How To Keep Squirrels Out Of Potted Plants: 4 Tips

Here’s how to discourage these persistent garden visitors.

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You’ve just finished planting your containers with flowers, herbs, or veggies, only to come outside later to find your plants uprooted and dirt scattered everywhere. What just happened here?

Chances are your neighborhood squirrels are to blame. "Tree squirrels have the instinct to bury and cache food for later use," says Robert Pierce, PhD, associate professor and state extension fisheries and wildlife specialist at the University of Missouri. "A flower pot or vegetable pot and the relatively loose soil in these pots can be a perfect location for this purpose. Squirrels also may be attracted to the succulent plants that can be a food source at certain times a year."

Squirrels hide food in a lot of different spots to minimize the risk of losing it all if another squirrel finds it. "Squirrels digging in your pots may be looking for food they buried previously," says Mike Mengak, PhD, professor emeritus and wildlife specialist at the University of Georgia. In fact, research has found that squirrels are pretty good at remembering and sniffing out where they have cached food.

On the other hand, you can’t necessarily blame squirrels for the damage unless you’ve actually witnessed the culprit in action. "Chipmunks have the same digging behavior," says Pierce.

Regardless, you’ll never be able to keep squirrels (or chipmunks) out of your yard or off your patio completely. While there are a few ways to discourage the digging, there are no guarantees any one technique will work. "Squirrels and chipmunks are not stamped out in a factory. They’re individuals with different behaviors," says Mengak. "If an animal is that obsessed with your pots, you may have a tough time discouraging it."

Try these suggestions from Pierce and Mengak about how to keep squirrels (and chipmunks) out of your potted plants. It’s likely you’ll need to use a combination of techniques: