Prevent rabbits & deer & squirrels & voles from eating roses
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Deer are eating my roses - suggestions???
Comments (42)The basic rule of thumb is rabbits and deer won't eat poisonous plants. They also tend to avoid very dry, very fuzzy, very scratchy and highly scented plants. Dry and fuzzy things get gummy in their mouths and require water to wash them down. They're eating the plants as much for the water as they are for nutrition. They avoid highly scented plants because it "jams their radar". They all rely upon their senses of smell to detect danger. Highly scented plants, not the flowers but the actual foliage, over power their ability to smell and they can't tell if there are coyotes or other predators in the area so they tend to avoid being so close to them to retain their ability to smell danger. Of course, a highly stressed animal is going to be willing to take more risks and eat things they normally wouldn't. And, they can't read, so are often not familiar with what is often on the "do not eat" lists. Sunset Western Garden book for a long time stated deer won't eat agapanthus, but they will gnaw off all the opening flower clusters, leaving them looking as if Ophelia Addams lives at your house. They tend also to avoid areas with the strong scent of blood as that 'tells' them a kill has occurred and Nature avoids death. Urine from predators can repel them because that indicates their predator has been marking its territory, and they know invading that territory can often result in them being dinner. The commercial and home repellants often work because of the "radar jamming" effects. They tend also to avoid areas where they feel too exposed, particularly where they don't have a fast, easy escape route or where they can easily become trapped. Given their choice, they will usually eat things easily accessed via their entrance and more hidden from view. Increasing stress results in them foraging deeper and deeper into normally considered unsafe areas and their taking greater risks to find food. Using the raised boards or sticks as Strawberryhill suggested is like a cattle guard. Cows see the parallel lines on the ground and instinctively know they can get their hooves caught in them, so they avoid them. Deer need something they fear will trip them or injure them. They can jump a seven foot fence because they can jump high for short distances. They can't and usually won't try jumping two shorter fences placed four or five feet apart from one another. While they can go up high for a short distance, they can't jump long distances without a good running start. The trick is finding which combination works well in your situation and for long periods. They can quickly learn your repellant efforts have no teeth behind them, like the plastic owls on poles with rabbits. If the owls don't actually fly at them, chasing them, the rabbits will quickly learn they can continue grazing right under them with no consequences. So far, the best repellant I've found for all of them are the motion sensor sprinklers. You have to get them set just right to protect the area against the varmint you have to repel, and you have to constantly remember YOU are a "varmint" when seen by the motion detector. It's the surprise of the noise and being hit with a strong, fast stream of cold water when violating the area that keeps that system working against the rabbits and deer. Motion activated lighting works for a short time, but has no "teeth" behind them, so they quickly become accustomed to them and ignore the light. They never ignore a noisy rain bird full of strong, cold water. Get hit with it once and neither will you! The real trick for safety with the motion sensor sprinkler is not to turn the hose on strongly. Too strong and it may cause the hose to burst, resulting in wasting a lot of water and causing flooding should you not find the problem for hours after it occurs. Turning the hose on to a trickle usually allows the pressure to build when needed for that strong, thirty second noisy blast of water. If the hose bursts before the pressure is needed, you shouldn't waste much water at a trickle. Normally, all it takes is one blast an evening to keep the deer out unless you have herds of them to contend with. Kim...See MoreSquirrels are eating my roses! Does Deer Off spray work?
Comments (13)I suppose every place has some type of animal that makes gardening a challenge. There are biting and stinging ants, deer, gophers, squirrels, rabbits, kangaroos, moles, and there will always be some that can't be stopped and so must be tolerated. Here in Tasmania we have brush-tail possums. They are an arboreal marsupial that can climb anything and will eat one bite out of every flower and piece of fruit in the garden. I once asked a horticulturist if there was anything that possums didn't eat and he said, "Garden gnomes, but only the concrete type because they will rip right through those plaster ones." He wasn't joking either....See MoreWhat to put on hosta to keep rabbits from eating?
Comments (30)(Chew-Not®, Deer Off®, Deer-Away® Big Game Repellent, Plantskydd®, Bobbex®, Liquid Fence®, Deer Solution®, Hinder®, Repellex® systemic tablets, and coyote urine) on yews (Taxus cuspidata Densiformis) at 2 different locations in Connecticut. The study included both positive (fence) and negative (no treatment) controls. We planted yews in 2 blocks at each location in the spring of 2006; each block had 12 groups of 6 yews. We randomly assigned one of the 12 treatments to each group of yews within each block. We applied repellents based on manufacturers’ label recommendations for the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons and recorded application costs. We derived a protection index based on plant size and dry needle weights at the end of the 2007 growing season. In general, repellents that required more frequent application performed better. Bobbex® ranked highest, but was the most expensive repellent treatment. Hinder® performed nearly as well at a fraction of the cost. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268445587_Effectiveness_of_deer_repellents_in_Connecticut...See MoreHow to prevent rabbits from eating my low hanging fruits?
Comments (18)"They just take a single bite or a few bites out of one fruit. The only other thing ever got eaten was bush green beans last year." Talk about Deja-Vu, I am having the same _exact_ issue. I've never had issues in years gone by, but I this year I expanded my garden to grow more variety. I am growing bush green beans, cucumbers, beets, watermelons, asparagus, and a couple of other things. Whatever it was was eating the leaves off of my cucumbers, my bush green beans (leaves and beans), and eating tomatoes (leafs and larger unripe fruit), the last straw was when they ate a larger unripe tomato (probably about 2 weeks from ripe), two of my young asparagus plants, and a baby watermelon. I went out one night and put up rabbit fence around my whole garden, not knowing what it was, as I was heading out there to put the fence up - I was face to face with the culprit, a huge groundhog. He stood there and stared at me and didn't even bother to move until I ran towards him with the fence posts, lol. So here's my vote towards it being a groundhog. I have tons of rabbits in my yard, but they seem much more content eating the bountiful amounts of clover in my backyard and I rarely see them near my garden. I had suspected them until I saw a tomato taken that was about a foot off the ground and saw that it was carefully "plucked" from the plant, no way a rabbit could've done that....See Morestrawchicago z5
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