A woman has taken to social media confused about why she keeps finding peanuts in her plant pots.
Makyla Ariel’s ‘strange’ situation led her to share a post in the Creative Gardening Facebook group. She posted a photo of one of her pots with a single peanut found in the middle of it.
Asking others to shed some light on this, she said: “Can someone tell me why I keep finding peanuts in all my pots? Never experienced something like this before, so strange.”
People all had the same answer to this question: squirrels. They believed the animal to be the reason why Makyla found peanuts in her plant pots. However, some Facebook users theorised that birds could be the culprit too.
Her post, which she shared three days ago (Friday, February 21), has received dozens of comments. One user replied to Makyla’s question: “Somebody around you is feeding the squirrels and they are hiding them for later.”
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Another person who encountered this added: “Have the same problem. Squirrels hid them for later!” A third chimed in: “Someone in area feeding peanuts to birds and squirrels and they are stashing them for later.”
And a fourth user shared: “Scrub Jays and squirrels leave peanuts they’ve hid all over our neighborhood.” Squirrels are known to bury, such as nuts, in flower pots, according to Gardening Know How.
The website states: “Squirrels dig primarily to bury their cache of food, such as acorns or nuts. Flowerpots are ideal because potting soil is so soft and easy for squirrels to dig in. Chances are, you’ll find their tasty treasure trove buried a few inches (8 cm.) deep in your containers.”
Wildlife Online also explains that ‘caching’ is an “innate behaviour that many animals exhibit and involves hiding food for later retrieval.” This is similar to humans putting a snack away in the cupboard or fridge to enjoy later.
The wildlife website referenced a study which found that overall “squirrels bury surplus food for a ‘rainy day’ and use their excellent spatial memory, coupled with keen sense of smell, to recover their buried treasure.” A Facebook user who saw Makyla’s post is aware of squirrels’ “excellent spatial memory” as they said: “Squirrels can remember up to 300 placements of their winter food stash.. I found peanuts all over my yard, and I think it’s adorable.”
Other users gave suggestions of how to stop squirrels from getting into plant pots. One said: “They will be back later looking for them (their peanuts). Then you will have flowers and soil everywhere.
“A little chicken wire placed on the top of the soil keeps them out. You can hide the wire under some mulch. Wire can be cut to size easily and you can cut a hole for whatever plant you have in the pot.”
Another added: “I have squirrels and chipmunks that do that. I sprinkle cinnamon on the dirt. It works. They don’t like it.”