Back in the decades of growing tropicals in Mississippi, I tried every trick in the book to keep squirrels out of bird feeders and off my orchids, orchids that were just about to bloom. Don't ask me why squirrels like to chew off those heavy buds/new flowers, simply dropping them to the ground. I finally gave up outsmarting them and relied on trapping. My next door neighbor had large tracts of land in the countryside, prime wildgame properties, and he looked forward to relocating those squirrels to his property. Heck, he still emails me telling me he misses adding my squirrels to his property. LOL Once I eliminated the family of squirrels that came to the yard regularly, I would be free of them for a few weeks, and then another family would make an appearance. I simply repeated the trapping.
It's humbling to know that squirrels are smarter than I am.
Good luck with all that y'all try to outsmart them.
