Learn about how to control animal pests in garden!
1. Cottontail Rabbits:
Although valued as game animals in relatively unpopulated areas, cottontail rabbits are very destructive to gardens in suburban areas when laws against hunting and the use of firearms protect them. Gardens adjacent to scrub oak or brush patches are particularly vulnerable to the depredations of these vegetarian animals, not only during the summer, but also during the winter months.
In the spring and summer they relish grasses and the foliage of such vegetables as peas, beans, cabbage, lettuce, and carrots; in the fall they fatten on ripened fruit; and in the winter they diet on the buds and tender twigs of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and the bark of young fruit trees. Fruit bushes that look as if they had been drastically pruned with a sharp knife are a sure indication that rabbits have paid your garden an unwelcome visit.
Control:
1. The best protection against rabbit damage is the erection of a rabbit-proof wire fence around the garden. The fence should be 2 ½ to 3 feet high, with a few inches of the lower end turned outward, flattened, and covered with soil to discourage burrowing. In the winter, watch out for snow drifting high enough against the fence for rabbits to jump over.
2. The use of box traps is the easiest and safest method of capturing rabbits in thickly settled areas. After capture the rabbits may be utilized for food or released a mile or two away, as they do not travel far. Trapping is most successful in the winter or very early spring when food is comparatively scarce. Consult your state or local game laws before starting any trapping operations, however.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service recommend an improved type of rabbit boxtrap.
It consists of the following materials:
4 boards, 1 in. X 6 in. X 21 in. for top, bottom and sides
1 board; 1 in. X 6 in. X 8 in. for the back
1 small cleat for the doorstep
28 ½ “ of wire for the trigger, and 4 small staples
It is better to use old lumber. The trap is baited with a piece of carrot or apple placed in back of the trigger loop. In reaching for the bait, the rabbit presses against the loop and moves the trigger rod backward. This releases the door, which falls and imprisons the rabbit. The box trap should be set where the rabbits enter the garden or in grassy or bushy spots which they frequent, concealing the form of the trap with brush or grass often helps.
3. Cylinders of chicken wire or hardware cloth may be used to protect the trunks of individual young fruit trees from rabbits. These should be about 2 feet high, and, if chicken wire is used, staked to hold the wire firmly away from the trunk. Two or more thicknesses of newspaper or 6-inch strips of burlap may be wrapped around the trunks and securely fastened in the late fall as substitutes for wire mesh, but these should be removed in the early spring.
Poisonous or repellent substances on tree trunks are objectionable in home gardens and are not recommended. Likewise, repellent substances on vegetables are not recommended, as they may harm the plants to be protected or they do not remain repellent long enough to make applications worthwhile.
4. Where shooting is allowed, a small 410-gauge shotgun handled by a responsible person is very effective in eliminating rabbits.
2. Moles:
Although moles will occasionally feed on vegetable matter, their main diet is made up of worms and soil insects. They are considered injurious mainly because of their habit of pushing up ridges or mounds of earth in the garden. When these ridges are pushed up along a vegetable row or under shallow-rooted small fruits, the roots may be severed, or they may dry up and die. The many complaints received of moles feeding on root vegetables is unjustified, as mice using the mole runways as highways usually are to blame.
Control:
1. An easy method of getting rid of moles is to arm oneself with a hoe or shovel in the early morning or late afternoon after a soaking rain and go quietly into the garden. Moles usually construct new tunnels at such times and may be observed heaving up the soil. When heaving soil is observed, approach stealthily, and, with a quick movement, dig up the soil at that point. The mole will be thrown out and can be easily killed.
2. Trapping moles with the harpoon type of trap is satisfactory if care is used in locating active runways and setting the traps. Many failures reported in the use of traps are due to the neglect of these points. Used tunnels can be located by stepping on each ridge in an area and noting which ones are repaired. In setting the trap, the ridge over the runway is flattened with the foot and the trap pushed into the soil so that the two pointed supports straddle the runway and the trigger pan rests against the depressed ridge. Before setting, the prong should be pushed into the soil a few times to make sure that there is no obstruction.
When the trap is set, the trigger pan should rest on the depressed ridge so that the mole, in repairing the tunnel, pushes the soil up against it and releases the prongs. A mole will detour around a poorly set trap. When a trap is found sprung, determine first if the mole is dead; otherwise lifting the trap out of the ground may release him.
3. Since moles have a tendency to avoid obnoxious or injurious substances in their tunnels, lye, para-dichlorobenzene, or naphthalene may be used effectively in small areas. A teaspoonful of any of the above substances should be placed in their tunnels at about 8-foot intervals and the tunnels carefully closed over. Applications should be repeated if new ridges appear.
Commercial mole baits are usually not satisfactory, since moles are mainly carnivorous and instinctively avoid unfamiliar substances.
3. The Prolific Mice:
Outdoor mice are known to feed on insects, but that good quality is overshadowed by their damage to vegetables, fruits, and the bark of fruit-trees. There are two species of mice that trouble the gardener – the field mouse and the pine mouse. The pine mouse tunnels underground, and during winter may chew the bark off the roots of fruit trees. The field mouse makes runways under low vegetation, and in the winter confines its bark feeding to the base of the tree trunks. During the summer the feeding habits of both types of mice are quite similar. Both mice may utilize mole runways for their activities.
Control:
1. Weedy fence rows, grassy borders, and trash piles harbor mice and should be eliminated.
2. In small areas and with light infestations, ordinary snap-back mouse traps, set at right angles to the runways of field mice and flush with the ground so that the mouse will have to step on the trigger, can be used with good effect. A little oatmeal placed around the pan will help. At least 25 to 50 traps should be used in this manner for maximum effectiveness.
3. One-fourth inch mesh hardware cloth placed around the base of trees will prevent mouse as well as rabbit damage to tree trunks.
4. Poison baits placed in the runways and holes of mice have proved most effective. Small cubes of apples or carrots are dusted lightly with zinc phosphide powder, a highly poisonous material prepared by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and sold under the name of “Field Mouse Rodenticide.” It is obtainable only through your county agricultural agent and possibly other authorized sources.
Read your instructions and precautions carefully! For pine mice, the poisoned cubes are dropped into their holes and the holes covered over; for field mice, they are placed in the runways under matted grass and concealed from above. After an exposure of about a week, this bait becomes harmless to all animals.
4. Squirrels and Chipmunks:
These agile creatures may require curbing when they become injurious to sweet corn, berries, and nut crops. Since they are also insect feeders, they should be killed only under extreme provocation.
Control:
1. Chipmunks may be killed by placing a tea- spoonful of cyanogas far down their burrows, which should then be firmly covered with soil.
2. Squirrels, both red and gray, may be caught with rat traps baited with grain or other attractive food.
3. Keeping squirrels well fed by supplying them with grain may prevent them from seeking elsewhere for food, if this is considered more desirable than destroying them.
5. Rats:
At times common rats do considerable damage by acquiring a fondness for such foods as melons, tomatoes, and berries.
Control:
1. When their burrows can be found in the ground, they can be killed by pumping cyanogas into them with a dust gun.
2. Red squill is very effective against rats when mixed with or dusted on food that they have become accustomed to eating. Directions on the package should be followed.
3. The zinc phosphide poison used for mice may be used in a similar manner for rats, but great care must be taken as it is highly poisonous to humans and other animals.
6. Woodchucks or Ground Hogs:
Gardens located near hilly or wooded wasteland may be severely damaged by woodchucks, who have a special fondness for beans, peas, and corn.
Control:
1. The best practical method of controlling woodchucks is to gas them in their burrows in April, May, or June. Three tablespoonfuls of carbon bisulfide are absorbed in a wad of cotton and shoved as far down each used burrow as it will go. The burrow is then tightly closed with sod and sealed with damp soil. For effectiveness, all outlets should be located, treated, and sealed. The soil should be damp when carbon bisulfide is used. Carbon bisulfide is inflammable and explosive and should be kept away from all fire or sparks.
2. Cyanogas may be used in a similar manner according to the manufacturer’s directions, but best results are obtained when the soil is dry.
3. A special cartridge with a fuse attached has been developed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and distributed through county agents for gassing woodchucks’ dens. They are inexpensive and used in a manner similar to cyanogas or carbon bisulfide.
7. Birds:
Although most birds should be encouraged to visit gardens, some may become destructive when certain crops are planted or ripening. Crows and starlings may dig up newly planted corn or peck off the young sprouts. Ripe strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, and plums are sought after and eaten with relish by a number of birds such as robins, catbirds, cedar waxwings, starlings, and many others. In some areas starlings have learned to shell peas in the field and may destroy the whole crop. Ripe tomatoes, too, are frequently badly pecked by birds.
Control:
1. There is no justification for killing birds even when they occasionally become destructive, as the good they do greatly overshadows their harm. Various devices may be used effectively for frightening birds away, but they must be changed every few days, as the birds soon get used to them. Such devices may consist of strings strung from poles over the garden with various colored paper streamers and pieces of metal, changed at intervals. Objects that make a noise in the wind may also be used.
2. The only other solution is to cover the berry bushes or vegetables with coarse cheesecloth. For blueberries, cheesecloth should be stretched over the bush and fastened securely around the base of the bush to present the birds from coming up from underneath. Individual cheesecloth or chicken-wire-covered frames are more convenient to put on or take off blueberry bushes. Chicken wire should not be larger than 1-inch mesh to prevent birds from entering.