Groundhogs – thankfully, not in my own garden!
My brother-in-law’s garden has been invaded by a groundhog. He has lots of veggies with gnaw marks and bites taken out and a nice big hole in his plot. They surprised it the other day and my sister-in-law reported that a groundhog’s hair stands up on his back like a cat’s when he’s scared!
It seems like a good time to talk about different animal pests and how to get rid of them, so let’s start with the groundhog. Usually, the organic method is to try to deter them with either a bad taste or bad smell.
Plants that taste bad will send a signal that this place isn’t as appealing as the groundhog thought, so hopefully they will voluntarily leave. Marigolds, onions and garlic are all good choices as plants that taste bad to groundhogs. If you don’t have room for more plants, just sprinkle some garlic or onion powder around the base of the plants they are eating. Just be sure to reapply them if it rains. Talcum powder and epsom salts will also deter them.
Groundhogs have a really good sense of smell, and that’s how they register that a predator is approaching, so putting the right smell around your garden will also deter them. Dried blood meal will scare them away, as will dog hair. Groundhogs are afraid of dogs so collect dog hair, put it in a mesh bag or nylon and tie it to a stick where they are the worst. Dog hair is also really good for deterring squirrels, if they are bothering your plants.
Any other good remedies to share?
August 5, 2012 - 3:22 PM
Another control method works also. They don’t like lead.
wd, no they don’t. I’ve got a couple in the back yard that I leave be…until they start getting up near the house. Once they start getting up near the foundation, I use my Crossman break-barrel pellet rifle, and that has done the trick. It’s not my preferred alternative, but I’m not going to let them damage the foundation of my house.
I was dismayed to learn a couple years ago that it’s illegal to transport them. I had thought of trapping and relocating them, but it’s not legal to do so. Animal control doesn’t mess with them, and the VDGIF will simply trap them, then shoot them, and charge $$ for the effort.
I will take what you kill!
No, really.. I just put my first groundhog in the freezer for my dogs and ferrets a couple weeks ago. I will say that they smell really weird. The meat just smells like rabbit though. They have lots of fat too.
Garden is on the downhill swing. Squash had tons of blooms and never saw a squash grow on the vines. Cukes have died and am down to 4 seed cukes. New crop of squash put in 3 weeks and looking good. Maters still doing good. Now have to put up with the squash vine bores. That spell of hot weather was the kiss of death and I watered everyday.
A question? Anybody ever plant acorn squash? If so, how late did you plant them and get acorn squash? Pack says 90 to 110 days.
Acorn squash: My experience is that the pack is pretty accurate. Given the weather we’ve had this year, I’d chance it and plant some.
What is the best way to discourage deer from eating your garden
Marilyn: there are several methods. One is plant stuff they don’t like around the perimeter, usually smelly or prickly plants. Another is to fence them out, but you need to be precise about how you build the fence. There are also repellents you can spray on. Deer Away and other egg-based repellents do work pretty well, but know up front that they STINK!! Hanging Life Buoy soap is also often recommended. If deer get hungry enough, they’ll eat pretty much anything, but we’ve had good luck keeping them away.
Fencing has worked best for our vegetable garden and Deer Away trained them to stay away from our yews. Check out http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/treeshru/Deerproof.pdf for a good article on deterring deer from the West Virigina University Extension Service. I also highly recommend the book Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden for a good overall resource.
Like OJ, I didn’t want to resort to lethal means until they tunneled next to my house. I set an unbaited trap that killed them instantly when they tripped it. I just had to make sure I kept my dogs out of the back yard until the problem was resolved. I had a neighbor who heard about it tell me that was inhumane. A month or two later, she asked if she could borrow my trap. It seems one got in her back yard and destroyed a heirloom plant that her deceased grandmother had given her. I guess inhumanity is relative.
kh. I potted them and they came up in 4 days on July 27. I intend on putting 3 out to see how long they take and will update in around 3 months. That’s kinda pushin it, you know.
Fencing is a good deterrent, but groundhogs will dig under a fence that’s not too deep in the ground. They are also surprisingly good climbers. I’ve seen them sitting on fence posts alongside the road on the VT campus.
Yes Tree, they climb. They are known to climb trees
I don’t mind the groundhogs but I have recently learned that skunks are opportunistic stinkers and will take up residence in abandoned groundhog burrows. Grandin/Raleigh Court has way too many skunks already, so I’ve had to shoo the groundhogs so as to keep the skunks away.
One other remedy for keeping deer at bay, though probably not as easy as just buying a repellant, is to collect urine and pour it around the perimeter of the garden on a regular basis. It works quite well. When we stopped using that method last year, the deer destroyed the tomato plants. It works for smaller garden plots where erecting a fence would not be entirely practical…ours is 8×8.
Deer in our valley weren’t bothered by soap or urine and having to reapply raw eggs every time it rained wasn’t practical. Drier sheets have worked well to protect the hostas and perennials thus far this year. I’ve used both clothes pins and binder clips to attach the most fragrant brands I could find directly to shrubs,to fences, and some to 8 foot posts along a fence. I was told deer judge barriers by the highest point and won’t attempt to jump over a fence if there are a few poles sticking up higher so the white drier sheets waving like flags may work even without the smell.
WD-acorn squash have always matured at about the same time as butternut for us. If the warm weather we’ve had since March continues, you may be harvesting them for Thanksgiving. The bugs have taken care of my remaining squash. I did harvest several butternut and a fair amount of summer squash but no overload this time.
Other John – we have used the urine method mentioned above. I guess that worked. We haven’t seen deer near the garden. We also walk our dogs around the garden area. The garden is fenced in but we still have bunnies in there and have had a young skunk visit. We are in the garden most every day doing something so that might help.
I have also heard to not put your garden where you see deer paths. The deer here walk along the perimeter of our property and along the tree line. Our garden is also close to the house, the dog pen and the goat pen so maybe that helps keep big critters at bay.
wd – I found an acorn squash plant growing out of our compost bin so have left it. There is one squash on it that is about the size of a softball. I am going to let it grow as long as possible.
It’s called a ten mile electric fence charger, repels damn near everything. Use 3 foot rabbit fencing as a base then run an outside hot wire 6 inches, 4, 5, and 6 feet above ground level around the perimeter of the garden. Got into it myself once, not a pleasant experience.
DopplerCarol, so strange, I came here to report the exact same thing. I noticed a bunch of either squash or cucumber plants in my compost bin and I wondered if anyone else had had this experience and if I should transplant them? Ive had bad squash luck this year but good cucumbers, so I’m hoping for some squash. Lots of blossoms, no squash…they just fall off the vine.