How to encourage squirrels back to our garden

[BettyEagleton]

Our garden was always full of squirrels. I really like them and I would feed them every day.

Last autumn our NDN started a huge (and v noisy/disruptive) building project. For ages we didn’t have a fence.

Now the work is done, and there is a new fence. But it is horrible composite rather than wood which I’m not sure the squirrels can run along. And there are no squirrels to be seen.

Any ideas how to encourage them to come back? I’ll put the feeder out again but if they can’t run along the fence it won’t help. Is there anything we can put on the fence to give them the chance to climb?

Greys? They are basically rats and shouldn't be encouraged really. They are considered invasive and harmful to the ecosystem.

Put the food out. They will likely come back. You'll get birds as a bonus if not squirrels.

Poor squirrels. Humans are invasive and wreck the ecosystem too.
I put out nuts, cheese, they have a fence and conifers/trees, water, a lawn to hide nuts. I wasn’t best pleased when one dug up a plant to hide a bit but there we go. I love watching them play.

nothing useful to add just solidarity, mine have disappeared this year as well, we’ve got lots of new neighbours and building works / trees gone. I miss seeing the babies playing and the mums looking on exhausted

Spend about a hundred quid on spring bulbs - tulips especially, and maybe a load of anemone blanda, get them planted, and wake up to a load of holes and a couple of fat greedy smug squirrels. In my experience anyway.

Each to their own, when we moved the garden(big) was awash with the things, come late spring lots of broken eggshells and not a bird in sight!
Started shootings the squirrels we are currently up to 73! This over a period of 2 years, but the birds are back, and the walnut tree,(so far) may even have some for us instead of the dreaded tree rats!

I know they’re not a native species but I like watching them run about and we have an albino squirrel who is just joyous. I’ve not seen her for weeks and weeks.

Plus our garden is full of acorns which doesn’t normally happen. I’m assuming that usually the squirrels take them all.

We do have lots of birds too - even a woodpecker on occasion. And a fox den at the bottom so we get cubs every year. We have a tiny garden in SE London so I love seeing all the wildlife.

(Though I reserve the right to swear at the squirrels when they nibble through the wires of my fairy lights and dig up my pots)

Totally missed the shooting comment. Awful. Is that even legal?!

I'm all for encouraging the birds, but ranting and raving and hanging out your back door shooting at squirrels is pretty unhinged 😆

Plant Hazel and a walnut tree.

We have a composite fence on one side. Squirrels have no problem navigating it.

@PauliesWalnuts - I was going to say the same thing! Buy some really expensive bulbs, properly gorgeous ones, and the little feckers will be back in the blink of an eye.

None of your cheap bags from Wilko's, mind. Sarah Raven at the very least. Squirrels can smell which are the bargain bulbs and restrict their snacking to the pricey stuff.

Good tips on hazel and walnut trees. We don’t have much space for trees but maybe I could put a small one in a big
pot.

The bulbs tip made me laugh! I don’t plant bulbs - guess why? 😂

I know wildlife centres can’t re release squirrels that have been brought in.
There’s a few people who now have foster homes for them, where they keep them at home because it’s that or death.

Absolutely @PestoHoliday - I lost £50 of Sarah Raven bulbs from ONE large trough last year (I’d been to her cutting garden and came back uber-inspired). I’m not going to put many in the garden this year - my stash will all go in pots and last Friday I went to the garden ce tee and bought a big roll of chicken wire - that’ll go over the tops of the pots until they start to sprout in the spring.

Yes totally legal to shoot grey squirrels . They are vermin, are carnivorous, so will eat baby birds if available. They carry diseases that kill our native reds and if you end up bitten by one you will very likely end up in hospital having antibiotics.

Grey squirrels were once described to me as "rats with good PR".

And rats too! They love bird food.

Plant some nice tall sunflowers against the fence. They love to climb them and tear the head off.

I love grey squirrels. It’s nonsense to play the outcompeting reds card somewhere like London where the reds can never come back due to lack of habitat. They bring joy in places that lack other wildlife. I love the sweary fuckers. We had an albino one when I lived in London too - when he first appeared as a baby I thought “that one will never survive”, but he grew up to be an absolute thug, swinging his white hairy balls around and yelling blue murder at all the other squirrels. He was the King of Camberwell.

We shoot them as well.