Try putting some ExLax pieces around your plants. We have hordes of squirrels here and we bought some Walmart brand Equate version of ExLax and put it around iris tubers and tulips. Also kept them out of the veggie garden. Even though the sqirrels live in our trees, they go to the neighbor's house behind us to pick their tomatoes and peaches. We find half-eaten fruits from the neighbor gardens almost every day. Nothing has been stolen from our garden since we did the ExLax thing 2 years ago. Seems the little buggers have a pretty good memory and won't come back for more. Sitting in the john all day gives them time to think about what they have done! This should work for skunks, too. It kept the front neighbors' dogs out of my new plantings near the mailbox.

Not sure why opossums always get the blame in these nocturnal digging threads, I don't believe it's true. Skunks, racoons, cats, or squirrels are more likely culprits. Skunks in particular equate recently dug soil with grub hunting ground and will ravage innocent bystander seedlings in their search for sub-surface food. Question: I think opossums are digging holes in my roof or yard. Answer: The damage is not likely to be caused by opossums. Opossums have soft, delicate hands with nails that are easily ripped out. They are not capable of doing a lot of digging. Other animals are more likely to be causing the damage. Here is a link that might be useful: Oppossum FAQs

"I have been having problems with "critters" myself. For the life of me, I can not figure out what kind of critters are invading my garden. First I found several of the plants cut up, but they do not appear to be eaten. I also found a small hole, maybe 6 inches tall, cut into the screen around one of my bushes. But the bush was no harmed? I did not see any evidence of digging. What kind of critter could it be?" I'm pretty good at figuring out what animal/insect/condition is affecting my garden. Were there any tracks around the affected area? Change in soil? What marks/bites are on the plants? And to Micrazy: Place ground chili peppers in your garden bed. Use the hottest chilies you can find, the little Thai chilies are excellent, so are habaneras and cascabellas. The capsicum in the peppers makes for unpleasant digging. The term 'hot foot' applies here. Put mothballs down around your plants. Matter of fact we have some tool and garden sheds that are about 1 foot of the ground and every year I buy a trunk load of it (or so it seems). This discourages them from the git-go and even keeps out stray cats and other critters. Hang rags soaked in vinegar and stapled onto small wooden stakes or dowels near you plants. Most rodents hate the smell even when dry. Re-soak each rag in about a week. Should you be a coffee drinker who brews it up using coffee grounds then empty your coffee filter around the base of your tomato plants and that should help you. Should you be fortunate enough to live by a Starbucks go and ask for their used coffee grounds as they have been known to give away 5 and 10 pound bags to anyone who asks for it. You can also mix up some regular cheap liquid soap with some ground red hot chili pepper powder and pour that around the base of your tomato plants. I would do some out about 2 inches and then another ring out about the same distance as your widest leaves on your plant. You may want to keep your eye out for those big jars of chili powder that go on sale once or twice a year in discount markets and stock up to use at the base of your plants by just sprinkling it on the ground. It is supposed to work also. Then there is the old chicken wire with the smallest mesh. You can wire or staple it to stakes and drive them deep into the ground. You can use 36â or wider chicken wire and bend them over your tomato plants or they will use the wire as monkey bars to get in. Get some blood bone meal and sprinkle it around the base of your tomato plants. Got a dog? Then when you sweep up their dog hairs or you brush them, do not throw the dog hair in the garbage. Simply sprinkle it around your tomato plants and that will also work.

Dogs will dig that deep to pull up garbage. I'd think nothing is going to keep an animal with a nose like theirs from smelling something like a decomposing fish. Maybe you should just use organic fertilizer instead. Even then there can be problems with scavenging animals digging where blood meal, bone meal and maybe even fish emulsion have been applied. So a whole fish will probably really bring them.