Gardens and Wildlife
How to Keep Them Separate
Application procedure for smell repellents around gardens.
If home gardening was subjected to a cost/benefit analysis, it likely would show a slim monetary gain. It would, however, show a benefit to most wildlife species. As many of us have learned, plump fruits and vegetables are a desired meal for many wild animals. Therefore, this pamphlet has been designed to help you put vegetables into your freezer - not the belly of your furry neighbors.
There are three methods to protect your garden from a wild animal's menu: repellents, electric fences, and exclusion fences.
Repellents ward off animals based on taste and smell. Factors that affect the efficiency of repellents include:
1. How hungry the animals are.
2. The animals' familiarity with repellents.
3. Characteristics of the animal species you are trying to repel.
4. The dosage of repellent used.
Taste repellents must be applied directly to the crops they are intended to protect. For this reason, taste repellents don't work well on vegetable crops. However, they can protect fruit trees and shrubs from rabbits, deer and rodents.
Repellents that work by smell are better suited for gardens. Place rags soaked with smell repellents in small waterproof containers along the perimeter of your garden. Commercial bone tar- and thiram-based repellents also will repel deer and rabbits if sprayed around the perimeter of plants you wish to protect. There are as many home remedy repellents as there are hungry animals. Human hair, smelly socks, blood meal, bath soap, tankage, liquid manure, and lion dung are just a few. Although these repellents don't always work, many at least double as a fertilizer.
If your dog likes to roll in lion dung, or your neighbors object to smelly socks, fencing is a sound investment. A simple three foot high chicken wire fence will keep box turtles from your cantaloupe and rabbits from your greens, provided the fence is tightly secured to the ground. Raccoons can be effectively repelled with a two-strand electric wire fence. Place strands at 5- and 10-inch heights, clear vegetation from the wires, and let the juice flow. After a zap or two the masked bandits will feed elsewhere. This arrangement also will keep other small animals such as woodchucks, skunks, and rabbits out of your garden.
A two-strand electric wire fence designed to keep small animals from gardens.WARNING: Electric fences should NOT be connected directly to a 110 volt power supply.
Deer are perhaps the worst menace to anyone trying to grow fruit trees. It doesn't matter if your operation is big or small, hungry whitetails will take their share. In the fall, bucks "feeling their oats" rub their antlers on aromatic young trees - usually killing them. During the rest of the year both sexes of deer use the succulent buds and leaves for a sort of fruit salad.
Repellents will likely ease this type of damage but will not eliminate it. Orchard growers in New York have had good results preventing browse damage by hanging a motel-size bar of soap in each tree. Other commercial repellents have been shown to reduce browse damage by up to 85 percent, however, some studies have shown them to be ineffective.
As you may have guessed, effectiveness is largely dependent on the deer's appetite. To prevent antler damage to trees, wrap chicken wire five feet up the trunk around each tree and stake securely. If the produce from the orchard, truck garden, or backyard is very important to you, you may wish to use the more reliable alternative of fencing.
A single-strand electric fence designed to keep deer from small gardens.
A three-strand offset fence designed to keep deer from larger areas.A single strand electric fence 30 inches above the ground will keep deer from gardens, flower beds, or small orchards. To assure that deer are aware of the fence before running into it, place flaps of aluminum foil over the wire and smear peanut butter on the underside of the foil. Tape the foil to the wire with duct tape. Deer will smell the peanut butter and receive an electric shock.
The fence isn't a barrier but rather a tool to teach deer where not to go. Wire and posts for a single-strand electric fence cost about 10 cents per linear foot. Larger areas, or those with high deer densities, may require more wires or different designs. A 3-strand offset fence (reported to be 95 percent effective) will cost about 35 cents per linear foot. Of course more elaborate fences are more expensive but are sometimes the only answer to protect high dollar crops. Because there is such a wide variety of fencing materials, chargers, and designs, you should carefully assess your needs before purchasing any materials.
Birds sometimes raid gardens and fruit crops, and fences won't help in such cases. Since birds have limited taste and olfactory senses, taste and smell repellents won't help either. Yet, scarecrows, colorful balloons, owl decoys, and plastic streamers will keep birds away. Also, mylar and nylon netting is a failsafe method and does not require a large investment.
Gardening is a rewarding hobby. And, using the aforementioned techniques, you will be able to make it profitable as well.
