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Nuttyneddy
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Dealing with theives
Got up and found this morning I have been raided by our local animal villains. We have possums which come into the suburbs from nearly wooded areas. I had plants beheaded to the medium level. I lost some lettuces, Bok Choy and Capsicum plants which I have been completely eaten including the rockwool medium. I have my system up against some trellis and it makes easy climbing for the possums. I think I will have to put up some metal sheeting behind so they can't climb up and have a feast. I was lucky they didn't eat my tomato plant. Oh well it's something I will have to deal with. My sister has got problems with rats eating her tomato plants. She has put wire meshing around the plants but they still are getting into them. They are clever they have set traps up nearby but the won't go near them. Oh boy!
At least you only have to deal with mainly the four legged thieves. We have more two legged thieves. Birds that eat the young bean and pea tips, eat the seeds out of the starter pots, ripe fruit, and feral chickens digging up my border bed, and ag theft. I don't have possums, there are rats, but they like slug bait, so I changed to a different kind of slug bait, Snails only have one foot, but they have a voracious appetite. The mowed the pac choi and they like to eat roots and tender growth. There are mongoose around, but not in my yard.
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applestar
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Ouch. It’s difficult to deter the wildlife once they’ve found your garden.
I’ve had a few encounters and returning villains as well.
It’s best to study your enemy and set up increasingly potent methods.
Sometimes luring them away helps as well. Protective measures can also include blocking approaches. Be sure to consider adverse effects on the plants you are growing, including direct contact and changing the growing environments/conditions including light and airflow.
Pesky but easily startled daytime and night time attacks can sometimes be foiled by wind chimes or jangling noisemakers that are set off when triggered from climbing flimsy fencing, or sun-reflective birdscares made with shiny metal or metallic objects.
Some night raiders have been successfully deterred/interrupted/turned away by using solar charged motion-sensing security lights situated in strategic locations.
I get some larger marauders that need electrified wire fencing in extreme situations to deter them, and too many/endless small rodent types that I have resorted to using snap or bucket/drown traps.
I’ve had a few encounters and returning villains as well.
It’s best to study your enemy and set up increasingly potent methods.
Sometimes luring them away helps as well. Protective measures can also include blocking approaches. Be sure to consider adverse effects on the plants you are growing, including direct contact and changing the growing environments/conditions including light and airflow.
Pesky but easily startled daytime and night time attacks can sometimes be foiled by wind chimes or jangling noisemakers that are set off when triggered from climbing flimsy fencing, or sun-reflective birdscares made with shiny metal or metallic objects.
Some night raiders have been successfully deterred/interrupted/turned away by using solar charged motion-sensing security lights situated in strategic locations.
I get some larger marauders that need electrified wire fencing in extreme situations to deter them, and too many/endless small rodent types that I have resorted to using snap or bucket/drown traps.
I remember one of the farms used a motion detector on a sprinkler that worked fairly well. Bird deterrents that don't work that well here are plastic owls. One, there is only one native owl and it does not live in the city. Most birds figure out quickly the plastic owl isn't real. They will actually sit on top of it. Reflectors and chimes, even tape, and CD's only work for a week or two. The birds figure that one out quickly as well. A cat works,but there are other considerations. The watercress farm had problems with butterflies so they ran their sprinklers for 30 seconds every 5 minutes to interrupt their breeding cycle. For the larger predators I think fencing, cages, and traps are options.
I have no luck with mouse traps, but poisoned bait works well. You just have to be careful where you put it if you have kids or pets.
I don't have problems with cats pooping in the vegetable garden. I plant very densely and I don't have a lot of open bare spaces. When I had the community garden, there were a lot of cats there. I would try to prep and plant my garden the same day. If I could not do that, then I would use the orange temporary construction fencing and lay it loosely over the garden bed and that worked to keep them out of it. It worked better when the fencing could be propped up a few inches above ground, especially when paired with spiked detterent mats randomly placed on the netting.
I use fruit bags to deter insects and birds. I don't know if they are strong enough to stop a larger animal.
There are animal repellents that work for a little while, but have to be reapplied.
I have no luck with mouse traps, but poisoned bait works well. You just have to be careful where you put it if you have kids or pets.
I don't have problems with cats pooping in the vegetable garden. I plant very densely and I don't have a lot of open bare spaces. When I had the community garden, there were a lot of cats there. I would try to prep and plant my garden the same day. If I could not do that, then I would use the orange temporary construction fencing and lay it loosely over the garden bed and that worked to keep them out of it. It worked better when the fencing could be propped up a few inches above ground, especially when paired with spiked detterent mats randomly placed on the netting.
I use fruit bags to deter insects and birds. I don't know if they are strong enough to stop a larger animal.
There are animal repellents that work for a little while, but have to be reapplied.
Living on the edge of wilderness and with the large number of wildlife species it is amazing we get a harvest at all. Our biggest problem is deer which we have fenced out with an eight foot tall mesh deer fence. Next in line are rabbits. The garden is surrounded by a picket fence with a 3 foot chicken wire fence all around the bottom buried six inches deep.
No need to even try sweet corn with the number of raccoons who eat that crop the day before it is ready to pick. All the rodent types are controlled by foxes, coyotes, bobcats and the several owls living in the nearby trees. Amazingly our squirrel population must have other more favorite food since they do not bother the garden.
I learned along ago the best method is exclusion. Before we grew green beans in a raised bed garden I built a dome out of netting. Our gardens look funny but at least we get most of the produce.
No need to even try sweet corn with the number of raccoons who eat that crop the day before it is ready to pick. All the rodent types are controlled by foxes, coyotes, bobcats and the several owls living in the nearby trees. Amazingly our squirrel population must have other more favorite food since they do not bother the garden.
I learned along ago the best method is exclusion. Before we grew green beans in a raised bed garden I built a dome out of netting. Our gardens look funny but at least we get most of the produce.
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Nuttyneddy
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applestar
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Yay! Now if you have different kinds, move them around/rearrange them every so often so the animals don’t get comfortable about them.
Wire fencing is really the most reliable method (except maybe against clever opponents like squirrels or raccoons if they can find a way in).
Also consider placing things like crumpled and re-flattened aluminum foil where they have to walk. Chicken wire laying on the ground, or bunch of branches that might trip them up are other ways to set up an obstacle course.
For nights and twilight hours, flashing festival lights or candles, even glow-in-the dark fake eyes or plastic beads. I’ve noticed those could be particularly effective if set up as one pair of red or green or yellow lights at a time at approximately predator head height and eye-widths. Think foxes, dogs, or cats, owls, etc. when their eyes flash or glow in the dark.
If you have extra wind chimes/noise makers where they might get knocked into jangling when the marauders startle from thinking they saw a predator and try to run, that’s even better.
(I have some bottle-shaped aluminum cans 3 per set hanging for this purpose. They actually sound really nice… noisy but nice. A restaurant we used to order from had this specialty beverage. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have it on the menu any more — I need more bottles! LOL that it’s not the drink itself I’m interested in
)
Wire fencing is really the most reliable method (except maybe against clever opponents like squirrels or raccoons if they can find a way in).
Also consider placing things like crumpled and re-flattened aluminum foil where they have to walk. Chicken wire laying on the ground, or bunch of branches that might trip them up are other ways to set up an obstacle course.
For nights and twilight hours, flashing festival lights or candles, even glow-in-the dark fake eyes or plastic beads. I’ve noticed those could be particularly effective if set up as one pair of red or green or yellow lights at a time at approximately predator head height and eye-widths. Think foxes, dogs, or cats, owls, etc. when their eyes flash or glow in the dark.
If you have extra wind chimes/noise makers where they might get knocked into jangling when the marauders startle from thinking they saw a predator and try to run, that’s even better.
(I have some bottle-shaped aluminum cans 3 per set hanging for this purpose. They actually sound really nice… noisy but nice. A restaurant we used to order from had this specialty beverage. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have it on the menu any more — I need more bottles! LOL that it’s not the drink itself I’m interested in
)