How to Keep Squirrels Away from Fig Trees
Do squirrels eat figs? They sure do. They also dig in potted fig trees, sometimes uprooting young plants.
The most reliable way to reduce squirrel damage is physical exclusion: chicken wire over newly potted plants, a barrier over the soil in larger pots, netting around a tree, or organza bags to discourage squirrels from sampling individual figs.
Baffles can work in the right setting. Scent deterrents are less dependable.
Below, I’ll show you what I’ve tried, what has worked, and what hasn’t.
Stop Squirrels Digging in Potted Fig Trees
Prevent squirrels from digging up plants by excluding them with chicken wire. (In case you’re wondering, that’s not a fig plant in the photo.)
Protect Young Potted Fig Plants
When it comes to squirrels digging up young potted fig plants, I’ve found the easiest thing to do is to physically exclude the squirrels.
Chicken wire works well to prevent squirrels from uprooting young potted fig trees.
If you’re having a bad year for squirrel damage, this is worth it!
I’ve come home to find an entire tray of young potted fig plants uprooted and strewn on the patio. Positively infuriating!
With newly potted fig trees, snip the wire so that it can be wrapped around the plant, and then folded over the side of the pot. Like a skirt.
Or, make a small cage to cover a full tray of young potted fig plants.
One more idea: I’ve put an upturned laundry basket over top of trays of newly potted plants for a couple of weeks, so they have time to get established.
(Excluding squirrels works well for other plants too. My friend Claus uses it to keep squirrels from digging up his potted pepper plants.)
Protect Mature Potted Fig Trees
The spiky mat prevented digging. The foil baffle didn’t work.
I often get horse chestnuts poking up next to my potted figs. Every fall the squirrels eagerly bury the nuts in the potted figs…and then forget about them.
If this is a problem, you can physically exclude the squirrels as you would with young fig plants.
Chicken wire works well.
You can see in the picture the spiky bird-deterrent mat that a friend used to prevent squirrels from digging in potted fig trees.
I don’t do this because it’s extra work—and the squirrels digging in larger pots with well-formed roots rarely causes damage to worry about.
Stop Squirrels Eating Figs
The pictures of squirrel-eaten figs below are worth 1,000 words.
It’s frustrating…because they don’t usually eat the entire fig, so some of it is wasted. And they leave those half-eaten figs right outside my kitchen window, on the deck railing, where it torments me!
Netting Fig Trees
I do not net my fig trees.
It’s a lot of work…both when you install the netting, and when you repeatedly peel it back to harvest figs.
But I’ve heard of people netting fig trees in much the same way that growers net grapes against birds and raccoons.
If you net a tree, use a fine mesh, pull it taut, and secure the edges so squirrels can’t get underneath. Check it regularly to make sure birds or other animals haven’t become tangled. A simple frame can hold the netting away from the leaves and fruit.
Organza Bags
An organza bag as a squirrel deterrent for individual figs.
Small organza bags—the fabric mesh bags often used for wedding favours—can discourage squirrels from sampling individual figs.
A determined squirrel might chew through one, so this isn’t absolute protection. But for a small tree with a few special figs you’re determined to taste, it’s worth trying.
(I don’t do this with figs, but it’s how I manage to harvest pawpaw fruit in my squirrel- and raccoon-infested yard.)
Harvest Promptly
Once fig season begins, check ripening fruit at least once a day. A nearly ripe fig might escape notice, but a fully ripe fig is difficult for a squirrel to overlook.
Don’t pick figs before they’re ripe in hopes that they’ll finish indoors. Unlike tomatoes, figs don’t continue ripening properly after harvest. The trick is to pick them as soon as they’re ready—before the squirrels begin breakfast.
Other Fig Tree Squirrel Deterrents
Natural Predators
Foxes: an all-natural squirrel deterrent!
I remember asking my fig mentor, Adriano, how he prevented squirrels from eating his figs.
“Get a cat,” he said.
I don’t have a cat, but one year foxes made a den nearby.
Those squirrels that survived a litter of six hungry fox kits stayed high up in the big maple tree. I didn’t have squirrels eating my figs that summer.
That isn’t a squirrel-deterrent strategy most gardeners can arrange—but it was fascinating to see how quickly a nearby predator changed squirrel behaviour.
Fig Colour
I love dark figs.
And so, it seems, do the birds and squirrels.
I haven’t seen research to support this, but in my garden, green figs seem to fly under the radar. They blend in amongst the leaves, while dark figs stand out.
Fig Tree Baffles
This squirrel baffle didn’t help at all! Squirrels jump—so they must be well above the ground and beyond where squirrels can jump from neighbouring objects.
If you’re thinking of trying tree baffles for squirrels, the main thing to remember is that squirrels jump.
They jump quite well.
I don’t use baffles on my fig trees because there are too many nearby launch points from which they could successfully jump into my fig trees.
But if you had a standalone fig tree, with a tall, single-stem trunk to which you could attach a baffle—it could work.
(I do use squirrel baffles on my bird feeder poles in the winter: the key to success is having the baffle high enough off the ground, and having the feeder far enough away from anything a squirrel could jump from.)
A friend tried the baffle pictured here, and the squirrel effortlessly hopped onto the stem above.
Do Scent Deterrents Work?
I haven’t had success with commercial scent deterrents. Powdered coyote urine certainly didn’t discourage the squirrels in the attic of a house I once rented.
(What finally solved the attic problem? Exclusion: installing a one-way exit and making sure there was no way back in.)
Hot-pepper spray can make fruit less appealing, but you must reapply it after rain. Physical exclusion is more dependable.
This year I’m trying something different: organza bags filled with dry, granulated hen-manure fertilizer, hung away from the fruit in a few fig trees. I’m comparing them with untreated trees. It’s an experiment, not yet a recommendation.
Squirrels helping themselves elsewhere in the garden? See my broader guide to keeping squirrels away from vegetables, fruit, seeds, and containers.
Keep Growing Figs
Growing figs where winters are cold takes a bit of creative thinking.
In Fig Camp and the self-paced Fig Masterclass, I explain how to grow figs in pots or in the ground, extend the growing season, ripen more fruit, and protect your trees through winter.
Explore Fig Camp and Fig Masterclass
Looking for more cold-climate fig-growing ideas? Visit the fig home page to browse articles about varieties, pruning, propagation, ripening, winter protection, and more.
My revised and expanded fig book is a practical guide to growing figs in pots and cold climates—from choosing varieties and pruning to ripening fruit and conquering winter.
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