This year, we have a number of ground squirrels that are eating up our newly reseeded lawn and they seem to scurry off when they hear a noise such as a loud clap. I’ve been successful in having frigate detect when they are on the lawn and am looking for a way to get the detection even to trigger a noise of some sort. I could fall back to generate sounds on a time interval.
Any suggestions for hardware? I have an exterior rated Bluetooth speaker for eexample, but what would HA do to trigger a recorded sound? Or is there an electronic clapper or shot sound generator that I could trigger by putting on a smart plug?
It could be the squirrels notice YOU making the noise and that’s why they run. I’ve tried noisemakers before to scare off squirrels and other critters and haven’t had much success unless they are right next to the speaker and it causes them to jump out of their fur. You could have your sprinklers come on if they are automated, that would keep them all off the grass.
Noisemakers won’t work.
I have a mature cherry tree that we have never harvested a single cherry before the squirrels. And what they missed, the birds got. (This is a mature 30 ft tall tree and every spring there are tens of thousands of blossoms).
The squirrels and birds just ignore the noises (but the neighbors did complain). I even designed a shaker. No change. The only thing I could think of is cats. But we have wildlife around here like coyotes and foxes that would love a cat snack. (This explains why there are no feral cats around here).
You all are doing this the hard way! Just find the old angry guy in the neighborhood and flatter him with complaments about his grass and he will guard your lawn from squirrels, stray cats, and especially children. Where do you live? I can recommend some real angry ones to stand guard at a window and yell, “Get off my lawn!”
Here in Colorado we have two major pest issues: raccoons and skunks. I’ve tried a myriad of things to try to keep them away as both are extremely destructive critters. I even started designing an RC tank that shoots BB’s (low velocity, no real danger to anything, just annoying enough to drive them away) to run on some ESP devices but never could resolve a good way to target them without me driving it remotely.
The raccoons here are un-phased by humans. You can stomp at them, scream at them, clap at them and they just look at you like “you know I’m going to get in that house don’t you?”. I had a pack of 6 of them last night, the only thing that scared them off was shooting at them with a low velocity CO2 BB pistol where I could rapid fire 20 shots at their large booties until they finally scrambled over the fence - only to return about 20 minutes later.
A water canon is probably the only real deterrent since you get both sound and kinetic energy in one go.
That being said, a switchbot and a semi-automatic pistol sounds pretty good to me!
I’m guessing they don’t get scared away by standard cat deterrents (devices that make a sound that we can’t hear but annoys the hell out of the cats…). Or even the devices they put outside shops to deter teenagers congregating in the UK.
My sister (in New Hampshire) used to trap her racoons in humane traps and drive them 50 miles up state to release them. To start with she only used to drive them 10 miles, but a local ranger pointed out that they were just walking back.
Had a similar issue with mice a while ago, kept catching the same one (half an ear and half a tail so easy to spot). Each time dropped it 2 miles away, and a few days later it would be back. Decided to take it on a holiday and drove it 150 miles away, never saw it again!
In the meantime, I got some Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Soap in Peppermint scent and applied a diluted solution of it to the flagstones surrounding our lawn. Though I’m not declaring victory yet, the squirrels seem to be scurrying back from the scent “barrier” this morning.
The manufacturer website says a weaker solution can even be sprayed onto plants.
That’s a good ego friendly way. Another is powered cayenne pepper
I had a Groundhog’s tearing up my lawn 2 summers ago. I applied powered cayenne pepper around there entry hole’s and sprinkled some over the lawn. Bulk powdered cayenne pepper I found very economical and it work well for chipmunks and squirrels. 5lb’s for about 25$
The Groundhog moved to the back of the property in a wooded area 2 weeks after applying the pepper, Woot!
Now just apply it twice a year. once in spring and then two months later . Make sure you are wearing a mask and eye goggles.
