Keep Your Pumpkin Art Uneaten

Squirrel eating pumpkin.jpg

Keep Your Pumpkin Art Uneaten

 

                                       (Reprinted from Toronto Star October 28, 2018)

 

 

 

Every Halloween is disappointing in the same way. You carve up a creative pumpkin, then within a few hours, it gets chewed on by a furry creature. Furry creatures love to spoil Halloween masterpieces.

 

Here are four ways to keep the critters — especially squirrels — away from your masterpiece.

 

1. DIY hot sauce concoction: Mix about four litres of water, one small bottle of hot sauce and 5mL or so of dish soap. Put it in a spray bottle and coat the pumpkin, inside and out. Feel free to add pepper flakes.

 

2. Pet hair: If your pet sheds, put it to use. gather a layer and put your pumpkin on top. It will remind squirrels of a predator.

 

3. Windex + Pledge: Spray first with Windex, then finish off with Pledge. It’s not a nice smell.

 

4. Blood meal: Sprinkle 125 mL or less of this garden fertilizer around your pumpkins.