How To Prevent Wildlife From Entering Your Yard

Figure out ways to tell animals that your yard and garden are off bounds.

The labor you put into your garden may be undone in an instant by even a single pest. It doesn't take long for your landscape's greatest characteristics to be destroyed by animals, whether it's squirrels tearing up the lawn, deer eating bushes, or rabbits snacking on your garden. Keeping animals out of your yard is the simplest method to protect your paradise from destruction. Learn to spot the many kinds of yard visitors and develop strategies to deal with them.

 

Recognizing The Pest Species In Your Backyard

• Deer. A single deer may consume up to 10 pounds of food every day, making it difficult to keep them away from your prized landscaping plants, flowers, and delicacies. The damage caused by browsing deer includes the removal of buds, the consumption of only part of a fruit or vegetable, and the tearing or ripping of leaves. The feces of a deer are pellet-shaped, and its footprints resemble inverted hearts.
• Burrowing critters that predict the onset of winter. Up to 1.5 pounds of leaves, flowers, fruits, and vegetables each day are consumed by these voracious herbivores. They have a penchant for underground travel, as seen by the spherical entrances to their burrows and the heaps of dirt (and, sometimes, swarming flies) that sit nearby. Wide tooth marks on plant life, fruit, and bark are another telltale groundhog indicator. Toe prints reveal a combination of four and five claws on the front paws.
• Hoppy bunnies. Bunnies are adorable to look at, but they may quickly destroy a garden of vegetables or flowers. Droppings the size of peas, leaves and stems neatly cut with a razor, and the disappearance of plants are all telltale signs of their presence. You can tell whether rabbits are using your mulch as a bed by the tufts of hair and the shallow depressions they leave behind.
• Rodents, or raccoons. Raccoons are nocturnal scavengers who are often spotted rummaging through garbage cans or digging for insects in yards. Trash bags torn open and littered throughout the yard, missing fish in a water feature, and empty bird feeders are all telltale signs of a raccoon's presence.
• Insectivorous rodents. The presence of squirrels may be detected by the presence of tiny holes in your flower beds or container plants, as well as by the presence of partially consumed or completely absent seedheads, fruits, or vegetables. If you have a bird feeder, this might be the reason they are coming to your yard.

 

How To Prevent Wildlife From Entering Your Yard

Making your yard undesirable to animals is the greatest method to get rid of them.

• Throw them off. One of the simplest methods to keep pests at bay is to use an animal repellent. The odors in these items are unpleasant to rodents and other pests. To get the most out of your repellents, read and follow all of the directions on the packaging. Tomcat® Repellents Animal Repellent Granules, for example, are a dry granular repellent that is effective against rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, and other small animals. If you'd rather use a liquid spray, Tomcat® Repellents Deer Repellent Ready-To-Use will keep rabbits and deer away.
• Clear the clutter. First and foremost, you must get rid of any locations where animals might hide, such wood heaps, brush, and overgrown bushes. Rabbits and groundhogs are deterred from yards with plenty of open space and well-maintained, manicured beds.
• Throw out all food. Plants that are unappealing to deer and rabbits should be prioritized in your garden, and harvesting delicious food at the peak of its ripeness can help keep groundhogs away. Don't let the squirrels have a feast on your dropped fruit and nuts. In addition, never leave pet food out alone at night, as this is a major magnet for raccoons.
• Startle them into action. One of the best ways to keep animals out of your yard is to let your dog free reign of the area. Garden spinners or pinwheels can be used as a scare strategy, as can noisemakers and motion-activated sprinklers and lights.
• Just don't include them. Put up a fence to keep animals from digging up your yard or nibbling on your plants. Protect your plants from rabbits, deer, groundhogs, and squirrels by placing netting or chicken wire around them, or a wire cloche over them. Most animals may be kept out of vegetable gardens by erecting electric fences around them, so long as the animals are unable to either get over or under the barrier. Any type of fence around deer needs to be very high (at least 8 feet) or very short, doubled, and broad (such as 2 shorter fences spaced 5 feet apart). To prevent groundhogs and rabbits from nesting under decks and storage sheds, fill any gaps with strong wire or hardware cloth. To prevent animals from tunneling beneath the wire, bend it into a "L" shape and bury the bottom several inches into the earth.