Squirrels are cute and loveable as cartoon characters, but who wants the presence of squirrels in their garden or attic? But dealing with the squirrels can be quite challenging as many squirrel repellent products do not work as they claim.
Is fox urine effective in deterring squirrels? How does fox urine work on the squirrels? This article will explain all the facts about fox urine as a squirrel repellent.
Fox urine to repel squirrels
Fox urine is known to deter squirrels, mice, rats, and other rodents. It works to repel the squirrels but not always. Squirrels will try to avoid a place with fox urine, but they will often become alert and still pass the urine barrier. You must apply fox urine every ten days to get a better result.
Table of Contents
The world is a strange place! Some people set feeders to attract squirrels, while others find a way to get rid of them. You may not like squirrels, but when you are a home or garden owner, their presence is pretty annoying to you for valid reasons.
Squirrels can deal significant damage to your garden. They can eat the fruits or seeds from your garden and also deal heat-breaking damage to the plants.
Squirrels also tend to make nests in the attic. Nest in the attic can be even more irritating. They will poop and pee in your attic, making your house smelly.
If squirrels in your locality visit your home and garden regularly, it’s a tricky problem to solve. So, how do you deal with the squirrel issue?
If you do a little research, you will be able to know fox urine is effective in repelling the squirrels. But if you research deep enough, you will come to understand that the fox urine method does not guarantee you to keep away the rodents (after reading the reviews).
Let’s break the topic down and try understanding the effects of fox urine on the squirrels.
How does fox urine work on the squirrels? The squirrels and rodents are at the lower part of the food chain. That means they have many predators and must avoid them if they want to be alive.
Owls, foxes, snakes, eagles, and other predators can hunt squirrels. How do the squirrels avoid predators? The squirrels are very careful about their surroundings. You may see that squirrels always look excited. They are always looking around, sniffing things, and moving around.
They use their sight to look around so they can see predators coming. They have a strong smelling power. Every animal has different smells in its body, and squirrels can quickly spot the smells of predators.
If they can sense the scent of a predator, they become super careful and leave the place.
If a fox sleeps over a rock, squirrels will know a fox slept over the rock just by sniffing the rock. They also become careful and run away from a place when they find other signs of predators such as hair, bone, blood, or urine.
If those are correct, fox urine should work like magic to repel the squirrels. But sadly, fox urine has many limitations as a rodent repeller. Foxes are pretty shy and usually do not live near residential areas. But the squirrels quickly adopted themselves near humans.
They do not have too many predators in the cities and towns. That’s why sometimes they tend to ignore the predators’ signs as they are unfamiliar with them. However, they always become alert when they find the signs of predators. They get this careful nature from their genes.
But undoubtedly, fox urine will work better for the squirrels who actually share the same locality with the fox.
The fox urine repellent also may not work when the squirrels are hungry. The squirrels become bolder for food before and after the spring. So, they may not care about the fox urine barrier in those times. They also can become used to the smell after some days.
Another problem with fox urine is that you need to reapply the urine every ten days or after the rain. Check out how fox urine affects the squirrels.
Irritate their smelling organ:
Some commercial fox urine also contains skunk smell. As the squirrels have powerful smelling organs, irritating odors are even more annoying to them. A squirrel will not usually stay in a place with a fox urine smell.
Intimidating them:
Fox urine smell is a clear indication to the squirrel that there is a fox near them. It makes them alert and run away from the place.
How effective is fox urine in repelling squirrels?
Fresh fox urine is effective in keeping the squirrels away. But with time, the smell of the fox urine fades away and becomes less effective in repelling the squirrels. That’s why you must spray the fox urine every ten days.
Squirrels are more likely to avoid a place with fox urine when it does not have anything to do with the site. But sometimes, they choose to cross the fox urine border when there is food or shelter.
So, we recommend setting other types of repellent with fox urine. Fox urine does work, but not all the time.
How long will fox urine keep squirrels away?
Fox urine will keep the squirrels away for one week to ten days. After that, you will have to reapply the fox urine. Fox urine is also water-soluble. That means you must reapply the fox urine after every rain.
Note that fox urine is not a complete solution for the squirrels. Squirrels are curious and may get used to the fox urine smell. The fox urine may also act differently on the squirrels of different areas. So, keeping a backup plan to deter squirrels is a good idea.
How to use fox urine to repel squirrels?
Using fox urine to repel the squirrels is pretty straightforward. But it’s best to use another repellent so the success rate increases. You can find the fox urine in spray form and use them directly without any preparation.
There is also some commercial squirrel repellant that has fox urine in them. But those are more expensive. However, if you have a fox urine bottle, you can follow those simple steps to use it.
Add water:
Take ¾ of the water in a spray bottle.
Add the urine:
Fill the bottle with fox urine and shake properly. You may think the water can make it less effective. But the water is going to evaporate anyway.
Apply the spray:
Apply the spray on your garden fence, or make an invisible border with the fox urine. Spray the solution in the routes they use to enter your property.
Keep in a safe place:
Keep the rest of the spray in a safe place and use the spray after ten days.
4 other ways to repel squirrels
Fox urine may not work for you forever. Combining other methods can help you effectively deter rodents. Here are a few easy ways to keep the squirrels from your house and garden.
Leave no food for them:
Making your garden unfavorable for the squirrels is an excellent way to make the squirrels less interested in your yard. Remove all the food sources for the squirrels.
If you have a bird feeder, remove the feeder or make the feeder with a slippery aluminum rod so the squirrels can not climb it.
Also, make sure no tree is close to your house roof. Squirrels can jump from the tree and make nests in your attic. Spot all the holes or cracks in your house so squirrels can not enter for the food.
Homemade repellent:
To discourage squirrels, you can use paper and essential oil mix around your garden and house. Choose the hottest chili powder and mix that with water in a spray bottle. Add ten drops of essential oil and two spoons of soap.
Shake the solution and leave it overnight. This is how you can make homemade squirrel repellent.
Physical barrier:
Fences and barriers are less effective in keeping the squirrels away, although a simple fence will discourage the deers, rabbits, and squirrels from invading your garden. Squirrels are good diggers and even better climbers.
But often, they will not choose to take the hustle to enter your garden.
Pest control companies:
Some companies serve to solve pest issues in our households. You can call them for help.
Final Thoughts
Fox urine does discourage squirrels and other rodents from entering your garden or home. But they can often ignore the smell, especially if they find a food source. You can use fox urine to reduce the squirrel issue, but it may not solve the problem completely.