Wild Animals in the Garden

Wild animals in the garden can do considerable damage to your crops.

Gardening can be a pleasurable activity, rewarding you with fresh produce and time spent outdoors as well as exercise. Some aspects of gardening, however, can prove frustrating, such as wild animals. Once they find their way into your vegetable or flower garden, they can do considerable damage.

Types of Wild Animals

Many mammals may find their way into your garden, including deer, chipmunks, groundhogs, mice, moles, opossum, rabbits, raccoon, skunks, squirrels, shrews and voles. Many of these animals are found in suburban areas, and many also live in urban habitats. While you may appreciate the presence of these animals in your yard and enjoy watching their antics, you won't enjoy the damage they may do to your food crops and flowers.

Damage

Some wild animals will do direct damage to your garden, digging up the seeds and eating the crops you have planted, while others do damage to the garden by burrowing and digging or otherwise disturbing the soil. Chipmunks, for instance, will burrow in the garden and may also dig up freshly planted seeds. Deer will eat just about anything green and also trample your garden in the process. Mice leave droppings that may spread disease and may eventually find their way indoors from the garden.

Physical Control

Physical control of wild animals in the garden include barriers such as fences or walls, sprinklers equipped with motion detectors, aluminum plates or other noise-makers, and live traps. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. A tall fence, for instance, will keep out deer but not climbing animals such as raccoons. Live traps may catch raccoons and skunks, but they may also catch the neighborhood cats. Consider the costs and benefits of using physical barriers for the particular form of wild animal invading your garden before investing time and money.

Repellents

Repellents include moth flakes or crystals, ground hot pepper, garlic or the scent of a predator -- such as the dung of a predator animal, used cat litter or human hair. Repellents can be sprinkled around the base of plants that are being eaten. Taste repellents -- hot pepper spray, for instance -- can be applied directly to the plant and washed off before human consumption. Commercial preparations, such as bone tar and thiram-based repellents, can be purchased at most garden centers.

References

• University of Delaware Cooperative Extension; Animals in the Garden; Dewey Caron; August 2004
• University of Vermont Extension; Controlling Animal Pests in the Flower Garden; Dr. Leonard Perry
• Missouri Department of Conservation; Gardens and Wildlife