Home » Fall Decor » How to Prevent Squirrels from Eating Your Pumpkins

How to Prevent Squirrels from Eating Your Pumpkins

This post may contain affiliate links, please see our policy for details.

Try this easy tip to stop squirrels from eating your Halloween pumpkins. 

I was so excited to decorate my porch for Halloween this year so I went out and got some pumpkins and a mum weeks ago.

pumpkins and a potted yellow mum on a small front porch

It was so much fun setting up my fall front porch and, once I was done, I took some pictures to remember our first Halloween in our new house.

All seemed well for a few weeks, then one morning things changed.

I noticed it as soon as I took Finn out for a walk. My big orange pumpkin had a hole eaten right in the top.

large orange pumpkin on porch with a huge hole nibbled out of it

I looked around for the culprit and saw a guilty-looking squirrel sitting on my fence staring at me. Perturbed, I moved the pumpkin next to the front door hoping that it would deter him.

The next day I went out to walk Finn. I checked on my big pumpkin first thing and saw that the squirrel hadn’t touched it. Success!

Upon further inspection though, I noticed that one of the little pumpkins was gone.

Stolen…by a pumpkin thief!

I looked around and sure enough the squirrel was sitting at the base of a tree with my baby pumpkin in pieces all around him. Needless to say that I yelled at him and chased him up the tree. I’m sure that my neighbors probably think I am nuts.

Later that same afternoon, I went back out to check on the porch. The pumpkin thief had struck again and took another baby boo.

I’d had enough so I decided to look on the internet to see if there was anything that I could do to prevent them from eating my pumpkins (while not harming the squirrels).

After I spent over an hour reading different solutions, from using hairspray on the pumpkin, to using vinegar, and even using human hair around the pumpkin, I decided I would try some good old fashion Vaseline.

I rubbed it over the whole pumpkin and, wouldn’t you know, the squirrels have left them alone.

It’s only been a week, but none remaining pumpkins have not been nibbled on. I’m hoping that the Vaseline will do the trick.

I’ll let you know if the thief returns. 😉

Have you had squirrels eat your pumpkins? What do you do to stop them?

pumpkins on front porch and big orange pumpkin with a chunk eaten out of it