Insects aren’t the only pests with which the gardener has to contend. Many other animals, both large and small, frequently cause damage to plants. Still, others are hazards to people and pets, and some are just plain nuisances.
Birds
Even the most avid bird lover will admit that some birds can be a nuisance. Take starlings, for example. They have become real pests in this country since they were introduced from Europe more than sixty years ago.
In cities, they roost by the thousands in trees and on large buildings, and the noise they make in the morning and evening is almost unbearable. During the day the starlings fly to rural areas where they feed on fruits and berries, as well as great numbers of insects including the grubs of the Japanese beetle.
Many methods of controlling starlings have been used in the past but the most recent. and what looks like the most effective. involves an entirely new approach—the use of recordings of the distress call of starlings. Professor Hubert Frings of Pennsylvania State University told about this method at the National Shade Tree Conference which was attended in 1954.
The distress call was recorded by trapping a starling and holding it tightly. This recording is played back on a machine just as the starlings arrive in the trees or other spots to roost in the early evening after a day of foraging. It is repeated intermittently for three to five evenings. The starlings tire of hearing the distress call and move elsewhere.
The Starner-Ray Company of Scarsdale, New York, has bird eviction machines that faithfully reproduce the starling’s distress call and rid communities of this pesky bird.
For birds, including starlings, that eat cherries, sweet corn, and other crops, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has developed another unusual control method. Firecrackers strung like beads on long fuses are suspended in trees or near the crop to be protected.
One end of the string is lit to explode one firecracker at a time at intervals during the period when protection is desired. In areas where it is legal to use firecrackers, commercial growers find this method economical, efficient, and effective.
To discourage pheasants from digging up newly planted grain seeds and to protect the seed from below-ground insect pests, use a seed-coating product that is currently EPA-registered for that purpose in your state — check with your local extension office for what’s approved — rather than Lindane, which EPA canceled for all agricultural uses by 2009.
Of course, Stanley’s Crow Repellent has long been used to make corn seed distasteful to crows and other birds.
Deer
As soon as heavy snows arrive, deer no longer have access to their regular forage; hence, they turn to trees and shrubs for food.
To protect valuable trees, shrubs, and berry bushes from foraging deer, apply a currently registered taste-based deer repellent — many are formulated with thiram — as a late-fall spray on deciduous trees and shrubs after leaf-drop and before the first snow, mixing and applying it exactly as that product’s own label directs. (Goodrite Z.I.P., the specific product once named here, along with its distributor, is a discontinued product no longer sold or verifiable.)
The coating of z.i.p. makes the leaves of evergreens and the bark and twigs of deciduous trees and shrubs so unpalatable to deer that only a few bites will discourage them. The animals will not establish themselves in the vicinity of the sprayed plants but will move to unsprayed areas before bad weather restricts their travel.
Another type of deer-repellent spray is bone tar oil. Apple trees, nursery plantings, forage, and other crops can be successfully protected for a month with one spraying.
Bone tar oil also appears to be effective in repelling beavers and woodchucks which also cause considerable damage to crops under certain conditions. It does not repel rabbits, however.
Gardeners who feel squeamish about applying chemicals for repelling deer might want to investigate a scientifically designed electrical device known as Deer Fly. This device emits, at irregular intervals from dusk until morning, short bursts of sound which are particularly unpleasant to deer.
Rabbits
Cottontail rabbits, though nice to behold, are destructive to flower borders, vegetable gardens, and many kinds of trees and shrubs. They chew the leaves of ornamentals, such as pansies, tulips and iris, and many kinds of vegetables. They do severe damage to trees and may even cause the death of those such as dogwood and apple by chewing the bark at the trees’ bases.
A 1-inch galvanized wire fence about 2 feet high placed around susceptible flower and vegetable plants will keep rabbits out. The fence should be embedded lightly into the ground or staked down at intervals to prevent the rabbits from crawling beneath it.
The material sold as No-Nabil (by the same company which handles the deer repellent, z.i.p.) is effective in repelling rabbits. No-Nibl comes in a shaker-top can and can be dusted directly on the rabbit-susceptible plants, or it can be made into a spray and applied in that form. The latter is slightly more effective.
To prevent bark chewing, a mechanical barrier such as aluminum foil, half-inch mesh hardware cloth, or ordinary window screening wrapped around the base of the tree, is effective. The barrier should be wide enough to go slightly below ground and high enough to protect the bark even if the rabbit stands on a blanket of snow.
Certain repellents can also be painted around the base of the tree to repel rabbits. Look for a currently registered, thiram-based repellent labeled for rabbit control, and apply it exactly as its label directs. (The specific products once named here, Goodrite Z.I.P. and Crystal’s Rabbit Repellent, are discontinued brands no longer sold.)
Squirrels
Squirrels sometimes cause considerable damage to trees by feeding on seeds, nuts, and fruit, cutting twigs and eating buds, and by gnawing the hark. I know of no effective repellent for them.
Live trapping in special box traps and releasing the squirrels in the more rural areas is one way to combat them.
Mice and Moles
Mice, moles, and shrews do considerable damage to plants below the ground, particularly in the fall.
Moles and shrews are blamed more frequently than mice because the tunnels and mounds they make are very prominent. However, moles are not vegetarians but feed on grubs and worms in the soil.
The damage they cause results from loosening the soil around the plant’s roots which causes them to wilt and die. Shrews work similarly but are credited with killing a negligible number of mice and insects.
The tunnels made by moles, however, provide easy access for mice that feed on bulbs, tubers, and tender roots.
Removing the grubs and soil insects moles feed on can help, but chlordane and dieldrin — both canceled by EPA decades ago (dieldrin in 1974, chlordane in 1988) — are no longer legal options. Use a currently EPA-registered soil insecticide labeled for grub control instead, following its label directions, or manage moles directly with traps, which most extension services now recommend as the most reliable control.
Immediate control measures for moles include the use of a harpoon-type mole trap. Before setting the trap, all mole ridges in the lawn should be flattened down early in the morning, and the area vacated for a few hours to give the moles a chance to raise the soil. This will indicate which mole runs are being used, and the traps can then be placed accordingly.
Moles and woodchucks can also be controlled by fumigating their burrows, but this now calls for a currently EPA-registered burrow fumigant, such as aluminum phosphide or a carbon-monoxide gas cartridge — both restricted-use materials that only a certified pesticide applicator can buy and apply. Cyanogas, the calcium-cyanide product once recommended here, is no longer part of standard burrow-fumigation practice; contact a licensed pest control operator or your county extension office to have this kind of fumigation done safely.
Mice in mole runs can easily be controlled by using already-prepared mouse baits, available in most hardware and seed stores.
A bait containing zinc phosphide is still used by orchardists and nurserymen to control meadow mice in the fall, but it is now a Restricted Use Pesticide — sold only to, and applied only by, a certified pesticide applicator, not something to buy at a hardware or seed store. Follow the current product’s label exactly for concentration, placement, and timing, or, for smaller home gardens, use staked snap traps baited with apple or peanut-butter-oatmeal, which extension services recommend as the practical option for homeowners.
44659 by P. P. Pirone