Creature discomfort

14 years ago

I just realized that I spend more than half my gardening time dealing with pests Â fending them off, catching them, reducing their habitat and repairing their damage. The worst so far this year have been voles and slugs; and today I saw the first few Japanese beetles of the season.

Today I was out in the garden and saw the latest vole damage Â a morning glory and two pepper plants severed at the base, a half-eaten beet, lettuce leaves strewn about. I set out some traps and caught the culprit but didn't feel too good about it.

How do you keep critter patrol, and the damage tally, from ruining your garden buzz?

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Comments (5)

jeanwedding. zone 6
14 years ago
Shoot it would not bother me. Dang destructive creatures.
Dang squirrels been fighting for years. They go out of their way to torment me. After all my work. Been gardening for over 30 plus years.
There is plenty for them to eat in this city burb. people feed them. Gobs of trees.
If it wasn't for my overwhelming work to enclose raspberry patch I would not get one dang raspberry.
Ive got sunburn and senior wrinkles and aching shoulders and hands. broken fingernails.
No bleeding heart here.
Haven't set traps lately. Hard to trap the devils.too dang clever Going to have to
damn squirrels get my apples everyday.
I have a small yard. Dang if Im sharing my small bounty with those RATS with tails.
Ferrel cats are a pain too. Possums even here in the city.
Im trying to calm down after finding a buried black walnut where a green bean seed was planted the day before.UGGG......LOL
Sore knees from all this kneeling. But I love getting my hand in the dirt. delicious produce makes all the work worthwhile.Thanks for letting me vent.
Good luck and happy gardening
Jean
yardenman
14 years ago
My cats are good at catching voles.

But consider that voles mostly follow mole tunnels. So get rid of the moles. Get Milky Spore Disease powder and spread it around to kill the grubs the moles eat. No moles, no mole tunnels; no mole tunnels, no voles...

I did that last year and am already seeing positive effects.
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corin99
14 years ago
Making your garden as secure as possible takes some upfront work, but will save a lot of aggravation in the end. Killing and chasing them away is a losing proposition. There will always be more of them and they will do whatever they have to in order to eat.

I buried hardware cloth (wire mesh with 1" openings) a foot deep around the perimeter of my garden and installed a 1" mesh fence 2' above ground. I wove the two together with twine to form a barrier. This keeps most of the critters out. The squirrels can still be a problem, but even they don't bother things as much now that they have to go over a fence to get to the garden.

Good luck!
corin99
14 years ago
Forgot to mention, I also built cages to keep the squirrels away from my chard. My first ones were made out of wood covered with chicken wire, but I've found that PVC and heavy plastic fencing does the job and they are is much easier to build.

It's kind of a maximum security garden.
gardener1908
14 years ago
I am lucky enough so far that I have been able to plant enough that I can afford to lose a few to the critters. We have had a woodchuck living under our shed for about 4 years now. I had trays of lettuce seedlings sitting in the back of my raised beds and he decided that I had put out a smorgasborg for him! I had plenty, so it didn't matter, but when he decided the peas were for him too - out came the trap. Within 5 mins we caught him but he was so darn cute, we let "Bucky" go.. Guess I enjoy the wildlife to much. There aren't many places for them to go anymore so I try to share my 5 acres with them. Bugs different story.

Creature discomfort

Comments (5)

jeanwedding. zone 6

yardenman

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