Deterring Animal Pests in the Home Garden

Some practical tips for dealing with deer, rabbit and bird predation in the home garden.

Wherever you garden, you may find animals and birds cause more damage than insect pests. The first step is to identify exactly which pest you're dealing with. Since many animals feed between dawn and dusk, you'll need to take note of such signs as feeding patterns, tracks and tunnels to figure out what culprit is invading your garden. For example, gnawed strawberries could indicate birds, mice or slugs, and controls that work for one pest may do nothing to deter another.

Deterring Deer
The most effective solution for keeping deer out of a small garden is an electrified fence, which doesn't need to be that high if used in conjunction with a simple chicken-wire fence. Erect a 4-foot high chicken-wire enclosure around the garden, with a second single-wire electric fence 2-1/2 feet high located about 3 feet outside of the inner enclosure. Deer find it hard to jump the chicken-wire fence with the electrified wire in the way.

If you prefer not to use an electric fence, another effective solution is to erect a conventional woven wire fence, at least 8 feet high, around the garden, with a second fence about 3 feet high outside of it. The double barrier confuses the deer. If deer are nibbling on bushes or young fruit trees, consider enclosing them in woven wire fence cages.

Repellents such as bars of highly scented deodorant soap or sprays of red pepper are most effective as preventive measures before the deer get a taste of your crops. However, if overpopulation and starvation are problems in your area, nothing short of a strong physical barrier will keep them away for long.

Repelling Rabbits
A chicken-wire fence with a mesh of no larger than 1 inch is the best way to keep rabbits out. If you already have a woven wire or picket fence around your garden, simply attach a 2-foot-wide strip to the bottom. Since rabbits may burrow under a fence, you may have to dig a 6-inch deep trench and lay wire in that as well. To protect the bark of young trees and shrubs from rabbits, erect cylinders of 1/4-inch hardware cloth about 2 feet high around them; higher if you live in an area with deep snowfall. This should be sunk 2 or 3 inches below the soil. This will also protect your plants from mice and voles.

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Rabbit repellents will also work, but need to be reapplied frequently. As with deer, rabbit repellents are best used as a preventive measure before rabbits attack your garden plants.

Baffling Birds
While birds help gardeners by eating insect pests, they also consume fruits and vegetables. The most effective control for bush and vine fruits and small fruit trees is to cover them with a lightweight plastic netting. Make sure the holes are small enough that birds can't get through and become trapped inside. Use floating row cover for crops planted in rows.

Aluminum pie plates and shiny pinwheels hung from stakes so they flash in the breeze will also deter birds. Move them every day or two so the birds don't become inured to them. To protect your strawberries from bird predation, paint some strawberry-size rocks red and scatter them around your patch just before the real berries ripen. After banging their beaks on a few rocks, birds will ignore the ripened fruits. A little mean, perhaps, but effective.