Squirrels eating your pumpkins? Try these tricks | CBC News

Have you adorned your front stoop or balcony with colourful, decorative pumpkins as a lovely homage to the beauty of the season?

Well, good luck. Voracious rodents are likely to devour your autumnal tribute.

“It’s an ongoing battle,” said Patricia McClure of London, Ont., who has been fending her winter squashes from chipmunks and squirrels for more than two decades in the city’s south end.

“I live in an extremely aggressive squirrel neighbourhood,” she said. “Not everybody on my street fares the same. I just seem to be in the epicentre of squirrel munching.”

McClure only counts on leaving her pumpkins — always three to five — out for one week, “because they get completely destroyed by squirrels and chipmunks, so I try to pick some unusual ones and it is sort of a science experiment.”

Try coating your pumpkin in something

She has found one trick that seems to work. 

“I invest in dollar-store quality hairspray and I coat my pumpkins,” said McClure. “If there’s frost I redo them, if there’s rain, I respray them.

“And if I miss a spot, I lose.”

McClure admitted she has heard from people who worry she’ll harm the squirrels if they ingest hairspray.

“I don’t know,” she scoffed. “They seem pretty hardy.”

There are a few other suggestions out there.

“I heard Vaseline works well, so I gave it a try,” said Liz Johnson on Twitter. “So far it is doing the trick! Gives the pumpkins a very glossy look.”

“I did get two fake white pumpkins to see if I can do a fake out for them,” said McClure. “If they chew those ones I’m going to be really mad.”

And if all else fails, embrace the chaos.