Defending your Vegetables From the Critters When you buy a house... - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Defending your Vegetables From the Critters When you buy a house... - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Dec 11, 2022 398 likes •918 views

Defending your Vegetables From the Critters When you buy a house... On a road like this... You should expect this! Strategies Change the habitat Get a pet that chases Install scare devices Plant things they dont like

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Defending your Vegetables From the Critters

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When you buy a house...

On a road like this...

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You should expect this!

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Strategies

  • Change the habitat
  • Get a pet that chases
  • Install scare devices
  • Plant things they don’t like
  • Kill or trap the animal
  • Make the area smell bad or taste nasty
  • Put up a fence
  • Not recommended: poison
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How to choose?

  • Expense

– Immediate – Ongoing

  • Effectiveness
  • Convenience
  • Safety
  • Appearance
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Strategy: distasteful plants Herbs

  • Herbs need no

protection from deer!

  • Success with: basil,

chives, lemon balm, mint, summer savory, oregano, sage and thyme

  • Exception: parsley
  • Onion family safe

from deer Common Chives

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Strategy: Population Control

  • Hunting

– Must follow hunting regulations

  • licenses
  • distance from dwellings
  • Trapping

– Kill traps – Capture traps

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NYS Law

  • Unprotected animals can be killed at any time

– Chipmunks, voles, moles, red squirrels, &

woodchucks

  • Hunting & trapping for protected animals

controlled by law

– Rabbits, skunks, grey squirrels, & deer

  • Exceptions made for animals causing extensive

property damage

– Permits required

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Strategy: Trapping

It is illegal for a home owner to transport live wild animals off one's property in NYS What are you going to do with it???

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Evaluation: Population Control

Advantages

  • Does not change the appearance of property

Disadvantages

– Restrictions – Animals quickly refill vacated space – Most of us can't or won't kill

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Strategy: Smell & Taste Repellents

Repellents are pesticides = controlled substances Must be used according to label directions Smell based repellents usually work better than taste based.

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What is in a Repellent?

  • Putrescent egg solids – highly effective - deer
  • Capsaicin – highly effective against deer
  • Garlic
  • Cinnamon oil, clove oil
  • Dried blood meal
  • Ammonium soaps of higher fatty acids -

medium

  • Predator urine
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Invest in a pump sprayer

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Read the label before you buy!

  • What plants can be sprayed?

– Does it damage flowers? – It is OK for vegetables? Fruit?

  • Are there times plants should not be sprayed?
  • How often should plants be sprayed?
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General directions for use

  • Spray at or before the FIRST sign of damage

– Before THEY get to know & love your plants

  • Spray on regular schedule – every 4 weeks or

as label directs

– More often to cover new growth

  • Allow 24 hours of dry weather after spraying
  • Spray when temperatures between 40-80F
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Effectiveness

  • Best for small areas
  • Best in summer

– when deer have other foods

  • Works best when fewer deer
  • Works best when used with other techniques
  • Alternating sprays may help
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Why did the repellent stop working?

  • Did not spray often enough

– Deer must be able to smell repellent!

  • Did not spray after heavy rains
  • There was no other food around
  • Remember: the deer never give up!!
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Fence plus Repellent

  • Combines visual barrier & odor repellent
  • 3'-4' fence posts around perimeter
  • Cotton cord or rope at 30” for deer and at 6” for

woodchuck

  • Tie strips of cotton cloth every 3' and dip
  • OR use paint brush to paint repellent on rope
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Fence plus Repellent

Edible Landscape 9/24/2008

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Evaluation: spray repellents

Advantages

– No change in the appearance of the garden – Lower initial expense for a small garden

Disadvantages

– Open windows? – Continual maintenance expense – Very expensive for large areas – Will suffer some damage – Many/most not recommended for vegetables

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Gardener: Know thyself!

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Strategy: Exclusion

  • Fence the garden with wire fencing, netting or

electric fencing

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Deer Fence

  • Permanent woven wire 8' high

– lasts 20 years

  • Polypropylene Netting – 6'-8' high
  • Shorter fences work around smaller areas
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Fences for Rabbits and Woodchucks

  • 4' high hardware cloth with 1” mesh buried 12”

deep or bent into L and buried 1-2” deep

  • Plus electric wires at 2-6” above ground and 3”

above top

  • or
  • Deer netting behind/above the hardware cloth
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Poughkeepsie Farm Project 8' deer fence

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Woven Wire

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Every fence needs a gate... Locust Grove

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Or a bigger gate...

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The backup fence...

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Polypropylene Netting

  • Less visible than wire
  • Inexpensive
  • Less durable than

wire

  • Good as temporary

solution

  • Does not deter

rabbits

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N E T T I N G T Y P E S

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Netting Installation

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Electric Fences

  • Temporary or permanent
  • Fur is an insulator
  • Deer must be trained to the fence

– Peanut butter on foil hung from wire encourages

nose to fence contact

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Evaluation: Electric Fencing

Advantages

– Almost invisible – Cheaper than a permanent fence

Disadvantages

– Must keep vegetation clear under fence – Vulnerable to falling branches, etc. – Some animals learn to go through, under, or over

Deer can slide under 2' wire

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What's wrong with this fence?

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Damage by leaping deer

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Next Problem!

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What's wrong with this fence?

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Next problem! 2001

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Why is Chuck still a problem? 2006

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The Gardener!

We don't do the things we know must be done to solve the problem.

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Fence Finally Fixed! 2009

  • 1’ trench, lined with old wire fence & palisades
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I hope!

Super tall deer netting & 3’ chicken wire

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Things that go bump in the night...

1:05am 8/31/2009

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Coping with Chipmunks

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Protecting Squash Seeds

Leave some air circulation

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Protecting Bush Beans

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Sacrificial Tomatoes

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Sometimes there is no defense!

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Links

  • www.gardening.cornell.edu search on deer
  • www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/deerdef/

index.html

  • wildlifecontrol.info/

– Links section contains fact sheets for control of

several animals

  • Library catalog search Subject “Deer – Control”
  • “The $64 Tomato” by William Alexander – for

information on electric fences

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A special thanks to:

  • My husband, Ed Nisley, for many of the photos
  • Several Master Gardeners for sharing

information

  • The horticulturists at the Locust Grove Estate