Vegetable Gardening
BIRDS AND MAMMALS
Birds and mammals can damage several vegetable crops - including bean, cabbage, lettuce, pea, sweet corn and tomato.
Red-winged blackbirds and common grackles damage corn by pulling sprouting seeds or eating kernels before they are ripe.
Keep these birds away by using flashing aluminum discs or strips hung on strings, or wires supported by tall stakes.
Robins and other fruit-eating birds damage berries and dwarf fruit.
Use commercial plastic netting to exclude these birds from
trees and berry patches.
Cottontail rabbits eat beans, cabbage, and other vegetables.
Keep these garden pests out with a low fence of 1-inch mesh chicken wire,
about 18 to 24 inches high.
Bury the bottom of the wire or place it in close contact with the ground to prevent animals from burrowing
or forcing their way under.
You can also capture rabbits easily in wire live-traps and remove them from the area, especially during winter.
Thirteen-lined ground squirrels or striped gophers may feed on tomatoes.
Trap these animals with a wooden-base, snap-type, rat trap baited with peanut buter and placed near their burrow.
Or, you can shoot them in areas where the use of firearms is permitted.
You can also force them from their burrows with water and then kill them.
Woodchucks often feed on several vegetables in rural gardens, but they are protected in some areas.
Obtain permission to control woodchucks from your local Department of Natural Resources or conservation warden.
Control methods include trapping with steel traps or shooting.
Raccoons are a common garden problem. They are especially damaging to sweet corn and are difficult to control.
Live trap in suitable box traps and move the raccoons to other areas.
Or, exclude them with a double-wire electric fence.
The first wire should be 5 inches above the ground and the second 10 inches above the ground.
Excerpted with permission from the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
Back to Gardens of Plenty