My successful loco pepper experiment, began with a blender jar half filled with loco peppers topped off with water, and well blended = pepper slurry.
The first picture shows a concrete mixing tub that was filled with ivy cuttings. 90% of the cuttings were destroyed. I only salvaged 10%. No slurry was applied.
The next photo is of a small bed being prepared for viola, riddled with holes. Had viola been planted, most would have been destroyed. Again there was no slurry.
A small bed was prepared for viola. There was no damage. It had been treated with the slurry.
The last photo is of a bucket of Loco peppers. Next year I will grow enough peppers to fill this 5 gallon bucket. Sweet!
Steps:
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Here are a few of the Loco peppers I slow dried in an oven and then rubbed to reduce them. They will be stored in an airtight glass jar for later use.
These peppers seem hotter than Jalapeño, but milder than Scotch Bonnet or Habanero. I tasted one. Somehow, I don't think the heat of the peppers is what keeps the squirrels away. Maybe it's the irritation to the nasal passages. I sneezed constantly while rubbing the peppers.
I've never seen dried, rubbed Loco peppers for sale. Surely, all totaled, I must have $50 worth of pepper. It will be put to good use.
I'm sitting here laughing. I'm imagining seeing a squirrel sneeze. A dog or cat sneezing is funny. A squirrel sneezing has got to be hilarious.
It worked? I am now thinking my tabasco spray for deterring rascals was insufficient because it was not your slurry. Those peppers are amazing!
I doubt Tabasco sauce would be hot enough, and too, it would be cost prohibitive when used on the scale I used it on.
Did it work? So far, YES. I have several beds scattered about my property, especially at the base of trees. Pecans from my tree have begun to ripen and fall. Normally, that would mean the squirrels would frantically dig holes in every bed, every day (along with hundreds of pots on the ground), to bury these nuts.
It has been over a week since I liberally applied the slurry to these beds. To date, there has not been one hole dug in any of my beds or tubs.
This particular pepper is quite showy, (looks good planted in flower beds), is easy to grow, produces lots of fruits, and will even reseed itself. I am now drying all the peppers I find. I will put them in a blender and make the slurry as needed, as I expect the effectiveness to eventually wear off.
After years of losses amounting to many hundreds if not thousands of dollars, I think I have finally found a way to prevent further losses.
In the past, I have tried cayenne and black pepper. Both were totally ineffective.
This pepper really looks good planted in flower beds and as a focal point.
I grew these this year in my vegetable garden. Here I bought them as a "5 Chinese pepper plant" Named because they grow 5 different colored peppers. Or actually they change colors I believe as they mature. But they are pretty plants. We used them in salsa & also dried some .
Funny thing about hot peppers, other mammals seem to be affected by it's heat just as humans. With Aves, it's a different story. I've heard many accounts of old time farmers feeding peppers to their hens when the birds had stopped laying productively.
The reason for applying the peppers in the form of a slurry was that I needed to apply a deterrent right away and the only thing available was fresh peppers. For future use, I have collected more peppers and slow dried them in a warm oven. These peppers should store well for a long time and I can take out as needed, an amount for crushing into flakes for distribution over beds and containers.
So far, I am getting very good results with this 'Loco' pepper, whereas black, red or cayenne pepper did not deter the squirrels at all.
Forget about the 'slurry'. I had some vegetable shortening I was planning to use for bird suet. I made a heavy paste with the shortening and pepper flakes. It works much better. I can paint it on the rocks surrounding my beds. I tried it on top of my neighbors fence. It was part of the squirrel's run. Now, they wont come anywhere near the fence. Yes!!!
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