Protecting winter squash?

[Seven Bends]

This year I'm growing butternut squash in my community garden plot. Unfortunately, the neighboring plots have thriving families of chipmunks and other rodents living in and under compost bins and other structures, so it's just a matter of time before they help themselves to the squash. The plants already are too huge to fence in and cover, so I'm looking for a way to protect the individual squash.

I've heard of enclosing individual squash in panty hose/stockings or in nylon mesh bags like the ones in which onions are sold. Does this work? It seems like most rodents could chew right through nylon/plastic if they wanted to. Metal might be better, but the holes in chicken wire are too big, and the hardware cloth I have is too stiff to be easily bent into squash protectors. Maybe window screening, if it's still available in metal rather than plastic?

Any other ideas? Thanks!

[Growing Coastal]

Maybe a very fine mesh might work.
With a squash being so much larger and harder maybe they won't bother them.

Rat ate around the mesh.

[Tormahto]

This year I'm growing butternut squash in my community garden plot. Unfortunately, the neighboring plots have thriving families of chipmunks and other rodents living in and under compost bins and other structures, so it's just a matter of time before they help themselves to the squash. The plants already are too huge to fence in and cover, so I'm looking for a way to protect the individual squash.

I've heard of enclosing individual squash in panty hose/stockings or in nylon mesh bags like the ones in which onions are sold. Does this work? It seems like most rodents could chew right through nylon/plastic if they wanted to. Metal might be better, but the holes in chicken wire are too big, and the hardware cloth I have is too stiff to be easily bent into squash protectors. Maybe window screening, if it's still available in metal rather than plastic?

Any other ideas? Thanks!

I don't understand hardware cloth being too stiff to easily bend.

[Seven Bends]

I don't understand hardware cloth being too stiff to easily bend.

I think the material I have is 1/2" mesh, and it's very stiff. I have to use wire cutters to cut it, and I think I would need to use pliers to bend it, especially after the first bend (to make corners or an enclosed shape). Given how many squash there are, that would be a lot of work, and I seem to end up stabbing myself with the cut edges. I might stab or scrape the squash as well. And the mesh size is too large to keep out rodents. Can you recommend a flexible hardware cloth with a smaller mesh size that might be suitable for squash wrappers? I have easy access to Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, and Amazon.

[Seven Bends]

Maybe a very fine mesh might work.
With a squash being so much larger and harder maybe they won't bother them.

Rat ate around the mesh.

Thanks. They are very smart and determined, that's for sure.

[JRinPA]

I don't think wrapping hardware cloth is the way to go. As said, sharp! I hate working with it, though 1/2" grid would keep anything out most anything I believe.

Window screen sounds okay. Wrap and staple. Throw a want ad up your local pages -- CL -- FB -- freecycle etc for old screening that doesn't have to be nice enough for its proper use on windows. I have some in the shed, I'm sure many people do.

Maybe double bag with the onion mesh. The inside one being lumpy/extra material. Defense in depth type thing. Deer have reservations about jumping two fences.

Also, how bout making some pepper spray and spraying the squash?

[Seven Bends]

Window screen sounds okay. Wrap and staple. Throw a want ad up your local pages -- CL -- FB -- freecycle etc for old screening that doesn't have to be nice enough for its proper use on windows. I have some in the shed, I'm sure many people do.

Maybe double bag with the onion mesh. The inside one being lumpy/extra material. Defense in depth type thing. Deer have reservations about jumping two fences.

Also, how bout making some pepper spray and spraying the squash?

Thanks, good ideas. Maybe I'll try several methods and see what works/doesn't work. Would the pepper flavor be absorbed by the squash when it's young and soft-skinned? I wouldn't enjoy that any more than the rodents would.

[karstopography]

Coldbreak MESH030 Copper Mesh, 5" x 30', Pure 100% Copper, USA Made

F087CC23-2380-4472-87AE-5E70EAA4C58E.jpeg

EA427FDA-2721-4190-923D-87D6A87A61FD.jpeg

This stuff is made for excluding varmits like rats and squirrels. Copper in general is discouraging to many pests.

It’s available from Jeff Bezos and likely other vendors. Get the 100% copper, not copper coated mystery metal.

[JRinPA]

Thanks, good ideas. Maybe I'll try several methods and see what works/doesn't work. Would the pepper flavor be absorbed by the squash when it's young and soft-skinned? I wouldn't enjoy that any more than the rodents would.

Hah, yeah... I was thinking winter squash being hard skinned. But no, not when they are young they sure aren't. I think you are right about a hot pepper marinade being a problem.
This is why I try not post afterthoughts, not thought all the way through. I've yet to try a pepper spray myself on anything.

[Seven Bends]

Coldbreak MESH030 Copper Mesh, 5" x 30', Pure 100% Copper, USA Made

This stuff is made for excluding varmits like rats and squirrels. Copper in general is discouraging to many pests.

It’s available from Jeff Bezos and likely other vendors. Get the 100% copper, not copper coated mystery metal.

Interesting, that could be the solution! The only problem I see is that the diameter is just 5". It looks like it's a tube, so 5" doubled is 10", which means it could hold a squash of a little over 3" in diameter if I've done the math right. The bulb part of these squash gets to 5-6" in diameter, so it wouldn't fit in the tube unless the material stretches quite a bit. Maybe I could cut the mesh lengthwise to open the tube and and then sew two pieces together somehow, but that might take more effort than I want to put into this problem.

[karstopography]

[mention]Seven Bends[/mention] That’s a medium butternut squash in the photo and there’s plenty of room to spare. The roll is 5” top to bottom, but expands to where even a large squash ought to fit easily.

BTW, slugs won’t cross copper so that’s another benefit to using element #29.

[zendog]

That copper stuff looks like a great option if you need it. I grow squash in a community garden as well as in my front yard and I haven't had trouble with chipmunks (front yard) or rats (community garden) bothering them. If you cover them and feel you have enough to take a chance with a few, you might leave one or 2 out in the open to see if they are targeted. That way you'll know how hard you have to work to protect them next year.

[Seven Bends]

@Seven Bends That’s a medium butternut squash in the photo and there’s plenty of room to spare. The roll is 5” top to bottom, but expands to where even a large squash ought to fit easily.

Great, I went ahead and ordered a roll. If it doesn't work for squash protection, it sounds like I can scrub pots with it. Also ordered some cheap knee-high stockings and will try Craigslist for used window screening. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and ideas on this, very helpful.

[Seven Bends]

That copper stuff looks like a great option if you need it. I grow squash in a community garden as well as in my front yard and I haven't had trouble with chipmunks (front yard) or rats (community garden) bothering them. If you cover them and feel you have enough to take a chance with a few, you might leave one or 2 out in the open to see if they are targeted. That way you'll know how hard you have to work to protect them next year.

My mom is able to grow butternut squash in her yard without damage, despite having chipmunks and squirrels there. No such luck at our community garden, unfortunately. Last year, the adjacent gardener lost about 30 winter squash of various types to some animal, every single squash gnawed open in one night. It's not the first time we've seen that; it's pretty common at our garden if you leave squash on the vine long enough to mature. I'm glad for you that your rodents haven't heard the news about squash seeds yet!

[zendog]

I'm glad for you that your rodents haven't heard the news about squash seeds yet!

I guess it may just be a matter of time. I've also found that animals' tastes change over time or maybe some animals have "regional" tastes. Deer maraud through my yard frequently but never bothered okra until this year they suddenly decided they like them.

[meizzwang]

just to revive this thread, I was wondering if anyone has had success with managing field mice? Putting mesh on squash is probably effective, but if when you have nearly a hundred or more, it's not practical. I want to know how to eliminate the field mice without using poison.

I have:
1) cats (3 of the neighbor's cats are always around, patroling at night)
2) 3 foxes that patrol the area every night

I have tried:
1) sticky traps at the entrances of the holes where the field mice live. They simply abandon the hole and make a new one
2) snap traps with peanut butter: these mice are super finicky
3) gopher gassers. Just like with the gophers, seems to do nothing.

They only come out at night as far as I can tell. If their habitat is altered even slightly (eg. I remove some leaves and expose the squash, they'll temporarily stop eating that particular squash and move onto another one. They mainly attack squash that is hidden under leaves: the stuff out in the open rarely gets consumed. These hese mice are nasty and will have bite marks on every last squash in the field, which lowers their shelf life drastically.



Typical damage. They'll take a few bites and then move on to the next one. Occasionally, they'll eat the entire squash. If I'm lucky, the squash will callus over and then the shelf life will be as if it wasn't eaten. It wasn't the case with this one, they ate it too close to harvest:


I put a sticky trap in the entrance of the hole, they have completely stopped eating this squash, but will likely come back from another hole nearby in a few days:


Any success stories or proven advice is welcome! I've gone over everything I could find on the internet (besides poison, which I can't do because of the cats), and am still spinning my wheels trying to figure this out.

[Seven Bends]

just to revive this thread, I was wondering if anyone has had success with managing field mice? Putting mesh on squash is probably effective, but if when you have nearly a hundred or more, it's not practical. I want to know how to eliminate the field mice without using poison.

I have:
1) cats (3 of the neighbor's cats are always around, patroling at night)
2) 3 foxes that patrol the area every night

I have tried:
1) sticky traps at the entrances of the holes where the field mice live. They simply abandon the hole and make a new one
2) snap traps with peanut butter: these mice are super finicky
3) gopher gassers. Just like with the gophers, seems to do nothing.

Any success stories or proven advice is welcome! I've gone over everything I could find on the internet (besides poison, which I can't do because of the cats), and am still spinning my wheels trying to figure this out.

I was taught that gassing only works if you can block all the holes in an animal's network of tunnels. Groundhogs always have at least two entrances, so gassing only works if you block both. I don't know anything about field mouse tunnels/homes, but maybe that's your problem. Here's someone explaining how to use sulfur candles to find and seal rodent den entrances and suffocate the rodents: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-get-rid- ... ome-garden

Maybe try baiting the snap traps with something other than peanut butter? Or try live traps? Or put the traps over in the squash plants instead of at the entrance of their tunnel?

I don't have any proven solutions, but I'm glad you revived this thread because I realized I never reported back on my experience trying to stop the rats.

[Seven Bends]

Coldbreak MESH030 Copper Mesh, 5" x 30', Pure 100% Copper, USA Made

F087CC23-2380-4472-87AE-5E70EAA4C58E.jpegEA427FDA-2721-4190-923D-87D6A87A61FD.jpeg

This stuff is made for excluding varmits like rats and squirrels. Copper in general is discouraging to many pests.

It’s available from Jeff Bezos and likely other vendors. Get the 100% copper, not copper coated mystery metal.

When this thread was revived, I realized I never reported back about my experience with this mesh. I bought a pack of the copper mesh stuff from Amazon and wrapped my butternut squash with it in 2022 and 2023 (basically, I cut lengths of it from the roll and nestled squash in the resulting tubes, with the ends secured.) In 2022, it worked well -- only a few squash had minor nibbles. In 2023, my garden must have had higher-quality rats, or they spent the winter thinking about the problem. They figured out how to chew through or tear through the mesh or dislodge it from the squash, and all but a few of my 2023 squash were substantially chewed, with several completely destroyed.

I planned to try again this year using two layers of mesh and securing the ends better, but the miserable weather and drought brought all discretionary projects to a halt. The squash were getting ripe/mature last week and I haven't been over to check on them. I expect they will have been disemboweled by now.

I didn't track down any window screen so haven't tried that method yet.

[ddsack]

One thing that I tried last year when voles were chewing on everything, was raising my cantaloupes up off the ground, like balancing them on a coffee can or overturned bucket. It seemed like the critters couldn't/wouldn't put in the effort to try to climb up the vines, though they could have. Chipmunks or rats might be more adventurous. This year my squash is growing next to an abandoned stock panel for pea vines. Quite a few squash have set high up on the fence, so should be safe from the chewers.

[Tormahto]

Carolina Reaper membrane blended with veggie oil, poured down every hole that you find. Do the mixing outside, no wind, with whatever you have that comes close to a hazmat suit.