PS. Although you tagged this for perennials, it doesn't show up on the gardenweb perennials forum for me. Maybe things that are tagged for more than one forum only show up in the Houzz side of the forums, not in those forums that are old style Garden Web? I don't much care for the Houzz interface, so don't use it.

Thanks. I did not realize it to lay flat the chicken wire directly on top of the soil. I was thinking I had to put multiple stakes in the edge of the pot and then place the wire around it. I'll try red pepper flakes too. The hottest one available.

And cheer up - they're better than voles! (spoken from someone who has ALL of the varmints!)

both are rodents. A mouse trap works well. The way they breed it doesn't take long to be overrun with them. If you don't want to kill them use some of the live traps and store them in a tote with air holes. Then relocate them far from your home in a wooded area away from homes

An indoor/outdoor cat. As long as we have a cat we don't have a problem with squirrels, grinnys, moles, field mice or rabbits. Now the dang deer, skunks and ground hogs ........... don't even get me started on them. lol

Fortunately I don't have voles or groundhogs in my area. I have used the bucket of water with sunflower seed method and it worked well but not enough to reduce the population at all. They keep multiplying and multiplying. I don't have a cat but some of my neighbors do and they keep them outside and those cats sometimes visit my yard too but I don't see any difference in the chipmunks population. They must be real terrible hunters. There's like 3 cats that roam around my area.

Btw I also would like to know one more thing. I have some tiger lily bulbs(lilium lancifolium) that I'd like to protect from rodents. Would it be a smart idea to directly lay flat the chicken wire over the bulbs and then cover it with dirt? Reason I'm kind of worried is because the when the foliage comes out in spring it might not fit through the chicken wire. Anyone have experience with this?

The squirrels mostly leave things alone once the dirt has settled and no longer looks disturbed. Put the chicken wire down, but don't cover it with dirt. If you do that, it's more likely that the disturbed dirt once you remove the chicken wire will attract the squirrels. So just lay down the chicken wire down now, and once the lilies start sprouting in the spring, loosen it and remove once the plants are ready to push against it. IME, Squirrels don't typically dig up established, growing plants in undisturbed dirt.

Alright but I can't just leave the chicken wire there? I will leave it exposed above the dirt. I want it protected all season long and not have to take it off every spring if I can since rodents are also very active in spring as well. Will the foliage sprout right in between the chicken wire?

Suggest that a search for the general topic 'chipmunks and salmonella' might lead to a neighborhood joint effort to retain an exterminator. Those raising backyard chickens should be very alert to the disease problems these varmints spread. Heruga, is there enough room around your tiger lily bulbs that would allow placing a slightly crumpled square of chicken wire around the bulb area about a foot wide? Not directly over the bulbs.

I can do that but won't the rodents just dig from top and reach for the bulb, avoiding the wire?

It is often suggested that vulnerable bulbs - like the lilies, tulips, crocus and other squirrel/vole/gopher favorites - be planted in wire baskets. Just dig a normal planting hole but wrap chicken wire loosely around the bulbs to form a sort of basket around them before placing in the hole and filling in. The bulb foliage will grow up through the wire openings.

They actually sell preformed wire baskets for just this purpose but it is not difficult to make your own :-)

GG - voles will pass through chicken wire without tckling up their whiskers! So that means 1/2 inch mesh... which may be too small for the larger bulb foliage. We had a long discussion about this a few months ago and I thought the best suggestions were buried small gauge mesh open-top baskets, and removable tops, which get lifted as foliage appears. I also liked the suggestion of sinking planted pots with rims about an inch above the surface.

I am not plagued by voles so you may very well be correct :-) After one ill-fated episode with a mass planting of crocuses that were completely devoured by squirrels (at a previous residence), I have been rodent free with my bulbs. But I do tend to plant what are considered less tasty ones. My primary issues are with the deer, who wait until the lilies are just about to bloom and then eat all the flower buds!!

I remember when I was first gardening I tried the chicken mesh thing - laid it down in the fall after planting. Don’t know what I was thinking but by next spring I wanted to remove it after the shoots had already started pushing through and I ended up pulling out a good deal of my precious while doing so. So not really good for my purposes. The other thing is that the mesh may stop them being able to dig down to the bulb - but doesn’t stop the buggers from snapping the neck of the flower just as it about to open.

The chicken wire defense is best in my mind when it is put down when bulbs or plants are first planted and soil is freshly turned , but then removed in really early spring as the snow is melting. IME much (not all) of the squirrel damage is done with freshly disturbed soil/mulch, so once that has settled, the risk is lower. For pots I might just leave it or use cayenne when I removed the wire.

Have you considered installing owl boxes to attract owls to your garden?

NHBabs, I still rather stick to the method of placing the bulbs in the wire baskets and planting it like that. Probably next fall I will dig my tiger lily bulbs up and put it in a wire basket(made from my own) and bend the wires until it makes an inch opening on the top for the foliage to come out. That way its 100% safe. I probably won't do that for my lycoris radiata since rodents will probably avoid those bulbs and have so far.

Hey guys I need advice on one more thing.. When I put chicken wire over my pots and pin in landscape pins in the potting mix, will that cause problems to the mix from the rusting metal of the landscape pins and chicken wire? If I keep watering the pots the metal will eventually rust and leech into the soil and can that harm the plant roots?

Short answer - no. You are worrying unnecessarily.

Thank you! Going out to buy chicken wire today