Mrs Mendip is not happy.

She's got used to my dogs digging up her seed beds, running off with plant pots containing seedlings and digging up newly planted papaya saplings. She's not happy about it, but accepts it. And besides, next year I'm going to put a fence around her veggie area. Or maybe the year after... when I get time.

But now she's really gone into one and I'm worried it's going to push her over the edge.

She phoned me last night and couldn't stop talking about 'these bloody squirrels'.

For a long time now we've had a family of squirrels living in a small copse of trees adjacent to our garden. I've never begrudged them the occasional banana, mango or papaya,. I like to see them running around and if they're prepared to run the gauntlet of four dogs then I think they deserve the occasional treat. Mrs Mendip doesn't see it that way.

Papaya seems to be their favourite...



Jackfruit are also fair game...



And we get so many mangoes I don't mind seeing this most mornings...



I must admit, it does get slightly annoying when these squirrels just half eat everything, then move on to something else. But the chickens get the benefit of all the leftovers, so there's no waste.

But what has really now got Mrs Mendip's goat, and she's really unhappy... the squirrels have moved on to her pride and joy, her lime trees. I never realised that squirrels ate limes, but maybe in the absence of anything nicer they'll eat what they can get - we've got no papayas or mangoes at the moment.

My wife has spent a lot of time developing the lime trees and we get a good crop almost year round... There must be about ten trees in all around the garden.





But now, every morning my wife has been finding five or six half-eaten limes scattered around the base of each tree. She also usually manages to see the back end of a squirrel and it's bushy tail as it scarpers over the wall. But too fast for a photo it seems.





I find it hard to blame the squirrels to be honest. Our area is getting more and more developed, the trees are disappearing and these guys are just trying to survive as their habitat disappears. But, try explaining that to Mrs Mendip!

Does anyone have any ideas for protecting her limes against these squirrels?

I don't want to harm the buggers, just keep my wife happy. I've suggested to leave a couple of bananas out each night to fill them up so they can leave the limes alone. But Mrs Mendip's response wasn't really that polite.

I've seen fruit tree nets on Lazada designed to keep birds away, but my feeling is the squirrels would just chew through them?

Any ideas?