I have a row of very mature Arborvitae or cedars that line my driveway. Trunks are about 2 to 3 feet in diameter at ground level. I noticed that the bark looks as if it was rubbed off by a deer but this isn't the cause as we don't have deer in our yard and some of the rubbings are 10 feet up (unless we have really big deer). My suspicion is that squirrels are stripping the bark either to eat or for nesting material. Is there anything I can put on the trees to discourage this? The bark isn't rubbed all the way through, just enough to expose lighter colored pinkish bark. I'm concerned if it continues that it could eventually damage the trees.

Spray peppermint oil mixed with water on all the trees that they're chewing. I had a HUGE flying squirrel problem, they were nesting in our attic, actually that's reason how I found this site. I found out that paprika and moth balls will do the trick on them, but in the research process I found that the gray squirrels hate peppermint oil. You can get it at the local grocery store in the spice section. If that doesn't deter them , try wrapping your trees with flashing. It's sheet metal that comes in rolls of 12",14",and 18" widths . You get it at your local home improvement store. It's funny how something so small can try our very sanity. Good luck on saving your trees. Let us know how things turn out.

This is similar, but a different animal...

Our cat, Candy Pester was scratchin' everything, I read that if you attach tin foil or saran wrap to where ever she tried to scratch, that would deter her.

So... I put some on the couch corner, door moldings, boxes, rug, etc. etc. and by golly, it worked! and it trained her not to do it again.

Didn't want to use the oil though or the DW would have had me wrapped up in foil or saran. :D

K