Pheasants and Squirrels

wildlifewonder

Please, please any ideas on how to stop pheasants and squirrels destroying my garden.  So far they have dug-up and devoured tulip, daffs and other spring flowering bulbs.  Between them they have dug-up most of my plants in pots and even go in the greenhouse. They have also destroyed wall flowers and lots of other plants.  I'm at my wits end, spending money on my garden only to see it destroyed within days.  

cornelly

We only ever had one pheasant in the garden and yes it was like a FCB, luckily a friend was able to catch it and took it away to a farm where it was made welcome, squirrels have never attacked the garden plants just the bird feeders, and we stopped them there by greasing the poles.

Hostafan1

an air rifle and a steady hold

Joyce21

Maybe a JCB?

wildlifewonder

Thanks for the comments, the trouble is I live about 300 metres from the rearing pens for the shoot, so there are 100s if not 1000s of pheasants roaming around, they just destroy everything in sight, at this moment there are 9 in the garden.  My garden is slowly starting to look like a prison, with the plants surrounded by wire.  As for shooting and eating, if I did that I'd never eat anything else and I'm not too keen on game!  

DampGardenMan

Try a couple of big old tomcats? Ours keep the squirrels down and also chase the pheasants ...

wildlifewonder

The pens are very recent, I've lived here for over 20 years.  The shoot don't care about anything but making money, their dogs got into a neighbours garden during the day time and killed all his ducks and they didn't even apologise.  

Posy

You have my sympathy. I like cats so I would certainly go with a couple of big moggies but dogs are good too. Terriers are likely to catch some of the birds and this will distress their keepers - possibly to the point of moving them. A spaniel will spend every waking moment trying to get them into the air, also unpopular with keepers.

I'm not too keen on guns, but what about something that SOUNDS like one? Or have you seen those water-spouts that keep herons off your pond? Pheasants are generally quite nervous so this might shift them. Good luck.

DorsetMike

I've had Squirrels dig up bulbs in previous years, so I had a look on Amazon for squirrel deterrents, all the sprays seem to have poor or very poor reviews, (maybe they need daily application which could get a bit expensive!); some of the ultrasonic ones have slightly better reviews, although none mention the distance range over which they work, as I have over 30 yards of border to "defend", again cost could become a factor.