How to Keep Squirrels Out of Tomato Plants

Overview

Squirrels may be enjoyable to watch on a warm summer day, but if you are a gardener, they are often your nemesis--eating vegetable and fruit crops, such as your tasty homegrown tomatoes. There are many home remedies, such as sprinkling cayenne pepper, that claim to help, often they do not. Building a cage around your plants is the one sure way to keep the squirrels away from your tomatoes.

Step 1

Buy chicken wire that is tall enough to accommodate the mature height of your tomato plants.

Step 2

Cut off the bottom horizontal row of the chicken wire with bolt cutters. Now the bottom vertical pieces will be jutting out.

Step 3

Stick the bottom vertical wires into the soil, encircling your tomato plant with the chicken wire cage.

Step 4

Insert four stakes (wooden or plastic) around the cage you just installed. The stakes should be a couple inches higher than the cage.

Step 5

Lay bird netting over the stakes and tie the netting around the stakes and around the cage with twine.