Protecting your garden/yard from Varmints

[khehr]

Went out to check on my strawberries after all our rain over the last few days and every plant was eaten and/or pulled out of the ground. Talked with the neighbors and it would appear that we have a deer issue in our area (note: I live in Ames). I can't put up a fence and I can't shoot the Deer.

So....


How does one protect all the work they put into a garden or a yard?

 

[isuska]

 

[cowgirl836]

It destroyed your STRAWBERRIES?!?!?!?

Kill it with your bare hands!

Actually, I think you're supposed to **** all the way around the garden - the pheromones keep them away or something. Or there is stuff you can buy that hunters use I think.

 

[Cyballz]

 

[cowgirl836]

whoa, the **** is #1, not #2. Please don't #2 all the way around your garden.

 

[CYvilEng]

whoa, the **** is #1, not #2. Please don't #2 all the way around your garden.

I'm trying to picture the female version of this plan. I have a hunch both ways would look equally weird to the neighbors.

 

[Clark]

I just hire CycloneYoda's Willow to patrol my yard

 

[cowgirl836]

I'm trying to picture the female version of this plan. I have a hunch both ways would look equally weird to the neighbors.

Ok, so I will further specify to have a *male* do this. And out of site of others.

 

[RotatingColumn]

I ward off deer by getting up at 4:30 and sitting in a tree stand for 6 hours. Fool proof way for me to never see a deer.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

On foliage & flowers I use cayenne pepper...but you have to reapply frequently. However, it's cheaper than the coyote pitz they sell in garden centers. It would work on the strawberries, but I wouldn't use it after the berries start forming. Hopefully the deer would have moved on by then.

I'm going crazy with the freakin' ground squirrels. They tunneled all through my garden out front, ate most of the bulbs (glads, daffies, etc). I've shot five already...they keep showing up. Arrrggghhh!

 

[Clark]

I ward off deer by getting up at 4:30 and sitting in a tree stand for 6 hours.

I do it by driving 55 mph and letting them come to me. Works like a charm.

 

[khehr]

It destroyed your STRAWBERRIES?!?!?!?

Kill it with your bare hands!

Actually, I think you're supposed to **** all the way around the garden - the pheromones keep them away or something. Or there is stuff you can buy that hunters use I think.

I was reading this after a Google Search, not sure I want to expose my neighbors to this particular strategy.

 

[19210]

whoa, the **** is #1, not #2. Please don't #2 all the way around your garden.

The word I had for **** was different and sounded a lot more fun then #1 and #2. I'd hire Bill Murray and just sit back and watch. Clarification, not watch him do #1,#2 or ****!

 

[cowgirl836]

The word I had for **** was different and sounded a lot more fun then #1 and #2. I'd hire Bill Murray and just sit back and watch. Clarification, not watch him do #1,#2 or ****!

you wouldn't want to do that either. Grass in all sorts of places!

 

[ImJustKCClone]

you wouldn't want to do that either. Grass in all sorts of places!

Better than on a beach.

Just sayin'

 

[azepp]

I have rabbits and for the last couple weeks I've been doing laps around the house every day and picking off the babies as they come out of the den. Then I give them to the 4-year-old boys next door and they go all Lennie on them. Now I just have to wait for the old ones to die.

 

[StClone]

Electric Fencing! Get some fiber glass 4' posts at Fleet Farm for a peanuts, a spool of electric fence line and a fencer for $75. Lasts for years and better yet you don't have to shoot up the place. String the line at nose height and it should zap them good (their fur is a pretty good insulator). The posts and line are easy to move and almost invisible. You can get a solar power unit if the strawberry patch is well away from a power source.

BUT! If it is a Ground Hog (Iowa version of the mountain Marmot) string the line at six inches high, too. I use this method for rabbits and deer on my entire garden with the lines criss-crossing all over the garden in case the deer hop the outer line. After a few shocks the deer associate the smell and noise of the electric fence and leave.

 

[StClone]

On foliage & flowers I use cayenne pepper...but you have to reapply frequently. However, it's cheaper than the coyote pitz they sell in garden centers. It would work on the strawberries, but I wouldn't use it after the berries start forming. Hopefully the deer would have moved on by then.

I'm going crazy with the freakin' ground squirrels. They tunneled all through my garden out front, ate most of the bulbs (glads, daffies, etc). I've shot five already...they keep showing up. Arrrggghhh!

Water the area endlessly as thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels do not like wet soil. I doubt you are having the larger Richardson's Ground Squirrel or Franklin's as they are very rare and likely gone from much of Iowa.

http://www.gis.iastate.edu/gap/terra/atlas/mammals.htm

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Water the area endlessly as thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels do not like wet soil. I doubt you are having the larger Richardson's Ground Squirrel or Franklin's as they are very rare and likely gone from much of Iowa.

http://www.gis.iastate.edu/gap/terra/atlas/mammals.htm

Looked up a picture...yup, that's them. Won't excessive moisture do just as much damage to my bulbs as those little beggars do? We had a feral cat out there that kept the population down, but he left for better hunting grounds, or tangled with something bigger than himself.

Side note: we live on 3 acres of woodland that includes a creek across the bottom acre, so plenty of critters around. We have a pair of groundhogs that live in the culvert under our parking pad (about 40 ft from the house) but they have never come up into the flower garden. They stay out in the meadow that we euphemistically call the "front yard".

 

[StClone]

Looked up a picture...yup, that's them. Won't excessive moisture do just as much damage to my bulbs as those little beggars do? We had a feral cat out there that kept the population down, but he left for better hunting grounds, or tangled with something bigger than himself.

Side note: we live on 3 acres of woodland that includes a creek across the bottom acre, so plenty of critters around. We have a pair of groundhogs that live in the culvert under our parking pad (about 40 ft from the house) but they have never come up into the flower garden. They stay out in the meadow that we euphemistically call the "front yard".

Option two is Poison bait down the gopher's hole safest is zinc phosphide based.