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, California scientists recently reported that a coating of Lindane insecticide on the seed before planting is effective. Such treatment also provides effective control of insect pests that attack grain seeds below ground. 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 by deer, the repellent, Goodrite z.i.p., distributed nationally by Larvicide Products. 117 Liberty Street, New York, should be applied as a spray in late fall. A pound of z.i.p. in 25 gallons of water is the standard application for deciduous trees and shrubs after the leaves have fallen but before the first snow.
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 harmless repellents can also be painted around the base of the tree to repel rabbits. Goodrite z.i.p. mentioned under deer control, and Crystal’s Rabbit Repellent, made by Crystal Soap and Chemical Company of Philadelphia, are two good ones.
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.
The use of chlordane or dieldrin will destroy soil-inhabiting insects and thus remove the principal source of mole food. These pests will then move elsewhere.
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 killed by blowing Cyanogas A-dust, made by American Cyanamid Company, New York, into their burrows. It works especially well if all exits are scaled immediately after the chemical is blown in. A Cyanogas Foot Pump is available for pumping the Cyanogas A-dust into the pests’ runways or nests.
Mice in mole runs can easily be controlled by using already-prepared mouse baits, available in most hardware and seed stores.
A bait containing 2 percent zinc phosphide in cracked corn mix is effectively used by orchardists and nurserymen in rural areas to control meadow mice in the fall. Since the phosphide is very poisonous it must be handled with great care. The danger to wildlife from this bait is said to be very low.
44659 by P. P. Pirone