Sandy, I live in the country where there's a lot of wildlife, but I don't think I can top your NJ critters for destruction! I've never seen a bird pull up a seedling, don't think I've ever lost a seedling to an animal, unless maybe an armadillo rooted one up hunting for worms and other such animal food.
I do get lots of browsing deer and plant eating rabbits - the only way I know of to eliminate the threat is with a physical barrier. I've got a 6' metal fence with spikes on top around my garden, and even then, squirrels sometimes climb the fence and dig around in the dirt in the beds, usually to plant acorns. Fortunately, their damage isn't usually too bad.
I'm being honest here. My neighbor's garden was being eaten up by deer and rabbits, so he put up one of those gizmos that sends out a slight electrical charge when a deer (or other animal) enters the garden. Well, the deer just jumped over the charge, or the little ones crawled under it - he watched them doing it from his window. None of the other "cures" have worked for me, like cayenne pepper, soap and /or pie plates hanging in the bushes, 'deer off' sprays, etc.
I've also got a picket fence around my front yard area, with raised beds at the base of it in some areas. I only get minor squirrel damage here.
'So sorry about all your critter damage!
Sherry

Hi Sandy,

I feel your pain, and I also can relate to the BB gun.

I won't use anything that isn't organic or can hurt the butterflies/cats.

But, I will use a BB gun. The crows would pull up the seedlings in our flower gardens and in our vegetable garden and THEN eat all of the sunflower seeds (that is... what seed the squirrels left) out of the bird feeders not leaving any for my little birds.

So, I started using my son's BB gun to get rid of as many squirrels and crows as possible. The squirrels are easy to shoot, but you have to really sneak up on those crows!

If you kill a crow, hang it up in the garden and the others won't come back. It will eventually disinegrate, but it really works while the dead one holds up. If you can't bring yourself to use the BB gun, just go shopping for new flowers while your husband does the necessary deed.

My biggest problems in my part of Central Va are deer and rabbits. The deer try to eat all of the roses and tomatoes and the rabbits will eat every fresh thing you plant. They think you just added a new item to their 'Bunny Buffet'!!

I just found out today that a mother bunny is raising her baby in the thickest planted part of my circle garden in the middle of my driveway. No wonder my newly rooted and planted butterfly bush in the circle garden got chewed off!

Oh well.... I don't have the heart to leave a baby motherless or kill a baby. Glad I bought those stakes at Walmart today to put some fencing around my newest butterfly bush cuttings.

OK... now that I'm finished fussing, my suggestions are:

You could try using some bird netting over your seedlings to keep the birds off and maybe pin down some wire over newly planted areas to keep the squirrels out. Once the plants grow big enough, the squirrels and birds will usually leave them alone and you can stop using the netting and wire. Hope this helps.

Good Luck!
Betty

P.S.- Miss Sherry, I envy your fencing. I dream of fencing!

Betty, I will definately look into netting, I hadn't even thought of it! I'm not really opposed to the BB gun at this point but we are a small neighborhood and I don't think the neighbors will appreciate us shooting at things all day long! Do they make them with silencers, I wonder. I told my husband he should take up falconry but he is being stubborn about it :P I wouldn't be able to move a baby bunny either. The rabbits don't even come near our yard thankfully. Every once in a while I let the dogs out front and let them pee on things and that seems to deter them.

Sherry, destruction is definately the word for it. I have never seen anything like it until I moved here. Last year the squirrels took bites out of every green vegetable in the garden before they had a chance to even partially ripen. I tried an early spring garden this year and came home from work one day and it looked like tiny landmines went off all across the front of the house...they had dug up all the bulbs.

You haven't really lived until you've seen a sweet pea seedling dangling from a bird's nest...