In article , DanMusicant says...

OK, so your take is that the brazen eating of maybe a third of two 2-lb
kabochas in mid-day (it was probably between noon and 3 PM) suggests
squirrels rather than opposum! There were also one or two small ones
attacked at the same time. It's hard to believe that one possum would do
all that. Do they go in packs or are they always solitary?

Possums are definitely nocturnal and (other than mothers with babies)
they are pretty much solitary.

On the other hand, I've seen as many as two dozen squirrels in my yard
at one time (not the current house, thankfully!). This was the end of
a population boom; there was an epidemic of what looked like mange and
the population crashed rather quickly. Mangey squirrels: not a pretty
sight.

I guess I'm going to have to try squirrel repellent strategies.
Possibilities seem to be:

Live Trapping (I'd need traps and a decision what to do with them)
Tinsel scarecrows
mouse traps (to scare them away)
sling shot

There are a LOT of squirrels around here!

Hot pepper spray as a repellent might help.

I even thought of throwing a wire cube (with one side open) over each
squash. That would require a lot of handiwork.

Circles are easier. 8^)

Dan

Pat in Plymouth MI (testing out a new news server)