How to prevent wildlife from entering your backyard and destroying your garden
It is safe to say that most of us enjoy observing wildlife away from our homes but when they become our uninvited roommates we can have problems with them. Depending on who takes up residency. Many animals that can make your backyard a home can injure pets make unwanted noise cause unsightly damage to your property and kill or infest the plants in our garden. So, what can you do to help prevent any of these animal pests from becoming problems in your yard.
The first step will depend on either if you have a pest already or if you don’t have any pests yet and want to keep it that way. If you have a pest try to identify it first, if it’s a mammal living under your deck chances are good it is nocturnal and you will have a good chance of seeing it leave its hiding place in the early hours of the evening or as the sun begins to rise in the morning. Is something eating your plants Check if it could be insects by checking the leaves or wait to see if rabbits come by in the evening.
If you have identified a pest animal in your backyard you can remove it or attempt to deter it from coming back. Live traps are a good solution to removing pests. Depending on what you have in your yard will depend on a good bait. Could use peanut butter, fruit, fish or lettuce. When you catch it take the animal a good distance from your home and release it. There is a good chance it won’t come back. Try not to cover any entrance to where the animal is hiding. They often will be able to force another entrance out in another location or if they cannot you can kill the animal. Maybe you think that is a good solution however in a few days when the animal starts to rot around your house you may think otherwise. There could also be several young animals living under there which most people would rather see leave their yard than to have trapped in it.
If your pests are insects or rabbits that are destroying your garden traps probably are not your best solution. Different organic sprays can be made at home inexpensively and depending on what you add to the spray will determine which pests you will be able to deter or even kill in your garden. There are many pages online that have lists of different repellents and there are many YouTube videos showing how to make them as well.
Now that you have gotten rid of your pests you should look at keeping them out for good. A solid fence is the best method for keeping animals out of your yard-long term. Adding a board or 5-6 inches of chicken wire that goes under the ground around the perimeter of your fence will greatly help burrowing animals from coming under your fence. Also many of the sprays listed above can be applied regularly to your plants to make them unpleasant to different herbivores making them look elsewhere for their food.
Daniel Hogenbirk
Landscape Foreman
Birk’s Landscaping Inc.
(905) 404-0602
birks@rogers.com
