Moth ball odor bad for orchids in GH

[mimigirl]

My friend thinks he has squirrels in his GH. He wants to use mothballs to deter them but doesnt know if the fumes will be bad for the orchids. Any ideas or suggestions?

[theloyalplum]

Let's be real here. Moth ball odors are carcinogenic and universally bad for any living organism, microbes included. They should be avoided at all costs!

But truly on topic, I don't think they're necessarily bad, but the odor itself probably won't deter any creature (minus humans) from entering the space.

[astrid]

Squirrels in the greenhouse?

why not just put a big giant bag of nuts in the yard - away from the greenhouse - every day as a sacrifice to the squirrel overlords?

They'll eventually get too chubby to fit in their secret greenhouse entryways.

[pipsxlch]

I had a problem with squirrels starting to munch my plants. (I can't grow veggies because they totally rip out and destroy anything I try to grow, I've watched them- my orchids were the last straw) I got a rat bait (Just One Bite by Farnam) and a pellet rifle. Between the two, the squirrels give my plants a fair berth now.
The rat bait did work really well, squirrels are just hairy tailed rats... I grow outdoors, so bbs might be a worse problem for him than they were for me.

Edit to add if he doesn't mind frequent reapplication, what about hot pepper powder sprinkled on his plants? Like most mammals, squirrels usually don't like hot peppers. Not sure how they'd last, maybe even try spiking his pots with dried hot peppers?

[mimigirl]

Thank you so much for your responses. You each had a point I am sure he will be glad to read. I will forward all of this and try to convince him this is a great place to get input!

[LizB88]

I have squirrels that come to my balcony, and once, they knock one of my orchids of the balcony, some cosmetic damage, so the orchid survived and they survived too.

The last time that I had shew up buds was because I did not put sunflower seeds on the feeder.
As long as I have sunflower seeds on the balcony they don't bother my orchids, and I gain karma point by not killing them