Tips For Dealing With Common Rodent Threats To Your Garden
Posted on: 3 August 2016
If you've decided to venture into gardening for the first time this year, you may be surprised to find that you're contending with some super sneaky scavengers. In some areas, rodents are a bigger garden threat than most of the insects, and if this applies where you live, there are some things you should know to protect your plants and your harvest.
Dealing With Mice and Voles
Mice and voles are active threats to your garden all year long, and they can appear at any time of day. They'll eat any vegetation they can get to - including the bulbs you plant. If there's nothing else for them to get to, they've even been known to eat the roots and bark off fruit trees. If you're planting young trees, this could actually destroy the tree.
Put a round of sheet metal in the ground around the diameter of the tree. Dig it deep enough into the ground that it will sit below the root level, but leave plenty of room for the roots to grow outward. The metal will form a barrier that keeps the voles and mice from burrowing to the roots.
Addressing Problems With Moles
For many gardens, moles are a benefit because they eat insects. In fact, they eat a lot of the ones that could damage the plants in the garden. In addition, their digging practices aerate the soil. The downside is that they also end up eating the earthworms in the soil and creating structural problems in the garden by tunneling under the surface.
The best way to combat problems with moles is by blocking off your garden so they can't get there. The easiest way to do that is by digging a trench around the perimeter of the garden. Dig several feet down and a couple of feet wide. Add some gravel, shells or something similar to the trench to fill it, then top it with soil. They can't dig through the rock or shell, so it'll be harder for them to reach the garden.
While the trench keeps them out, it won't do anything about a current infestation. To get rid of them, treat your entire yard with milky disease spores. This kills any grubs in the soil, which is what the moles most often feed on. You can also flush the tunnels they dig with water. A rodent control company can help you trap them by driving them out with the water, which will allow you to have the moles relocated far from your home.
With the tips presented here, you can protect your first-ever garden from some of the most common rodent pests that you might encounter. Talk with a pest control specialist about dealing with any other rodent concerns you might have.
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