Outsmarting the squirrels

[Starlight]

My critters big and small, walking crawling or flying are spoiled. When their natural food and water supplies get low, I will give them supplemental food and make little watering holes for them even though it breeds more sketters that bite me.

One such critter is this guy. Sorry pic is so dark. He is right in middle of pic. This is no ordinary squirrel. He hangs out in the front Hickory tree by me . He learned on his own along time ago that when food gets scarce , when I am sitting on porch, to come and stand on bottom steps and sit up pretty and cross his paws like he praying and will stay in that position until I go inside and bring him out some food. He just so cute looking like that, that I can't resist his plea. He even has me trained to serve his dinner between the hours of 5pm and 7pm. From year to year he has not forgotten this trick and it works everytime.

He's already eaten about 60 pounds of whole pecan nuts and now I am feeding him the crushed ones out of my freezer in a dish. Sure didn't take him long to get over his fear of the dish and start chowing down.

Things have been going good between us until he has discovered the tomatoes. The tomatoes are a no..no... at least til near the end of season, than they can have some.

I have cheesecloth surrounding the plants and it hasn't stopped him. He knows where the poles are, how to climb them and even how to sneak in under the cheesecloth .

I found him yesterday evening, sitting up on a pallet next to the tomatoes munching away. He would look at me, munch some more and keep an eye of me. He's not afraid of me. Knows I won't hurt him. Chasing after him would do no good as he would probably just offer me back a half eaten squirrel slobbered tomato.

I know that pepper spray will keep them off, but this guy been a buddy for many years. He can be a real pain, but he brings joy to watch too. Squirrels don't have that long of a life span anyways and I will miss him when his time comes, so I really don't want to set his mouth and insides on fire. I know I don't like, nor think it funny when somebody gives me a pepper that tells me is sweet and really it is hot.

I'm looking for maybe some other way to stop him or some product that won't hurt the plants or him. Fencing has not stopped him. He will tippy toe on the top of it and crawl up the sides and if that doesn't work he will dig a spot to get in.