Keep Squirrels Away From Your Garden | Hot Pepper Tea

Squirrels can be a serious problem for vegetable gardeners. They seem to love fresh tomatoes as much as we do, and they’re often a serious pest to be battled with. 

The Gardenuity way is to create anti-squirrel pepper recipe. 

Peppers are in the Capsicum genus and vary in spiciness levels. Paprika, for example, contains capsaicinoid levels up to 30 parts per million, while jalapeños have concentrations of 16,000 parts per million. Squirrels’ brain receptors react to the capsaicinoids in peppers negatively and thus deters them. This makes a pepper mixture a great way to keep squirrels away from your garden.

We have tried lots of different pepper recipes over our gardening years.

Here are two of our favorites anti-squirrel pepper recipes.

We will start with the Tea Recipe that provides a spray to apply to your garden to keep the squirrels away from your vegetable garden.

DRY RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes. 

Directions

Simply mix equal parts of each spice and sprinkle the flakes in areas you want to keep the squirrels away from.

Hot Pepper Tea Recipe

Recipe by GardenuityCourse: TeaCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

1

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Calories

5

kcal

This Hot Pepper Tea provides a great spray to keep squirrels away from your vegetable garden.

Ingredients

• 1 quart of water

• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

• 1 teaspoon of paprika

• 2 chopped jalapeño peppers

Directions

• Mix 1 quart of water with 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of paprika, and 2 chopped jalapeño peppers. Boil the water and add all ingredients to the pot.
• Let the mixture simmer for approximately 30 minutes, remove from the heat, and let cool.
• Once cool, strain it into a spray bottle and spray the hot pepper spray on and around your garden.

Notes

• This spray should not be applied in the heat of the day. It is best applied in the evening.

DRY RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes. 

Directions

Simply mix equal parts of each spice and sprinkle the flakes in areas you want to keep the squirrels away from.