I have hordes of marauding rabbits stampeding across my back yard, the coyotes unable to make a dent in their numbers, and yet, for the first time in a long time, I've got lettuce growing without an electric fence, traps and snared around it, getting my plot nicknamed the Gulag Garden. What's my secret? Don't gross out on me, but I've been sprinkling my urine around the garden, and except for an occasional rogue gopher, nothing seems to be willing to cross the line.
I got the idea from an old Green Beret I went camping with once. He peed around the perimeter of our camp, and explained that the urine from a meat-eating male is perceived by critters like snakes and coyotes as a marked territory, and that they trespass at their own risk. I've been doing this now for about four months, and so far, it seems to be fail-proof.
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Shades of "Never Cry Wolf"!
But, hey, it's *very* low-tech, sustainable, etc.
Let's just hope your neighbors don't see you and send in a police report of "weird" behavior...
Must be nice to sleep at night now and not wonder, "How much are the varmints going to eat *tonight* ?"
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
But, hey, it's *very* low-tech, sustainable, etc.
Let's just hope your neighbors don't see you and send in a police report of "weird" behavior...
Must be nice to sleep at night now and not wonder, "How much are the varmints going to eat *tonight* ?"
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
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I'm going to have my friend provide me with some of your suggested repellent, and wonder if it repels gophers who surface from below the earth? Do you (did you) have this issue as well? Our predecessors in this house completely killed off over 1/4 acre of beautiful green lawn and plants, so what I have no doesn't attract much of anything except spiders. But I'm ready to put my garden in, and already have 5 ailing tomato plants with whiteflies that I'm fighting off. I know the gophers will return when there is food because in the past we've had as many as 100 gopher holes in our yard, which makes it feel like a hilly war zone. Help - anyone with successful ideas!
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I've poured some of my repellent down gopher holes, with some good affect, but ultimately, they come back.
We used to have a group of kids in San Diego County, back in the '80's, that claimed an old Indian had told them how to get rid of gophers. They made a fortune plying their secret trade to the golf courses in the area, that paid top dollar for their services. Ultimately they grew up, and one of them came out and said the secret method was digging out a gopher hole until you were in one of the main holes, not just one of the exit holes, then stuffing it with fresh dog poo.
What worked for us for years, was that a buddy of mine got a hold of a garter snake, and forced it down a gopher hole in our garden. We didn't see a gopher for two years.
Notice how all my methods seem to require something gross?
We used to have a group of kids in San Diego County, back in the '80's, that claimed an old Indian had told them how to get rid of gophers. They made a fortune plying their secret trade to the golf courses in the area, that paid top dollar for their services. Ultimately they grew up, and one of them came out and said the secret method was digging out a gopher hole until you were in one of the main holes, not just one of the exit holes, then stuffing it with fresh dog poo.
What worked for us for years, was that a buddy of mine got a hold of a garter snake, and forced it down a gopher hole in our garden. We didn't see a gopher for two years.
Notice how all my methods seem to require something gross?
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The best thing for deer is deer pee. Get it from Academy or any huntinf store and starting marking away from the garden. It doesn't seem logical, but it'll attract them to the are with the pee, not the garden. You gotta mark a good 50-100ft away though.wolfie wrote:does it repel deer too?
Or just get an outside cat and teach it to chase deer, these are the two methods my father inlaw does to keep deer away from the feed he grows(or atleast used to before our horrible drought) for his cattle.