When a garden bed is suddenly riddled with small holes, the primary suspect is often the backyard squirrel, driven by its instinct to cache food before winter. Squirrels are known for their tireless digging and their ability to quickly locate newly buried items. While this behavior is certainly a nuisance that can ruin a careful planting plan, the outcome for daffodil bulbs is distinctly different from other spring flowers.
Consumption Versus Disturbance
The direct answer to whether squirrels consume daffodil bulbs is no, but they will certainly disturb them. Squirrels are highly attracted to the scent of freshly turned soil, which signals a possible food source or a prime location to bury their own nuts and seeds. Their digging is often an investigation rather than a targeted search for daffodils specifically. If a squirrel encounters a daffodil bulb, it may initially sample it due to curiosity or mistaken identity for a more palatable food source like a tulip or crocus bulb. The rodent will immediately discard the bulb after a single bite or two because the taste is intensely bitter and unappetizing. This results in the bulb being dug up, moved a short distance, and left on the soil surface, but not actually eaten.
The Biological Deterrent in Daffodils
Squirrels avoid eating daffodil bulbs due to a powerful natural defense mechanism. Daffodil bulbs, leaves, and stems contain toxic alkaloids, primarily a compound known as lycorine. This chemical is responsible for the intensely bitter taste that causes the animal to reject the bulb immediately.
Lycorine acts as a natural deterrent because it is poisonous, inducing symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if ingested in significant quantities. This built-in chemical protection makes daffodils one of the most reliably squirrel-resistant bulb choices, unlike tulips and crocuses.
Effective Methods for Bulb Protection
Even though squirrels do not eat the bulbs, their habit of digging them up still necessitates protection to ensure a successful spring display. One effective strategy involves creating a physical barrier using hardware cloth or chicken wire. You can form a cage by lining the planting hole with the mesh, placing the bulbs inside, and then covering the top with another layer of wire before filling it with soil. This allows the shoots to grow through while preventing squirrels from digging down to the bulbs.
Applying scent deterrents to the soil surface can mask the smell of the disturbed earth and repel curious rodents. Sprinkling cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, or a commercially available repellent containing capsaicin over the freshly planted area can discourage digging. Alternatively, mixing blood meal into the top layer of soil provides a strong, unappealing odor that squirrels tend to avoid.
Another strategy is to integrate companion planting by grouping daffodils with other tempting bulbs like tulips. Covering the newly planted area with a layer of mulch or a light scattering of thorny branches can also help hide the fact that the soil was recently disturbed.