Keeping animals out of your garden and landscapes
A challenge to every gardener occasionally is keeping unwanted animals out of their landscapes and gardens. There is much reason why animals invade our landscape and gardens. Their main objective is their survival, so it does not matter to them how great of a landscape or garden you have. Their goal is to find shelter, food, and water.
Even if they have to trespass as a means of survival. This can be a challenge to any gardener who has labored so hard investing time, energy and not to mention money into developing that nice and costly landscape or garden.
And so in this article, we will be looking at ways to keep animals out of your landscapes and gardens.
Keeping rabbits out of our gardens
As cute and cuddly as rabbits are, they can become a real pest in eating our crops. There are many different ways and means that we can use to help keep these fuzzy little creatures out of our garden area.
1. Install a fence. Your fence must be about 2-4 feet high making sure that the bottom end of the fence is at least about eight inches in the ground. This will discourage them from digging holes to try to get under the fence.
2. Repellents are a great way to keep rabbits out of our gardens. Repellents will cause the food they eat to be very unpleasant. Repellents may include mothballs, hot peppers, etc.
3. Purchase fox and coyote urine and spray it around your plants. Rabbits hate the smell.
4. Use some of those old unwanted clothes along with a wig and other material and make a scarecrow.
5. If you have a dog, train him to keep rabbits out. He will be the perfect security guard dog.
These are just a few of many remedies that you can try. But whatever method you use, I hope that you have success.
Animal control
Keeping squirrels out of your Birdfeed
Squirrels can also be considered to be pests by invading and eating our bird seeds. Here are just a few methods that you can use to solve this problem.
1. Keep the area around your bird feeder clean. Cleaning up any bird seeds that fall to the ground can actually discourage squirrels from around the bird feeder.
2. Purchase squirrel proof feeders. These feeders are great to have because when the squirrel sits on the feeders, their weight causes the feeder to close because the feeders are weight sensitive.
3. Mix cayenne pepper into the birdseed. The pepper will cause the squirrels to be turned off but will not do anything to the birds.
4. Try placing the feeders on PVC pipe poles. PVC poles are slippery making it difficult for squirrels to grip, causing them to have a hard time trying to climb up to the bird feeder.
5. Try setting up a separate station or feeder for squirrels. This should divert them from the bird feeders.
Mole control
1. Moles are known to turn beautiful turf areas into nothing more than holes and tunnels. This can become very frustrating but all is not lost. Putting these methods in place can solve the many problems we face.
Because moles damage our lawns in search of insects in the lawn, one solution would be to treat the lawn with insecticide. Getting rid of insects would discourage moles from invading your lawn.
2. Using mole baits is another way to get rid of moles. The moles eat the bait and the bait, in turn, eliminates the Mole.
3. Repellents are used to cause moles to stay out of your lawn areas, liquid repellents once applied to the soil goes deep down into the soil where the moles are, and the smell and taste of the repellent will drive the moles away.
4. Keep your yard and lawn area free of weeds. Overgrown lawns and yards have been known to encourage Mole activity.
5. Mole traps are also an alternative that you can use for the control of moles. Check with your garden center for more details on this.
There are many other methods that you can try. These are just a few methods that you can put into practice.
Keeping snakes out of your garden
1. Even though snakes play an important part in our ecosystem they can become a threat to humans. Including striking them with fear at their very sight. The last thing that anyone hopes to run into is snakes in their gardens.
So we will be looking at some methods that we can use to keep snakes out of our garden area.
1. One of the things the gardener must do is to keep their yard and garden area free of trash, leaves, and garbage. Snakes do not invade gardens looking for a meal only but snakes also seek shelter and warm dark areas. So make sure that your garden area is trash free.
2. Wood and brush piles that are sitting on the ground make a great hideout for snakes. Consider stacking wood and brush piles off the ground.
3. Snake away is a good snake repellent that you can use to keep snakes out of your garden this product can be purchased from your garden center.
4. If you have a bird feeder you may consider moving it. Bird feeders attract birds also the seeds that fall to the ground from the bird feeders attract rats which in turn attract snakes.
5. Make sure that your garbage area is properly secured with lids tightly on the garbage can. Keep the garbage area as clean as possible. Loose garbage in this area attracts rats and roaches which in turn attract snakes that are looking for a meal.
Note:
Any snake capture or removal should be done by those that are trained in this field. Never attempt to remove snakes from your premises call in the professionals.
Deer control
Deer like other creatures play an important part in our ecosystem. They are admired by many but at the same time, they are a problem for some persons. Deer can become a problem when they venture onto our properties getting into our gardens eating our crops and causing damage to personal property.
So then how can we bring this problem under control and ensure that both our personal property and crops would be safe?
1. Put up a fence. Not just any fence but a fence that is designed in such a way that a deer would not stand a chance of getting into your garden. There is a type of deer fence that delivers a shock to the deer when they come in contact with it.
2. Deer repellent is a good way to keep deer at bay.
3. Planting deer-resistant plants is another good way to discourage deer from invading your property. Deer-resistant plants are plants that deer don’t have an appetite for. For example, you can try planting plants that have thorns or prickles.
4. Deer repellent electronic devices are good at keeping deer away. These devices work by delivering high pitch wave sounds that only the deer can hear. This sound scares the deer and chases them away.
5. Hot pepper spray is another method that you can use. Just spray plants that you don’t want the deer to eat. Deer don’t like pepper.
N.B. Deer also carry ticks, it’s important that we keep these creatures at bay, even though we may admire them.
Try these methods and live a deer free life.
Mice control
As cute as some people think that mice are, mice can become very problematic and they can carry disease also. So how do we win the war against these little critters?
1. Keep property free of clutter. Make sure that your surroundings are clean from trash, leaves, and debris. All wood piles and boxes should be stored off of the ground.
2. Make sure that your window and door screens are in good repair. Screens with holes provide an entry point for mice.
3. Make sure that your garbage is properly stored in a trash can with a lid. Ensure that all leftover food is secured in the bin. By cutting off their food and water supply these critters will have to go elsewhere. Open containers that are on the outside can collect water which not only mice will seek out but these open containers can attract mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
5. Buy mouse traps or mice glue boards.
Mice infestation is hazardous and it must be taken seriously. Let’s do our part and discourage these little critters from invading our gardens.
The final word
There is much more that can be said about animal control. Animals and critters invade our homes and properties for food, shelter, and a place to raise their young but in doing so, there is much loss and risk that we face. The risk of disease and danger is always a possibility of wildlife. So by doing our part and putting safety practices in place, we can help to protect not only our homes and properties but also ourselves as well as our families.
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About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
The conflict of interest between us, humans and the invaders which are the animals.
If only animals understand how much effort built on those backyards/landscapes.
The urine method is not that I’m familiar with. That’s quite clever, I am sure there are other smells which put them off and avoid them invading.
Great tips and traps! I like them! Especially squirrel feeder where you can rightly and deservedly say ‘Gotcha!’ or ‘Busted!’
Thanks for the positive feed back. have a good day