Damn Potato Eating Squirrels! First June Bugs now Squirrels?!

Do you see this animal to the right? I couldn't get a photo of his cousin doing this very same thing, so I'm posting this so you can get a good sense of what I saw.

Yesterday I had found one slightly exposed and it was beautiful. Deep red, smooth skinned, size of my fist. I tucked it back under the soil with the intention of plucking it and all of the rest of the hidden spuds in the morning.



I stepped outside, all excited to harvest my potatoes. I step out, look over, and see our resident squirrel, the one with the half chewed tail, perched half in half out of the bucket munching away on that gorgeous potato. THAT RAT BASTARD!

Shoo shoo shooed him away and frantically started scooping soil out only to discover that out of three buckets I had six fist sized russets and ten fingering reds. I've been feeding him and his girl friend for the last two months. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I Googled potato bucket guards. When I try this again next year he's going to have to learn how to pry a lid off before he'll be able to get at the next harvest.