Animal Pests in the Garden

United States
February 17, 2013 10:46pm CST
The last two years, I've had animal pests in my raised garden beds. Rabbits and deer felt welcome to nibble the leaves of my plants, even the onions. Birds swooped in to steal my berries and figs. Armadillos and raccoons dug up my fertilizer spikes and tablets. At first I didn't have any fencing, so they were free to roam about. This year I have two types of vinyl fencing fabric and I'm trying to figure out which works best and how I'm going to apply it to my garden to keep out the animal pests while allowing me access to do my work. Also, the butterflies and bees need to be able to get in and out to pollinate everything, so I'll have food to harvest. The two types of fencing have already shown their differences. The gray is lighter in weight and density and breaks easily when pressure is applied. The black is heavy duty, has yet to break under pressure and feels like it weighs just a bit more. Both are one-inch mesh, to keep out the birds from the sides. Also, to keep out the deer, I need my final fence to be 7-10 feet high. For now, I've got them both bound with bungees at the corners of their respective raised beds. Since beginning my fencing project to keep animal pests out of my garden, I've noticed the leaves are not chewed, except for one. When I've figured out and finalized my fencing plan, I'll add some green sunscreen fabric across the top, sort of like a porch roof. That's to keep out the birds and filter the rays from the prolonged, extreme summer heat we've been having lately. Hopefully these things will effectively keep animal pests out of my garden.
2 responses
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
3 Mar 13
Fortunately where we live which is densely populated we don't have issues with the type of animal pests you have, we do have the occasional fox, but they are not interested in the veggies, the pests we have are the birds and the bugs, our windmills see of the bird problem, the bugs well I hate using chemicals on my plants, then they are not fully organic, but I did appreciate the basil tip. I wish there was a way of encouraging more ladybirds/ladybugs to the garden as there seems to be too few of them and not many aphids waiting to be eaten and got rid of. Someone did suggest using warm fairy liquid washing up liquid in a spray to get rid of blackfly and the aphids.
• United States
4 Mar 13
Heya wolfie! Thanks for commenting on this discussion on animal pests in the garden. I have hung aluminum pie plates in my fruit trees to ward off birds. It's a trick learned from my great grandmother. You can also use highly reflective things like old CDs or predator symbols like fake snakes and owls. Just be sure to tell the humans who visit or help in your garden, to avoid heart attacks, while fending off animal pests in the garden.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
4 Mar 13
We had a fake frog in our garden. I love frogs, they are so misunderstood, and yet idea for eating the bugs, we don't have a pond but we usually find them in the long grass.
@subhojit10 (7375)
• India
18 Feb 13
Thanks a ton for sharing this discussion. Well i can understand your situation very well and i know u must be disgusted due to the invasion of animal pests in your garden. i think u should have done some special arrangement in your garden that would have kept the plants in your garden free from all the pests and animals. What say?
1 person likes this
• United States
18 Feb 13
I really should have done the fencing the first year. I was trying other deterrents first, but none of them really worked that well.