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Woodchucks or rabbits got your
number? Just as your vegetables are coming up will some wretched
creature get most of them? Has this made you mad enough to think
about giving up vegetable gardening altogether?
If so you’re not alone,
especially because to some extent your hands are tied. As a home
vegetable gardener you confront all sorts of restrictions that
don’t face big commercial growers. Even if you don’t
mind killing small animals, the presence of nearby houses will
stop you from shooting them. You probably won’t use poison
baits for fear of killing pets. You may use smoke-bombs, but
they’re no perfect answer-especially if the offending animal’s
burrow is in your neighbor’s yard. And since woodchucks
and rabbits are territorial, if one burrow’s owner is bombed
successfully, nearby animals will soon move in-sometimes into
the same old bombed-out burrow.
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Adding to the difficulty, many
gardeners won’t kill small animals. They rather like rabbits,
racoons, and squirrels. They even have a soft spot for the awkward,
lumbering woodchuck. What’s more, the decision to garden
certainly wasn’t made to save money. For many gardeners,
it arose from a desire to foster natural things. So many gardeners
see themselves as befriending Nature; and killing Nature’s
creatures runs contrary to that.
Considering all this, especially
if we limit ourselves to humane solutions, it is not surprising
that we have yet to find a perfect answer. |
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But many of the available answers
have some merit, so it’s worth noting what those answers
are. Predator scents and the like can work against some animals-so
long as the animals don’t get accustomed to them and so
long as the scent’s source is periodically renewed. Similarly,
high-tech ultrasound blasters, water-sprayers, and noisemakers
can scare off invaders-so long as the invaders don’t get
too familiar with the gadgets used. And various sorts of humane
traps can be helpful if they are baited with the right stuff
and if the bait is frequently replenished-even though some damage
has commonly been done by the time the trap is set, and more
may occur before the offending animal is caught.
Of course, the classic answer
(the one used by Mr. McGregor in The Tale of Peter Rabbit) is
a fence. Traditional fences, the sort Peter Rabbit went through,
are passive barriers. So they must be massive, tall, and buried
to prevent intrusions by gnawers, climbers, and diggers; and
even then success tends to be uncertain.
A better solution is to string
a lightly charged wire (connected to a safe fence charger) a
few inches outside a small barrier fence. That works, because
interested animals will explore the fence before they gnaw, climb,
or burrow; and while exploring they will find the charged wire,
get startled, and lose their appetite for carrots. However, to
keep the system working the gardener must periodically inspect
it to see that weeds or other vegetation are not encroaching
on the charged wire-because this can discharge the wire and neutralize
the system.
As all this indicates, we have
yet to find an effortless solution. But humanity has not lacked
imagination, as the array of answers directed at this small difficulty
now attest.
(For a more detailed discussion
of available alternatives, go to www.mcgregorfence.com and click on “Article”.)
And while none of the available solutions are entirely labor-free,
we have clearly made progress-to a point where any home vegetable
gardener intent on managing the Peter Rabbit problem can now
do so in ways that are effective, Nature-friendly, user-friendly,
and safe. |
