Part 4 in our series on chemical free pest control
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| Photo: http://www.ForestWander.com |
If you live in the city, practice urban or container
gardening this post might or might not be of interest to you, but if you live
in most suburbs or out in the country you know that it doesn’t take long for pest, of the four legged kind, to completely destroy a garden plot or
even turn a profitable crop into a total loss.
Four Legged Garden Pest Eat How Much?
An average member of the deer family will eat from 5 to 15
pounds of greens a day, depending on the species. This may seem like a lot of
food, but when you take body size into account they are nothing compared to
rabbits.
A mature cottontail, the most common wild rabbit in the
U.S., will eat 1.25 pounds a day and his cousin, the black-tailed jackrabbit, eats
almost nonstop and can consume over 6 pounds of forage every 24 hours. When you
consider that an average rabbit colony will contain around 15-20 rabbits you
can see that letting rabbits have free access to your garden is about the same
as letting a full grown cow graze your greens.
So, how do you keep the grazing deer and the ravaging rabbit
from consuming your delectable garden treats before you have a chance to? It is easier than you think. Just follow
these handy tips to keep your garden safe, chemical free and totally organic.
Natural Deer Repellents
Deer, for all the damage they can cause, are actually one of
the easier animals to deter from your garden and being creatures of habit, they
will normally stay with their new food source and stay away once deterred.
Here are a few things that will help if you have a deer problem.
·
In a pump sprayer mix one whole egg, a quarter cup of water and an ounce of hot sauce
and spray it on your plants. This mix will withstand light rains because the
egg sticks to the leaves.
·
For larger volume applications, mix the
following ingredients:
o
1 Cup Milk
o
2 Gallons Water (8 Liters)
o
2 T Cooking Oil
o
2 T Liquid Detergent
o
2 Whole Eggs
o
Spray it on your plants.
·
Even the most persistent deer will become
discouraged and look elsewhere after a time. Once they're in the habit of
feeding elsewhere, you can let up on the spraying regimen.
·
Place human hair in small cheesecloth sacks and
hang around your garden. The scent of the human hair is repellent to deer of
all types.
Rabbit And Rodent Proofing Your Garden
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| Photo: Koenigsegg |
Rabbits and Rodents are allergic to peppermint and will
avoid it like the plague. To pest proof your garden, plant borders of peppermint as a barrier or soak rags
in peppermint oil and hang around your garden to keep it pest free.
Since I love mint tea the first option obviously gets my
vote.
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