Something Digging Up Tree Seedlings at Night

[RsTgardenian]

So since the start of the summer I've been growing elm tree saplings from seed and they were all doing really well until this week when I found some of them dug out of the pots they were in. The weird and annoying thing is that most of the elms are totally dug out with all roots intact, and show no signs of being eaten. I've heard it could be squirrels foraging in the loose soil but but this has been happening overnight so I'm guessing it's raccoons. If anyone has any other guesses please feel free to share.

The first time it happened it was the pots I had at the front of my house close to the porch, and those elms were already getting quite big. Then this morning I found most of the pots I had on my porch dug out as well. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can protect my surviving elms? For right now I've just moved the porch ones inside and I'm not sure how big they need to get before it's too inconvenient for wildlife to dig them up. I saw some other forums online with people suggesting sprinkling hot pepper around the plants, would that maybe work?

 

[Chuck]

Apparently something in the soil is attracting whatever it is. Perhaps changing what the soil smells like would work. Maybe if you put dog hair or perfume or urine or something that is foreign to the soil it would deter them.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Chipmunks and squirrels love digging things up for some reason. Especially plants in pots or plants that were recently planted in the ground.

 

[RsTgardenian]

Apparently something in the soil is attracting whatever it is. Perhaps changing what the soil smells like would work. Maybe if you put dog hair or perfume or urine or something that is foreign to the soil it would deter them.

That could work; do you think certain perfumes might harm the seedlings though?