Dealing With Critters

The February 2 club meeting discussed ideas of how to deal with critters in the garden, welcome or unwelcome.

Meeting Notes supplied by Jenny

Gophers

Gudrun's suggestion to keep gophers away from your plants was to use raised beds. Before you build your raised bed lay down gopher wire, galvanized ¾” chicken wire or ¼” 20 gauge galvanized hardware cloth under the raised bed, extending at least a foot out around the raised bed. The raised bed must be at least 1 foot high. Nothing else really works.

It was mentioned that gophers seem to really like fig & chicory. Someone brought in some gopher traps, but they said they really never worked.

If planting a tree it will need gopher protection until it is established, usually 2-3 years. Dig a planting hole at least twice the size of the root ball. Line the planting hole with 1 inch chicken wire extending 6 inches above ground. Don't use the galvanized wire under it because you want the wire to rust out by the time the tree develops a substantial root structure and the roots need to migrate down into the soil.

Gophers are territorial so you aren't likely to have more than one, but if you get rid of it, another will likely move in. It is also possible to adopt a holistic attitude that the gopher will be your neighbor and will take some of your plants and that is the way of it.

Rats

Be mindful of the impact of rat poison on the food chain. The poison kills raptors or pets that eat poisoned rats. Snap traps are the most humane.

It was mentioned that rats can get through holes the size of a quarter and mice through holes the size of a dime. And that the best way to get rid of pests was to remove the food they're eating.

Some folks have indoor/outdoor cats to help reduce the rodent population.

Raccoons

Raccoons didn't really come up other than with respect to the red pepper (see below) to keep them from going to the bathroom in your garden. Jenny recalls a master gardener tour where a master gardener said that raccoons just eat her snails and don't cause trouble. Jenny also recalls that raccoons dig at fresh turned soil thinking it is turned up due to bugs which the raccoons then are trying to dig down to find and eat. So fresh plantings should be protected if needed, but should be able to remove protection after a day or two.

Pepper/Cayenne

For discouraging cats/dogs one person brought in a dried blood/pepper mix they use. Someone mentioned that the blood seems to work to keep deer away.

Pepper may help deter dogs, raccoons and possibly other mammals. Animals won’t poop where it doesn’t smell right. This likely doesn't work for mammals coming from underground.

Jenny suggested getting large cayenne or red pepper containers from Costco (spice area). Just shake out on the ground, reapply after rain.

Gudrun mentioned that pepper on bird food/seeds was used to keep squirrels away from birdseed (birds can’t taste it).

Fences/Tree guards

Annie suggested putting metal HVAC ducting along the top of fences to prevent rats/squirrels from being able to jump from the fence to the fruit trees.

Gudrun suggested lining the top of fences with about a foot of chicken wire to keep cats out.

Bird netting over raised beds, or attached to stakes as a loose fence (open on top) around raised beds to keep cats/coons out.

To protect their persimmons tree from raccoons, Jim used two 8" diameter 5 foot long HVAC ducting sections and joined them together to create one large tree trunk raccoon guard.

A good link to a site with this sort of information:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/menu.vertebrate.html

For more information see the "Wildlife In Your Backyard!" Here is the link.

***************************************************************************************************

Cats

Dealing with unwanted cats. Keeping cats out of your yard

Ants

Easy homemade ant poison

***************************************************************************