Ok, I am not personally being attacked by squirrels, but the deck on the house is!
We moved into this house a year and 3 months ago, and shortly after moving in, the landlord put a deck on the back of the house. It is a nice wooden deck, and last year there were no problems, but this year I noticed there were small chunks that looked like they were bitten out of the wooden decorations on the top of the posts. (They are kind of ball looking things every so many feet) At first I wasn't sure what was doing it, but I was pretty sure it was squirrels, and today I caught one in the act of biting chunks out of the wooden deck!
I am not sure why they are doing this, they didn't do it last year, but the deck was also brand new this time last year. Anyone know why on earth they are chewing on the deck? Is there anything I can do or put on the wood to make the squirrels not want to chew on it?
Tell the landlord about the problem and let him deal with it. I'd also get pictures of the squirrels biting the deck so the landlord can't come back on you for the damage.
Maybe spray cayenne pepper and water on it or jalapeno juice?
Here is a recipe..
http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_homemade-squirrel-re...
I'd follow the advice already given. We had the same problem once, they even jumped onto the window screens and would just stare in at us. They can be pests that think they own the place. Cats helped to solve our problem and lots of moth balls because they don't like them, but of course if you have very small children you wouldn't want the moth balls. We squirtted them too with a spray bottle of vinegar. Wish I would've know about the pepper spray -- bet it works better.
Contact the landlord and recommend that he or she call a company like Orkin and ask what to do. I've found Orkin was great about just answering questions on the phone when I had no idea what was going on with something around my house. Spraying pepper etc. might deter the squirrels temporarily but it will be gone with the first drizzle. There likely is some treatment or something your landlord can paint on the wood to make it unattractive to the squirrels.
Looks like the ball like decorations are being confused with acorns/nuts.
Squirrels have to gnaw on things (like the wood on your deck) because, like other rodents, their teeth will keep growing and growing if they don't chew on things to keep the teeth short. I did a quick search after reading your question to see if there was anyone who had found good ways of dealing with similar issues. One person said they tried a spray called "Liquid Fence" (technically for deer and rabbits, but he said it got rid of the squirrels too; it's not poison though, just a deterrent) which you could probably get in a hardware store or someplace like Lowe's/Home Depot.
