Critter Control in your Garden

by Patricia Diaz

Now that we have the multi-legged and winged pests under control in our garden, let's talk about those cute little furry critters that sometimes wreak havoc in our garden areas. It's not only wild animals that can damage our gardens, domestic animals and rodents do a lot of damage too. So don't think you're immune just because you live in town.

CATS AND DOGS
Dogs and cats just love to dig up plants and roll in the garden, smashing plants as they go. Or maybe they've decided to make your newly dug up area their private potty stop. To deter dogs and cats there are a few things you can do. Two herbs repel these animals - cats hate rue and dogs don't like calendula (marigolds). Make a tea from the rue and spray the boundary. To deter dogs plant loads of marigolds around your garden area. You can also repel them with ground up grapefruit or lemon rind - sprinkle it over the soil. Also try spraying full strength lemon juice where they get into the garden. Some say sprinkling red pepper around the perimeter or spraying with a hot pepper spray works.

DEER
First of all, don't believe what everyone might say about deerproof plants. It depends on how hungry they are. Apparently tulips is on the list of deerproof plants but someone forgot to tell the deer around our place. I never even see one bloom! A friend of mine even has deer climbing up on her deck to eat her petunias. About the only real deer deterrent is a tall fence. If they're hungry enough they'll eat just about anything. Here are some of the methods you might want to try. First, plant time-released garlic capsules at the bases of trees or shrubs. Or try wrapping bars of gold Dial deodorant soap in cheesecloth and hanging them at intervals of four feet apart and four feet above the ground. To stop deer from chewing the bark off your trees, mix bone tar oil (Magic Circle Deer Repellant) at a ratio of one part oil to 50 parts water. Paint this solution on the tree trunks. Some people say to spray with an egg spray. Mix 5-6 raw eggs in one gallon of water and spray. This should cover about 1,700 square feet. It's supposedly the smell of decomposing eggs that keep the deer away and the solution is supposed to be faint enough so that it doesn't bother humans. The U.S. Forest Service uses this method. Still others use a hot sauce spray. Mix 1-2 teaspoons of Tabasco or other hot sauces with two teaspoons of antitranspirant in one gallon of water. Spray and reapply after every rain. If you plant certain kinds of plants as a perimeter around your yard or garden for the deer to graze on they might not even eat your garden plants. Good choices are Gambel oak, fourwing saltbush, Rocky Mountain smooth sumac, Saskatoon serviceberry, and Wood's rose. There are a number of plants that deer won't eat unless they're absolutely starving: blue spruce, hawthorn, holly, Norway maple, smoke tree, walnut, boxwood, butterfly bush, mountain mahogany, junipers, potentilla, redtwig dogwood, rhododendron, scotch broom, wild lilac, lily of the valley, dianthus, peppermint and spearmint, St. John's wort, clematis, English ivy, bee balm, daffodils, daylilies, echinacea, dusty miller, coreopsis, foxglove, iris, lamb's ear, oregano, oriental poppy, pampass grass, sword fern, yarrow, and hen's and chicks.

A few other deer foils might be putting pallets flat on the ground as deer usually won't walk or jump over these, hanging fabric softener sheets in and around the garden (replace after several rains), and mixing a gallon bucket of clay soil and water with cayenne or hot pepper and garlic and painting this on trunks and stems. You can also buy coyote urine but some people say none of the predator urine scents work at all. Some people say deer can't stand Russian sage so you could plant this all around. It's a beautiful plant and the honey bees love it.

VOLES
Regular readers probably already know how much trouble we've had with these pesky critters. One year they quickly ate 20 parsley plants leaving me with none. This year we stuck one of those Mole Chasers in the ground (they're powered by four D batteries and give off a sound every 15 seconds that is supposed to keep the voles and moles away) and then confidently planted two parsley plants in the herb garden. Well I guess they love parsley so much that here they came anyway! They'd stayed away until the parsley got into the ground. They ate one plant down to one stalk before I noticed anything and could transplant it and the other heretofore untouched plant, they completely ate the big one down to absolutely nothing! So there I was with a one-stalked parsley plant. But it's safely in a container on the deck now! The voles then left again. So…..these chasers work except when it comes to parsley I guess.

MOLES
One of the best deterrents for moles is to plant castor beans around and in the garden. You can also drop bean seeds into their tunnels. Just remember that these plants are very poisonous and if you have small children I wouldn't use this method. You can also spray a solution of one tablespoon castor oil and one tablespoon of liquid dish soap per gallon of warm water on both the soil and plants. Some people place elderberry cuttings in the tunnels. Or try sprinkling chile powder and powdered garlic into the tunnels weekly. Or scatter ground red pepper (cayenne pepper) into their tunnels. Wood hyacinth repels moles and it's a very pretty plant, multiplying over the years and providing ongoing protection. The next method is cruel and kills the moles but if you're angry enough you just might want to try it - wear gloves and unwrap Juicy fruit gum and place in the tunnels. Apparently moles love it but it fatally clogs up their digestive systems. You can do the same thing with Ex-Lax only it has the opposite effect.

RABBITS
To protect your trees against rabbit chewing, wrap the lower portions of the trunks with commercial tree wrap, burlap, foil, or metal window screen. The wrapping should be two feet above the height of the deepest snow you will get (rabbits walk on top of the snow). Be sure and remove the wrappings in the spring. You can also sprinkle or hang cheesecloth bags of bloodmeal around your plants. Try soaking corn cobs in vinegar for five minutes and scattering them throughout the garden. You can resoak the cobs in the same vinegar over and over all season. Soybean plants, onions, marigolds and garlic are all supposed to repel rabbits. Or you can spray a tea made from cow manure and water. Dusting with peppers will also get rid of rabbits as they are always sniffing so they'll get a snort of this and leave. You can also try a garlic oil spray - combine three ounces of minced garlic cloves with one ounce of mineral oil. Let this soak for 24 hours or longer. Strain. Next mix one teaspoon of fish emulsion with 16 ounces of water. Add one tablespoon of castille soap to this. Now slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic oil. Keep this in a sealed glass container and you will have a mixture that will last all season. To use, mix two tablespoons of garlic oil with one pint of water and spray.

RACCOONS AND SKUNKS
Not much stops raccoons unfortunately. But these animals both like a lot of the same things so here are a few things you might want to try. Plant anything with prickly foliage such as squash plants, oriental poppies, globe thistle, pumpkins, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, as a barrier. To keep both of these animals from their dearly beloved corn plants, put 2-3 drops of hot pepper sauce near the tip of the ear at least one week before picking. One successful method is to surround your garden with a horizontal border such as crumpled black plastic, newspaper, or foil. They don't like to walk over this kind of thing. You can anchor your barrier with rocks or soil. Other things that might work include spreading napthalene flakes around as raccoons hate the taste of this on their paws, using netting as a barrier, using rose trimmings as a barrier, planting cucumbers with your corn as both of these animals hate cucumbers, and using the corn cobs soaked in vinegar trick (although some people say that they got used to this after a couple of months and starting wreaking havoc again).

RATS AND MICE
Mint is a great deterrent for these critters. Sprinkle it everywhere, either dried or fresh. Have cats! Don't mulch perennials until after a few frosts so they don't find a nice cozy home there. Encourage snakes and owls to stay nearby, especially garter snakes. We have a really nice female one who has lots of babies every year so we don't have this critter problem. Plant barriers of perennial sweet peas. Daffodils, wood hyacinths, and grape hyacinths are natural repellants.

SQUIRRELS
To repel squirrels, mix naphthalene flakes, gypsum, and chile pepper and spread around the problem areas. Put sheet metal collars on trees to keep them from climbing the trunks. Learn to enjoy them. They really don't cause much trouble at all and are so fun to watch.

Hopefully these ideas will give you some sort of critter control. Personally I'd rather have the wildlife to watch but if you've put a lot of work into your garden it is somewhat disconcerting to watch it being eaten before you get your chance. So try these and maybe you'll have lots of produce to reward all your work.

Pat Diaz lives with her husband, Tom, and cute little schnauzer, Gus, on 6 acres in the woods by Dworshak Reservoir. They cheerfully share their garden with deer, snowshoe hares, and wild turkeys.

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