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Be a critter detective! Here’s how to identify which animals are eating your garden plants, as well as which repellents for deer and rabbits have proven most effective.
I live in the country where deer, fox, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels and rabbits thrive. Even in winter, deer will scar fruit tree trunks, scratching their itchy antlers against them, and wild turkeys rut the soil seeking insects.
Last year during the drought, things nearly went nuclear. Some gangsters took to gnawing holes in the garden hoses, seeking water. After replacing two hoses, my husband strung one of them in the crabapple tree near the vegetable garden to get if off the ground. Didn’t work.
Holes started appearing in the hose up in the tree. Husband taped the hose to seal it, and I sprayed it with a critter repellent. That worked. But, I never could figure out who was doing the damage. That’s until Joan Casanova of Green Earth Media Group sent me her critter detective guide.
Here are Joan’s clues on how to determine and deter which unwanted animal is the assailant in your garden. She said, “How are you supposed to fight ‘crime’ in your decimated garden if you can’t identify the suspect who’s been devouring your daylilies?”
Deer - Ragged bites, typically a foot or more above the ground indicate deer damage. Deer are notorious for devouring flowers and ornamental plants. Tall, electrified fences work, but they are expensive and make a garden look like a prison yard.
Rabbits - If plant damage is low to the ground, a few inches above the soil, and includes stems clipped cleanly at an angle, the culprits are rabbits. These foragers will eat just about any kind of vegetation, including vegetables, flowers, bushes and other woody plants. If you don’t want bunnies nesting and raising families near your garden, remove debris that could provide them with shelter. Also, wire mesh fencing around vegetable gardens deters them, too.
Voles - When flower bulbs disappear from the ground or plant roots go missing, chances are you have voles - mouse-like creatures that burrow underground. Exit holes are further indications that voles are tunneling under your garden. Teeth marks around the base of trees, droppings or trails in the grass can also indicate the presence of voles.
Groundhogs - Mounds of dirt beside burrow entrances are a sure sign of groundhogs, a garden villain that eats just about every type of green plant. They live in burrows underground.
Chipmunks - Damage to flower bulbs, plant shoots and leaves, uprooted plants and dug-up roots are all signs you have chipmunks. Their underground burrows may be a challenge to spot since the entrances are usually only about 2 inches in diameter and not surrounded by noticeable dirt mounds. You can foil their activity by removing yard debris where chipmunks hide.
Squirrels - While you might think of them as mostly the enemy of anyone with a bird feeder, squirrels also damage gardens. They live in colonies, digging underground tunnels and mounds in grassy areas and around trees that can lay waste to gardens and landscapes.
Best Repellents for Animal Critters
Once you’ve identified the guilty parties, you’ll need to figure out how to keep them out of the garden!
The first line of defense might be traditional pest-control measures including netting, predator urine, or even human hair strewn around the yard. (With predator urine, I advise readers to check the collection method of the brand that they are considering to make sure that the material is collected humanely.)
Fences do the job, but they’re expensive, and you may live in a community that restricts the type and height of fences you can erect. If you have a bad case of critters and these measures do not work, consider stronger spray repellents and other tactics.
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station tested a number of repellents and found that Bobbex-R worked 100% at repelling rabbits. It worked well as a bulb dip, too, to deter voles, chipmunks, and squirrels. You can also spray it at the mouth of burrows to drive critters away. The spray works through smell and taste aversion; it’s made from organic ingredients, too.
Deer a major felons when it comes to critter damage. They can destroy flower beds in an instant, it seems! Photo courtesy of Green Earth Media Group.
Deer repellents were also tested. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found a putrid egg-based deer repellent spray works best. Bobbex Deer, an all-natural repellent made from rotten eggs, garlic, fish, clove oil and vinegar, worked 93% of the time. Nine other commercial repellents (including coyote urine) were tested by the AG Station. Bobbex was second only to a fence at 100 percent, in preventing deer damage.
Another product that readers brought to our attention is the Predator Preventor. It’s a 24-hour defense system of light and found that keeps wild animals (deer, raccoons, coyotes, and more) away from not just your garden.
If you have any effective tips or tools, we welcome your posts. We’re always looking for new ways to live with our critters—but also reap more of what we sow!
Doreen Howard, an award-winning author, is the former garden editor at Woman’s Day. She has gardened in every climate zone from California to Texas to Oklahoma to the Midwest. She’s especially fond of unusual houseplants and heirloom edibles. Read More from Doreen G. Howard
After watching 5 of my beautiful beefsteak tomatoes eaten, a little bit at a time, I finally caught (visually only, she scattered very quickly) a chipmunk munching away. So I'm seeking a solution to keep them out of my garden (without reverting to a trap). All ideas welcome!
We save the used litter from our cat litter boxes and spread it at the edges of the garden. Rabbits do not cross over it and indeed steer away every time.
I have bunnies and squirrels, with an occasional skunk and raccoon. To uninvite them, I sprinkle cayenne pepper, purchased in bulk from the grocery store, around the yard and especially around flowers (my veggies are in 24" high raised beds). I started doing this to keep the neighborhood cats out of my lower raised beds, and it seems to be effective for these other critters, too.
I agree! For several years we have been playing a radio during the night when the corn has begun to ripen and attract the attention of the raccoons, and for the most part it works well.
Rabbits do not like the smell of coffee. I have found that just a couple of cups of used coffee grounds in my vegetable garden keeps the rabbits away. I put them in a used plant container and anchor with a short bamboo stake. In years past, the rabbits ate my spinach, beets, kale and sweet potato vines. This year, after adding the used coffee grounds, they have left all of my vegetables alone. I see them in the neighborhood eating grass and other plants, but not my vegetables! I get the used coffee grounds from Starbucks for FREE and also add to my compost bins.
A few years ago, I installed solar lights around my vegetable garden. The lights are the type that are on a stake you just stick into the ground. I installed them because I liked the way they look. To my surprise, the lights turned out to be a deer deterrent. I haven’t had a single deer in my garden since I installed the solar lights. We live in a rural area with LOTS of deer. I think the light keeps rabbits out of the garden who visit after dark. (My dog is on rabbit patrol during the day. Lol)