/squash by using lemonade bottle cloches which I guess would also stop the squirrels.

Really? Squirrels eat courgette plants? I have been leaving my poor defenceless seedling out in the back garden to grow on, and there are four or five squirrels in there all the time!

Having said that, they've never been eaten. Slugs, however, have completely destroyed several plants of mine overnight. I know because of the slime. Is it definitely not them?

Thank you for the replies. I presumed it was the squirrels as the plants were eaten down to the stem, like they had been bitten off, although there has been slime around so it may very well be slugs - or both!
I couldn't shoot them, I quite like them but would like to have some veg too.
Where I live 99% are black squirrels with a few random greys.
I bought some beer last night as I hear that would help with slugs, however my DF said I got the incorrect one (lager) and infact its bitter that appeals to them?
I am totally new to all this so I am sure I will learn lots along the way, I just hope I have some veg at the end of it :)

starchild, I have had slimy stumps left where previously there were whole cucumber plants. Entire lettuces have disappeared overnight. Slugs will do that, absolutely. If there's slime about I'd suggest they're almost certainly the culprit.

Beer-wise, doesn't matter which type you use. It's the smell of the yeast in the beer they're attracted to. You can also make traps using water, yeast and a little milk - same effect.

Make sure you use a deep container (the cut-off bottom of a 2 litre pop container is good) and sink it into the ground so there's a lip of about 1cm (stops other beasties falling in it).

The results are satisfying but gross.

You could also try putting coffee grounds beneath the plants to deter slugs. Or the good old-fashioned method: go out with a torch just after nightfall and pick the buggers off by hand!

We found Stella lager was more effective than the morrisons basics bitter I bought specifically for the slugs.

Its the slugs! I had the plants full covered and zipped up and they still got munched, when I went to check there was a slug on the side of my courgette pot.

So tonight I will be using the salt/ beer/ coffee to keep them at bay!

They are complete buggers.
DS is on a right earner as I naively offered him 2p a slug for any he picked off - he seems to earn several pounds every time he goes to look.
But this along with the beer traps & cloches seem to be working and the latest round of seedlings were't completely decimated.
They have moved on to the strawberry patch but the frogs from next doors pond seem to come and get them there and it's such a massive patch 4mx4m we can afford to lose a few strawberries to them.