Saturday, November 08, 2008

Buffalo-style tulip bulbs

Okay, so last night after work I bought a bottle of cayenne pepper sauce (Frank's Red Hot) at a little grocery store downtown. I looked around for squirt bottles, but they didn't have any. Drat. Spraying for squirrels was thereby postponed 'til today.

This afternoon I went somewhere else and got myself a squirt bottle. Came home, mixed the cayenne pepper sauce with a teaspoon of dish-washing liquid, and then mixed that with a gallon of warm water. The result is this orangey-red liquid with foam on top. If I ever need to do this again, I must remember next time to add the soap after the pepper and water mix.

I filled the spray bottle with the cayenne solution and sprayed it anywhere I'd planted bulbs. About halfway through, I began to flash back to the restaurant my parents used to own in upstate Pennsylvania. One of the items on the menu had been hot wings--deep fried chicken wings covered in a hot sauce. This stuff smells just like that sauce, all spicy and vinegary.

Ditter, if you're out there and reading this, do you remember the label on the jugs of hot sauce we kept in the store room? Was it Frank's Red Hot? I think it was. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that it was. I wonder if that's why I picked this particular hot sauce, out of some sort of subconscious brand loyalty.

So now every time I pass the flowerbed, I'm going to be hungry for chicken wings. Great.

2 comments:

Hotch Potchery said...

Interesting idea. Do you think it would work on deer as well? We planted some baby strawberry plants and the deer and/or squirrels dug them all up and ate them.

Found your blog on NaBloPoMo, 1st year!

--V said...

Hi there Hotch Potchery!

I have no idea. I think it might, though. It seems to be working right now with the squirrels. Nothing turned over or dug up today (I've been checking periodically).