You can’t make them stop chewing, but these deterrents may help limit the damage.
We have a deck and a few oak trees in our backyard in Silver Spring, Md. Several years ago, we replaced deck furniture made of wood and cast iron with new pieces made of aluminum. Last fall, we noticed squirrels had been gnawing on it. So when we covered the furniture with a tarp for the winter, we sprinkled it with a lot of cayenne pepper. We hoped that would stop the squirrels. But when we took off the covers a couple of weeks ago, the damage looks worse.
As you note, squirrels are rodents, and, as such, they need to gnaw on stiff materials to wear down their upper and lower incisors, which grow throughout their lifetimes. In the woods, that allows squirrels to open nuts and rip apart stumps. In a yard, these animals chew wood, plastic, upholstery, asphalt roofing and much more — even soft metals. Squirrel teeth are no match for steel. But squirrels can bite into aluminum lawn furniture, aluminum flashing and copper wiring.
Squirrels usually avoid materials with tastes or scents they find disagreeable. Besides cayenne, peppermint is high on the list. Some people also report success with black pepper, vinegar, garlic and Irish Spring soap. But those scents need to be fresh to have any hope of working. The red pepper flakes you sprinkled around your furniture in the fall before you spread the tarp could easily have become stale during the winter.
A company representative said the Environmental Protection Agency no longer allows that product to be sold on its own, but Rymar incorporates it in other products.There is also a long tradition of mixing cayenne into paint for the bottoms of boats, supposedly to help keep barnacles from growing there. You might want to experiment on some scrap pieces of aluminum — maybe a pot or two from a Goodwill store.
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