Animals and Your Lawn and Garden

Your Lawn

Skunks, raccoons and other animals are attracted to grubs and may tear up lawns in search of them. Cayenne pepper and rags soaked in ammonia can be placed in the affected area. Another option is to mix eight ounces of dish soap, a handful of chewing tobacco and water in a lawn sprayer and spray on the affected grass area.

Your Garden

Exclusion is always the best method of preventing problems. A four-foot-high chicken wire fence will usually do the trick. Leave the top 12" to 18" unattached to any support and bent outward. The animal's weight will pull the fence downward, landing it right back where it started.

Taste deterrents also work with animals such as chipmunks, squirrels and voles. However, they need to be reapplied after a heavy dew or rain. And some animals actually develop a taste for spicier food. You may wish to check your nursery or home center for commercial products or try one of these homemade deterrents:

• spray a mixture of one gallon of water and two tablespoons of hot sauce onto the plant
• spray a garlic puree onto the plant
• sprinkle baby powder on the plant

Eating Bulbs

photo: (c) Mike Green, CZS

Animals such as chipmunks, ground squirrels and voles like to feast on bulbs. Deter them by planting daffodils, squills, grape hyacinths and crown imperial bulbs; such plants are known to have a taste these animals dislike. The crown imperial has a horrible smell, and below-ground diners are known to avoid it. Interplant crown imperials among tulips and other "tasty" bulbs.

You can also physically block access to the bulbs by using chicken wire as a barricade. Place it on the flowerbed surface and scatter a light layer of mulch or leaves over the chicken wire. Be sure to pick up bulb skins that flake off during planting and to spread a thick layer of mulch over the bulbs to remove any signs of recent planting. The chicken wire should be pulled up in early spring so the bulbs can grow unobstructed.

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