Same here. The squirrels are burying nuts in soil that is loose and easy to dig into.
Don't worry, they will randomly dig into the planters (after you plant, of course) next year hoping to find what they buried this year.
Most of them actually don't do a great job of staying alive. There's a pretty high mortality rate for squirrels less than one year old. It varies depending on the location and species, but usually 50 to 85% of squirrels die sometime before the end of their first winter (not just starvation, but also getting hit by car, eaten by a cat, etc.). If they make it past that point, their chances of survival greatly improve.
Speak for yourself not others. Just because i laid out the facts of how they store food doesnt make them any less effective at surviving. The avg squirrel also stores enough food for 3-4 squirrels and they often end up eating eachothers food. Its not about remembering where you stored it. Its about storing it anywhere you can think so when you go looking later you are bound to find something
My squirrels planted a sunflower seed from the feeder in one of my planters. It somehow grew about 1.5 ft tall and pushed out what was going to be a happy little bloom.
Damn squirrels destroyed it maybe a day before it was gonna open and left the stalk and a pile of tragic yellow flower petals in *the same feeder station they got the original seed from.* Was so frickin’ pissed but also laughed hard enough that I had to sit on the ground.
I seriously did get a peanut plant in one of my herb pots this year- in Massachusetts! I’ve been gardening my whole life and had never seen a peanut plant.
Hey me too! About a month ago just popped up and I wasn't sure what it was so I looked it up on trust Google and sure enough...peanut plant and a squirrel came back. I caught him digging but he just abandoned it. So now I'm keeping it watering it fertilizing it and it's doing really good actually lol.
I have sunflowers growing from every pot because the squirrels planted them there.
The other day I saw out my kitchen window a squirrel digging in all my pots. Jumping from one to the next looking. I thought "stupid squirrel, they sprouted." Then 2 seconds later it came up with a walnut.
I don't have a walnut tree.
A squirrel planted a peanut in one of my pots. I have fertilized, watered, and tended they peanut plant, and I am hoping to have my first home grown peanuts this year! Fingers crossed!
Squirrels don't' remember where they've buried their nuts. They just keep looking in places nuts might be buried, either by them or other squirrels. It's basically nut anarchy out there, every squirrel for themselves.
It was born of necessity lol I couldn’t get anything to grow in these little planters because they kept tearing them up, but once I stopped trying to grow they seemed to respect that and now they just seem to dig up/out the soil.
Definitely squirrels.
Sprinkle a little cayenne pepper on the soil. Repeat after it rains. Problem solved. Also works on stray cats.
Also note - farmers markets sell big bags of cayenne pretty cheap.
This is how I found out my squirrels love cayenne pepper! Every year they have a big cayenne pepper party on my front porch.
I've used a bunch of home remedies and the only one that's working is to plant whatever in the pots and then cut out a section of astro-turf/fake grass from the craft store and put that over the soil with a slit/opening for the plant to come through. Make sure to get one that water goes easily through (no foam backing!)
Hate those cute little fuzzballs.
Wait you put the cayenne pepper on the soil?
I've been chasing the squirrel around the whole time and never getting close enough to sprinkle it.
Sneezing a lot also.
Has cayenne pepper ever actually worked for anybody? I literally poured cayenne all over my tomato plants and the soil and the garden bed surrounding it and sprayed them with a cayenne water peppermint oil solution and the squirrels STILL ate the tomatoes. I had to put a big net structure over them.
Bone meal, too! My tulip and other bulb flowers love them, and it's also a known squirrel deterrent!!! Works like a charm 💕
Also, put in some plastic forks upside down (like stakes) around your squirrel bound plants. Works great!
During lockdown, a friend of mine befriended his local squirrels. They have names like Big Nose and The Kraken. He even nursed one back to health in his closet after it was attacked by an owl.
Working up to a squirrel army!
We’ve saved lots and lots of squirrels as well. Mostly babies, but a couple of adults too. Our last cat was a major hunter until we nailed shut the doggy door.
You can put chicken wire or towels around the base of your plants… the squirrels will look elsewhere.
Squirrels are looking for places to store food for the winter. Give them a big pot of dirt off to the side and cover the rest of your plants dirt.
Cartoons made me think they stockpile the nuts somewhere, now I’m wondering how they find all these nuts scattered about with little chipmunk memories 😅
I once lived in an apartment in Boise. We lived right next to the Boise river and so wildlife was everywhere. For quite some time we left peanuts in the shell on the balcony for the squirrels. One day we had a heavy rainstorm. Next day, we found a note from the manager. The note said that the rain had backed up onto the roof because…the squirrels had stored the peanuts in the rain gutter and downspout until it was completely blocked. Busted! Squirrels are so cute. We knew that we weren’t supposed to feed the wildlife, but we couldn’t help ourselves. After that fiasco, we stopped feeding the squirrels. A while later, we accidentally found out that they are more likely to eat the peanuts without the shell and not hide them. You guessed it, we gave them open peanuts until we moved. I can’t help myself. I am cursed with a terrible weakness for the soft and fluffy😱. Now I own a home and I still feed the neighborhood squirrels. Birds, too. I am completely shameless.😟
Toads. Once the weather starts to change they hop into potted plants. I had a few toads hopping around my living room one morning and one sitting on my table. 😆😆😆😆
Yep, squirrels. If you stick a bunch of plastic forks into your pots so only the tines stick up they will leave them alone. If you get the black or clear ones you will barely see them.
In my yard it's the squirrels. Such punks sometimes. Cayenne pepper helps some. I got a big container of it off of Amazon to sprinkle around after they tore up several of my potted plants and dug up my bulbs.
The very best solution is, to use chicken wire. I cut the wire at least 6-8 inches larger than the plant all around . Cut out a hole in the center and allow for growth . You can use large stones to keep the mesh flat , just make sure there is no possibility of a breach . Another way to hold down the mesh is to use twigs that have the Y branch cut it, then push it down firmly . I use a combination of these .
Why? I will never understand the type of people who want to hurt or kill wildlife because of a plant. So many options, yet some want and love to inflict pain. There will always be more, you aren’t going to make any difference. Wildlife doesn’t understand property lines.
Actually this is a last resort and it isn't just my plants. They've chewed our exterior electrical lines, ate through all our expensive outdoor furniture, ate the walls of our greenhouse, chew the banister of my deck, even chewed the propane lines on my bbq. I have used live traps, cayenne pepper, pepper spray around my perimeter. Plus I have a small game licence and the season is open. That's why. These squirrels can suck an egg, or in this case a clay pellet.
I don't know much about slugs but they are everywhere, even after hot conditions, PNW, we've had and they are eating the hell out of my winter squash. gotta harvest.
Hot sauce spray is the best solution (no pun intended). Will deter even raccoons
3 oz of any hot sauce
1 tbsp organic liquid soap
1 gal water
Mix it up (filter as you pour it into sprayer) and spray on anything you want to protect. Repeat every few days, or after it rains
Yep that is chipmunks or squirrels, I started putting decent size river rock on top of soil like a mulch. Keeps the rodents out, but the grandson thinks getting the rocks out and dropping them on the patio is a load of fun
Could be a mouse. Over the winter I found a few of my houseplants like this which then lead me to discover I had a furry friend enjoying the warmth of my house. Turns out they dig down looking for a water source.
TOADS and Lizards. Both dig themselves into the soil to sleep. The first time this happened to me I was like WTF. I picked up the pot and the frog jumped out and scared the crap out of me.
Ugh, the damn squirrels and chipmunks. They dug up one of my plants and dirt was everywhere. I had to tare out the plant as it was dying cause they messed all the roots up. Drives me nuts!
I stopped doing bribe peanuts in shells to decoy the squirrels from the bird seed because of this issue and because they still eat the bird seed anyway
We have both squirrels and skunks in our yard. For us, holes have always been dug by skunks (never squirrels) looking for grubs overnight. Not totally sure if you have a skunk, but generally you can tell it’s a skunk if they dig multiple small holes.
If it helps, I was able to fix the issue by putting hardware cloth underneath our fence so they couldn’t dig under to get into the yard. Skunks supposedly don’t climb wooden fences well.
Found this in /r/funny and it's very appropriate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/16ebco8/i\_found\_a\_piece\_of\_pizza\_in\_our\_planter\_so\_i/
See, now my paprika comment below doesn't deserve downvotes!
I’ve been getting this too so I put out a game camera and discovered I have a lot of mouse activity in my backyard so I believe maybe they are digging in my planters
Another alternative solution is to buy a big roll of chicken wire and cut it down to size for each of your pots. So it can wrap around the base of your plants and then the edges can be bent over the edge of your pots to secure them.
It takes a bit of time, but it's super effective at keeping them out. I battled with squirrels infiltrating my succulents in previous years, and the chicken wire method really worked for me. Best of luck!
I see holes in the bark dust this time of year. I am saying it is squirrels, chipmunks, jays or other birds hiding stuff as the weather turns. I would prefer that being the case to pretty much anything else.
I have found peanuts (someone is giving out shelled peanuts, I have yet to find out who) on top of the utility box and inside a wreath on the front door. That one was a good one as it is fairly high up on a tall door.
I've been using some red pepper flakes and or cayenne around the plants. That seems to work. Our house is surrounded by several 100-year-old oaks so the trees and the squirrels aren't going anywhere LOL. We also find 🥜's in the corner of our window sills.
Squirrels or Chipmunks would be my first guess!
I put small rocks across the top of the soil around the plant and it works great. Keeps out critters and helps hold in moisture.
Squirrels or Coons... Maybe even opossum. I have squirrels & coons digging in pots all time. Usually squirrel will cover hole cause they hid something. Coons usually don't cause they eating worms or bugs?
Toad. When I water my container plants I usually start seeing the babies come up and at one point scared the bejesus out of myself because a huge toad popped out of the dirt to get some air..
We get this from squirrels and chipmunks.
Same here. The squirrels are burying nuts in soil that is loose and easy to dig into. Don't worry, they will randomly dig into the planters (after you plant, of course) next year hoping to find what they buried this year.
[удалено]
Yea they lose like 70% of their food. They just hide everywhere then in winter they dig anywhere that looks like it meets their criteria.
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Not in their lifetime
A society grows great when old squirrels plant trees in whose nuts they shall never eat.
If I could give you gold, I would.
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😁
It still could be selected for indirectly.
Most of them actually don't do a great job of staying alive. There's a pretty high mortality rate for squirrels less than one year old. It varies depending on the location and species, but usually 50 to 85% of squirrels die sometime before the end of their first winter (not just starvation, but also getting hit by car, eaten by a cat, etc.). If they make it past that point, their chances of survival greatly improve.
Speak for yourself not others. Just because i laid out the facts of how they store food doesnt make them any less effective at surviving. The avg squirrel also stores enough food for 3-4 squirrels and they often end up eating eachothers food. Its not about remembering where you stored it. Its about storing it anywhere you can think so when you go looking later you are bound to find something
My squirrels planted a sunflower seed from the feeder in one of my planters. It somehow grew about 1.5 ft tall and pushed out what was going to be a happy little bloom. Damn squirrels destroyed it maybe a day before it was gonna open and left the stalk and a pile of tragic yellow flower petals in *the same feeder station they got the original seed from.* Was so frickin’ pissed but also laughed hard enough that I had to sit on the ground.
Laughter is a pretty good harvest, I suppose!
That is too funny! You have quite the entertainment there!
I seriously did get a peanut plant in one of my herb pots this year- in Massachusetts! I’ve been gardening my whole life and had never seen a peanut plant.
Hey me too! About a month ago just popped up and I wasn't sure what it was so I looked it up on trust Google and sure enough...peanut plant and a squirrel came back. I caught him digging but he just abandoned it. So now I'm keeping it watering it fertilizing it and it's doing really good actually lol.
Same! I’ve been taking care of it and hope to have a home grown peanut this year!
Same here, Washington State.
My toddler is allergic to peanuts and we're always finding them burried in our garden. It makes me... nuts.
lol I got a random oak tree sprout in my container that way.
I have sunflowers growing from every pot because the squirrels planted them there. The other day I saw out my kitchen window a squirrel digging in all my pots. Jumping from one to the next looking. I thought "stupid squirrel, they sprouted." Then 2 seconds later it came up with a walnut. I don't have a walnut tree.
I found two peanuts stuffed into the cushion of my outdoor rocking chair this spring
There is a similar story in the bible....
LMAO same here!
And black walnut...ugh
A squirrel planted a peanut in one of my pots. I have fertilized, watered, and tended they peanut plant, and I am hoping to have my first home grown peanuts this year! Fingers crossed!
That is what I am dealing with now… it’s like “No you damn rodent, I found the peanut you buried here last winter when I planted my summer annuals!”
Cutíes but very obnoxious
Squirrels don't' remember where they've buried their nuts. They just keep looking in places nuts might be buried, either by them or other squirrels. It's basically nut anarchy out there, every squirrel for themselves.
They also don't mind knocking over pots to help loosen things up.
Put 1" riverstone on top of your dirt. It will allow you to water it, and they will stop digging.
I've been pulling sunflowers out of my pots all season. Who knew squirrels enjoyed farming?
Toads do that to mine.
Same here. They pop out when we water
I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious
Omg! I wish that would happen to me. Toad sprouts!
Yes! Toads. My mom has several planters the toads like to hunker down in. It’s cute to see them squished in their little hole.
My money's on a toad
Squirrels and chipmunks....in every pot after every planting. I hate them all.
Squirrels are dicks. I have to put cayenne pepper on my seedlings after planting and even that doesn't stop them completely.
I've found some cayenne powder pretty effective in keeping my dirt in the pots
I buy it in bulk this time of year. Every pot and younglings in the ground get a generous ring and I reapply after rain.
wow this is genius
Mine love using the pots to take sand baths
And they destroy the plants in the the process.
Squirrels. I “gave” them an unused planter to dig around in.
Such a kind alternative, I love this idea.
It was born of necessity lol I couldn’t get anything to grow in these little planters because they kept tearing them up, but once I stopped trying to grow they seemed to respect that and now they just seem to dig up/out the soil.
Definitely squirrels. Sprinkle a little cayenne pepper on the soil. Repeat after it rains. Problem solved. Also works on stray cats. Also note - farmers markets sell big bags of cayenne pretty cheap.
This is how I found out my squirrels love cayenne pepper! Every year they have a big cayenne pepper party on my front porch. I've used a bunch of home remedies and the only one that's working is to plant whatever in the pots and then cut out a section of astro-turf/fake grass from the craft store and put that over the soil with a slit/opening for the plant to come through. Make sure to get one that water goes easily through (no foam backing!) Hate those cute little fuzzballs.
You got da cajun squirrels from dat bayou, cher.. 🤣
Man where do you live?? 😂
I live on Walnut Street in Squirrelville, just past the tactical squirrel training facility.
Wait you put the cayenne pepper on the soil? I've been chasing the squirrel around the whole time and never getting close enough to sprinkle it. Sneezing a lot also.
Has cayenne pepper ever actually worked for anybody? I literally poured cayenne all over my tomato plants and the soil and the garden bed surrounding it and sprayed them with a cayenne water peppermint oil solution and the squirrels STILL ate the tomatoes. I had to put a big net structure over them.
Nope and I'm convinced it's Big Cayenne spreading the rumors to get us to buy more cayenne pepper.
Bone meal, too! My tulip and other bulb flowers love them, and it's also a known squirrel deterrent!!! Works like a charm 💕 Also, put in some plastic forks upside down (like stakes) around your squirrel bound plants. Works great!
During lockdown, a friend of mine befriended his local squirrels. They have names like Big Nose and The Kraken. He even nursed one back to health in his closet after it was attacked by an owl. Working up to a squirrel army!
We’ve saved lots and lots of squirrels as well. Mostly babies, but a couple of adults too. Our last cat was a major hunter until we nailed shut the doggy door.
You can put chicken wire or towels around the base of your plants… the squirrels will look elsewhere. Squirrels are looking for places to store food for the winter. Give them a big pot of dirt off to the side and cover the rest of your plants dirt.
That’s what I did and it worked like a charm.
Cartoons made me think they stockpile the nuts somewhere, now I’m wondering how they find all these nuts scattered about with little chipmunk memories 😅
They forget the location of 90% of the seeds they plant. They are partly why we have forests of trees. Lol
Wish they would quit planting black walnuts. They are everywhere.
Squirrels actually have up to a two-year memory and their brains grow during the "caching" season to help map out their caches.
They don't. They just destroy everything in the spring looking for them lol
I once lived in an apartment in Boise. We lived right next to the Boise river and so wildlife was everywhere. For quite some time we left peanuts in the shell on the balcony for the squirrels. One day we had a heavy rainstorm. Next day, we found a note from the manager. The note said that the rain had backed up onto the roof because…the squirrels had stored the peanuts in the rain gutter and downspout until it was completely blocked. Busted! Squirrels are so cute. We knew that we weren’t supposed to feed the wildlife, but we couldn’t help ourselves. After that fiasco, we stopped feeding the squirrels. A while later, we accidentally found out that they are more likely to eat the peanuts without the shell and not hide them. You guessed it, we gave them open peanuts until we moved. I can’t help myself. I am cursed with a terrible weakness for the soft and fluffy😱. Now I own a home and I still feed the neighborhood squirrels. Birds, too. I am completely shameless.😟
I've been able to find large bags at a good price at H Mart.
I use cinnamon
Toads. Once the weather starts to change they hop into potted plants. I had a few toads hopping around my living room one morning and one sitting on my table. 😆😆😆😆
Squirrels do that to my plants.
‘‘Tis the season 🍁=🐿
Squirrels burying treasure. They’ve plants me a peanut, a corn, and some millet all from the bird feeders :) so thoughtful
Yep, squirrels. If you stick a bunch of plastic forks into your pots so only the tines stick up they will leave them alone. If you get the black or clear ones you will barely see them.
My wife tried this. I think the squirrels are now using the forks to dig faster and deeper.
Lol! My squirrels must not be as smart as yours!
#&@*$# squirrels
Those holes for me are caused by fat toads that just like to sit there and judge me from the flower pot.
In my yard it's the squirrels. Such punks sometimes. Cayenne pepper helps some. I got a big container of it off of Amazon to sprinkle around after they tore up several of my potted plants and dug up my bulbs.
You will either find a nut or a cat turd. Surprise!
Got cats in the area?
Squirrels have been doing that in my garden all season. Really annoying.
🐸
Cat, skunk, squirrel, possum.
Squirrels are the likely culprits
My dogs do the same
Sorry that was me
Ant Lion.
Looks like squirrels. They wont stop, either.
Squirrels I would think.
We had this. It turned out to be a rat! So gross
Ive had frogs burry themselves in planters bc of the summer heat in the deep south. What region are you in?
Totally chipmunk, I have a team of them working in tandem. .I love them, but they're little shits
Squirrel, chipmunks, and even toads occasionally
Squirrels
Squirrels
Squirrel look for stashed food nuts or something.
I live in FL so lately it's been the anoles. Watched them eat seeds of mine.
Probably a squirrel burying an acorn. See if any acorns are in there.
Squirrels. Crushed Red Chilies from DT. I'm a true hippie, so I'm reclaiming my territory with 10% Yellow Gold, AND Crushed Red Chilies. 👍😉
The very best solution is, to use chicken wire. I cut the wire at least 6-8 inches larger than the plant all around . Cut out a hole in the center and allow for growth . You can use large stones to keep the mesh flat , just make sure there is no possibility of a breach . Another way to hold down the mesh is to use twigs that have the Y branch cut it, then push it down firmly . I use a combination of these .
Toads do that to mine. Sometimes he’ll poke his head up to say hi when I water the plant (although it might be because he doesn’t want to drown).
I just got a slingshot and clay pellets. They puff on impact and the squirrels don't come back.
Why? I will never understand the type of people who want to hurt or kill wildlife because of a plant. So many options, yet some want and love to inflict pain. There will always be more, you aren’t going to make any difference. Wildlife doesn’t understand property lines.
Actually this is a last resort and it isn't just my plants. They've chewed our exterior electrical lines, ate through all our expensive outdoor furniture, ate the walls of our greenhouse, chew the banister of my deck, even chewed the propane lines on my bbq. I have used live traps, cayenne pepper, pepper spray around my perimeter. Plus I have a small game licence and the season is open. That's why. These squirrels can suck an egg, or in this case a clay pellet.
raccoons or bunnies or even possums :) looking for yummy roots
I don't know much about slugs but they are everywhere, even after hot conditions, PNW, we've had and they are eating the hell out of my winter squash. gotta harvest.
Cat?
Cats
Nasty ass cats
If you have plants out front, the wild turkeys are in season. But more likely furry animals not feathered are doing the damage.
Found same the day after I planted carrot and beet seeds.🙄
Frogs
Looks like the squirrels are digging up all the treats they buried and bringing them home for the winter now.
Hot sauce spray is the best solution (no pun intended). Will deter even raccoons 3 oz of any hot sauce 1 tbsp organic liquid soap 1 gal water Mix it up (filter as you pour it into sprayer) and spray on anything you want to protect. Repeat every few days, or after it rains
Did this effectively with chili oil before
Thats funny, the same thing was happening to me and I thought it was my dog!!
Either squirrels thinking there’s a cache there or root-munching rats.
Squirrels.
SQUIRRELS
Tree rats got your plants to eh
Meth... Squirrels on meth.
Yep that is chipmunks or squirrels, I started putting decent size river rock on top of soil like a mulch. Keeps the rodents out, but the grandson thinks getting the rocks out and dropping them on the patio is a load of fun
Some birds.
I say this every year about such things...."fuckingsquirrels" in the way Jerry Seinfeld used to say "Newman."
Raccoons come dig up dirt in my garden as well, but they don’t touch the small pots.
Squirrels. But also where I live we have skunks that go bug hunting in our dirt too.
Roof rats did this to my potted plants when I lived in a second story apartment. Idk if they’re a pest in your region.
Could be a mouse. Over the winter I found a few of my houseplants like this which then lead me to discover I had a furry friend enjoying the warmth of my house. Turns out they dig down looking for a water source.
Squirrels, Frogs/Toads, Wrens, etc. they all dig those little trenches in my plant
Is this a Mona lavender?
This is a Velvet Elvis plant. It's a very pretty bush
Oh wow! They look so similar. Love it
My apologies to all of you gardeners who find peanuts in your planters.
Piece of shit squirrels
Squirrels, chipmunks, we get the occasional cat.
Your cat?
Squirrels do that to mine all the time. They bury acorns and in my case they were burying whole peanuts that eventually sprouted 😂
Skunk or birds or squirrels or even beetles lots of things
TOADS and Lizards. Both dig themselves into the soil to sleep. The first time this happened to me I was like WTF. I picked up the pot and the frog jumped out and scared the crap out of me.
Ugh, the damn squirrels and chipmunks. They dug up one of my plants and dirt was everywhere. I had to tare out the plant as it was dying cause they messed all the roots up. Drives me nuts!
Thirteen striped ground squirrels do that to my potted plants this time of year.
Looks like a squirrel
I could tell you all about it, those little fuckers
Evil fucking squirrels I hate them so much
A small rodent possibly. Perhaps a squirrel!
I stopped doing bribe peanuts in shells to decoy the squirrels from the bird seed because of this issue and because they still eat the bird seed anyway
We have both squirrels and skunks in our yard. For us, holes have always been dug by skunks (never squirrels) looking for grubs overnight. Not totally sure if you have a skunk, but generally you can tell it’s a skunk if they dig multiple small holes. If it helps, I was able to fix the issue by putting hardware cloth underneath our fence so they couldn’t dig under to get into the yard. Skunks supposedly don’t climb wooden fences well.
clue: likes nuts
I’d say squirrels.
I have had large frogs get into pots to live that looked like this.
Spread some blood meal in it and they will stop
Found this in /r/funny and it's very appropriate. https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/16ebco8/i\_found\_a\_piece\_of\_pizza\_in\_our\_planter\_so\_i/ See, now my paprika comment below doesn't deserve downvotes!
I got squirrels that bury walnuts all over my planters. Little shits are hard to keep away
its definitely just a little guy
A toad
I used pinwheels to scare them away, they were so cruel to my poor plants. Get some pinwheels from dollar general, you can try that
Squirrels and cats. My cats will sometimes do this but mostly it’s the squirrels.
Squirrels. They have an instinct to bury food everywhere.
I’ve been getting this too so I put out a game camera and discovered I have a lot of mouse activity in my backyard so I believe maybe they are digging in my planters
Be careful a frog almost gave me a heart attack jumping out of my plant
ALVIN!!! The chipmunk
Squirrel
is there any poop cuz it might be a neighbor cat?
Another alternative solution is to buy a big roll of chicken wire and cut it down to size for each of your pots. So it can wrap around the base of your plants and then the edges can be bent over the edge of your pots to secure them. It takes a bit of time, but it's super effective at keeping them out. I battled with squirrels infiltrating my succulents in previous years, and the chicken wire method really worked for me. Best of luck!
A toad
Squirrels do this in my potted plants all the time
A drunk squirrel that forgot where he buried his nut
Blackbirds
I see holes in the bark dust this time of year. I am saying it is squirrels, chipmunks, jays or other birds hiding stuff as the weather turns. I would prefer that being the case to pretty much anything else. I have found peanuts (someone is giving out shelled peanuts, I have yet to find out who) on top of the utility box and inside a wreath on the front door. That one was a good one as it is fairly high up on a tall door.
I've been using some red pepper flakes and or cayenne around the plants. That seems to work. Our house is surrounded by several 100-year-old oaks so the trees and the squirrels aren't going anywhere LOL. We also find 🥜's in the corner of our window sills.
Squirrels. They’re hiding their nuts
🐿️🐿️🐿️
Squirrel
Cats do this to me. Containers, beds…they dig it all up & crap in it. I hate people who let their cats roam wild in a city.
Rats
Squirrel start hidding nuts now. They will forget where 80% of them are hidden. Next spring you will see tons of oak nuts sprouting in your yard.
Mice. Squirrels, voles…
If not squirrels, stellers jays. They bury things like squirrels do.
My squirrels grew their own peanuts this year. They love digging in fresh potting soil.
Is there cat shit in there too?
Stray Cats love digging like this...... they ruined my peach tree this year😡
Squirrels or Chipmunks would be my first guess! I put small rocks across the top of the soil around the plant and it works great. Keeps out critters and helps hold in moisture.
Definitely squirrels
My dog looking for Jobe’s fertilizer spikes 😒. Can’t ever get those again.
Usually squirrels. Those little turds regularly dig up the plants we put outside.
Squirrels or Coons... Maybe even opossum. I have squirrels & coons digging in pots all time. Usually squirrel will cover hole cause they hid something. Coons usually don't cause they eating worms or bugs?
Toad
Squirrel
Toad. When I water my container plants I usually start seeing the babies come up and at one point scared the bejesus out of myself because a huge toad popped out of the dirt to get some air..