People Use Coffee Grounds To Keep Squirrels Out Of Garden Pots. Does It Work?

It's no secret that squirrels are pesky critters who are a little too curious for their own good. If you have potted plants around your home, you'll want to be sure to protect them. In addition to stealing food from your bird feeder, squirrels may dig into the soil of your potted plants to hide nuts or snack on the plants and veggies that they find. Squirrels can potentially cause damage to any plants, herbs, and vegetables that you're growing in garden pots.

There are a variety of ways to get rid of squirrels and repel them from your yard and potted plants. One rumored solution is to use coffee grounds to scare them away. But do coffee grounds really help repel squirrels? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Squirrels have a great sense of smell, but there are some scents that they're simply not fans of. Coffee grounds have a particularly potent fragrance, and squirrels will do their best to stay away from it. As a result, placing some coffee grounds in your garden pots can work wonders for scaring them away.

To ward off squirrels with coffee, you'll simply need to sprinkle some coffee grounds on the soil of potted plants that you have around your home. Any type of coffee grounds will do fine, and you can use either used or fresh coffee grounds for this purpose. To get the most value out of the coffee you buy, you may want to make a cup of coffee first and then sprinkle the leftover grounds in your garden pots.

Keep in mind that you can use coffee grounds as a fertilizer too. When you use them to deter squirrels, they will also help fertilize the soil of potted plants and provide them with nutrients such as potassium and nitrogen. However, coffee is acidic, so plants that prefer alkaline soil, such as lilacs and lavender, may be harmed if you add coffee grounds to their soil. Only add coffee grounds to plants you know love acidic soil, such as azaleas and rhododendrons, or those that need a lot of nitrogen, such as tomatoes and peppers. 

In addition to using coffee grounds, there are other ways to deter squirrels from garden pots, as there are many other smells that squirrels tend to stay away from. Sprinkling cinnamon, garlic powder, or chili powder on soil can also help keep them away. Peppermint oil can be particularly useful for deterring squirrels. Consider adding a few drops to a spray bottle and mixing it with water. Then, spray it around any areas you want to keep squirrels away from.

You can also deter squirrels from garden pots simply by making sure they're out of reach. You can prevent squirrels from digging into the soil of your potted plants by placing stones or pebbles on top of it. Putting up chicken wire or other physical barriers can also prevent squirrels from accessing your potted plants. Finally, you may also want to deter squirrels using shiny objects. Shiny objects such as soda cans can help reflect sunlight and will help scare squirrels away.