You would think that with cooler temperatures and the holidays on the way you could put prep your garden for the winter and be done with it right?  Wrong.

Unfortunately, the fall bulbs we plant in September and October are a tempting snack for Squirrels, and your bulbs are in danger of being eaten or relocated by these busy tree climbers. If you see the tell-tale signs of digging in your garden, or notice Squirrels running Hibernation Preparedness Drills around your yard, then it’s time for you to fight back with a simple green deterrent that can save you from constantly replanting your garden beds.

Cooking Up Something Special:

Break out a 2 quart sauce pan, fill it 3/4ths of the way full with water, and get it boiling. Add to the boiling water two chopped cooking onions, one chopped Jalapeno pepper, and one tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper, or Ground Red Pepper from your spice rack. Let the mixture boil for approximately 20 minutes, and let cool.  Strain the chopped peppers and onion out of the pan, and add the left-over liquid to a spray bottle for easy application to the leaves, and ground around your bulbs.  This recipe will provide up to five days of deterrent from squirrels after application.

For added Squirrel deterrence, sprinkle the bare soil around your bulbs with Paprika, and Ground Red Pepper.  The smells of both of these spices irritate a squirrel’s nose, and send him elsewhere in his quest for a quick snack!

Your Thoughts: What “green” ways have you found to keep squirrels out of your garden?

Photo Courtesy of: Seeks2Dream

“Amy, I’m going to need you over at my location please. We have an animal situation.”

When I received this surprise call over the airwaves I was on location at work, and quickly radioed back the caller for clearer directions, sure that I was being called in for damage control in a potentially volatile situation with an animal that couldn’t be mentioned over the air. The last few scenarios on the job when I had been called to meet someone over an “animal situation” involved Possum babies trapped between automatic doors, a deer caught on the fence, and a starving Pit Bull Mix near the office space. When I met the coworker they earnestly told me that there was no immediate danger, but they were not sure if the turtle would attack anyone, and wanted me do something with the animal in case it was of the ‘Snapping’ variety.

I wandered over to the corner of a garden bed as requested and saw a full grown and very healthy wild Box Turtle peeking back at me. I have never been able to resist the allure of a box turtle for some reason, and searched the woods for them specifically as a child on family camping vacations. I picked up the turtle and gave it a look over, but it seemed healthy, so I walked it over the my caller and told him a little about the turtle and it’s value in the wild, before returning the turtle back to his hiding place.

For some reason that turtle made my day! I had heard that in recent years with growing urban sprawl, and too many specimens removed from the wild, that the species was in trouble and in decline. I’m glad to see that there are still a few out there that are alive and well, wandering their old “home range.”

Depending on what you grow, four-legged wildlife may not be your only problem. If you find birds to be ruining a fruit or vegetable crop, I highly recommend using a polypropylene netting as the first line of defense against birds. Netting is a great flexible, and lightweight way to keep your crop plants out of the reach of would-be invaders, providing a “green” barrier that’s easy to maintain and use. I use netting where necessary to protect my Strawberries, in a way that doesn’t involve adding sprays and powders to them that will effect the harvest, or need to be scrubbed off.

Local garden stores will generally stock a black polypropylene netting material through several season of the year, that are specifically designed to keep birds off your fruit.  I recommend a netting  openings under 1 inch to keep out even the smallest birds.  Recommended netting sizes come in 1/2 inch square, 5/8 inch square, and 3/4 inches square, but a general rule of thumb is that the smaller the netting opening, the better the protection is.  My favorite sizes are the 5/8ths inch sizes and the 1/2 inch size. The benefit of black polypropylene mesh is that it is UV protected, and will not deteriorate out under the sun, or varying temperatures. This type of netting can be brought back out for several years as needed, while taking up less storage space than chicken wire, or other metal products.  And, since it is flexible, it is easy to re-purpose for other garden duties, such as covering compost bins to keep rodents out, and protecting ponds from fall leaves.

The way I recommend using bird mesh around low growing shrubs like Strawberries, is in tandem with “lawn staples,” which are also called “landscape fabric pins.”  The types that I use are large and rounded, creating gentle arching support over my plants, keeping birds out, and giving the plant room to continue growing a spreading without getting tangled in the mesh.  Ideally a mesh should protect your plants from your “early harvesters,” while still providing you with easy access to the plants themselves.  I personally don’t use this netting on trees, although some people do, because it is often difficult to remove after one season’s growth, and I find that leaves and branches find ways of growing right through it.  For those of you who want to try using netting on fruiting trees, make sure to secure the fabric that covers your tree at the trunk of the tree, to prevent birds, and other wildlife from scampering up the trunk to get to your fruit from underneath your netting.

How To Use Staples and Netting:

1. Measure the approximate length, width and height of  your plants.  Trim your netting to an approximate size for your needs, with a little extra all around for tucking and tenting.
2. When working with low growing shrubs, run the first few staples down the center of a row of plants, and tap them in, to create a tenting effect with the fabric when you add it.
3. Place a few staples at what will be the top of your row, and lay the fabric over it.
4. Work your way down and around your plants, placing staples under the fabric around the perimeter of your plants, approximately 3-5 inches out from the leave, and up to 12 inches apart from each other.  Tuck the mesh under the staples, and tap the staples down through the holes in the mesh, to anchor the mesh into the ground.

Make sure that when you use polypropylene mesh, that you check the netting regularly in case birds become entangled in it in their efforts to reach the food.  Generally speaking, if you have your bird mesh securely fastened to the ground, you should not have a problem with this.  Also, make it a point to check the plant regularly for any parasites that may not be immediately noticeable under the mesh.  The black color of the mesh (which I recommend the most) is wonderful in part to the fact that it is barely noticeable from a short distance, however, the patterning to the mesh can fool the eye into easily overlooking irregularities in the plant below. Regular observations are a must.

Your Thoughts:  Have you used any netting material to protect your fruits and veggies?  Has Polypropylene netting worked for you, or have you found another trick or product that has worked better?

Canadian Geese are beautiful; but they are also messy, potentially aggressive, and capable of cleaning out your backyard pond of water plants in one or two afternoons. Not to mention potential damage to your lawn and gardens from the presents they leave behind!  The key to keeping geese out of your yard is in knowing the timetable when geese are the most mobile, and targeting them for harassment within that window of time, to discourage nesting behavior in a close proximity to you.

The Goose Calendar of Events

January and February, Geese are generally in their over-wintering areas, beginning to look for mates, and beginning the earliest migrations back to nesting grounds in late February. Canadian Geese spend the majority of March and April looking for the ideal nesting area, or returning to the specific place that they themselves were raised, and setting up a nest.  As part of their “imprinting,” geese will return to the area that they were hatched in, to see if there is enough room for a new nest there with their current mate.  If you have had problems with geese in the past, March is the best time to begin harassing any geese who show up on your property, to discourage nesting, and long summer stays. May and June are the months where goslings are the most likely to be present, and both parents, and goslings are incapable of flight until all flight feathers have grown back in, in July.  Occasionally, a mated pair will then begin a second nest, and raise a second family in late summer and early Fall.

Nesting

A Canada Goose pair will scout an area out for a few weeks before they will set up a nest.  Once you notice a solitary goose hanging around the property, you most likely already have a nest nearby, with the parents taking turns on the nest. The nest itself is lined with the parent’s “flight feathers,” a natural instinct that both ensures that the eggs are well insulated, and prevents the parents from leaving the eggs, or young goslings by flying away, therefor tying the fate of the parent goose in closely with the young.  The adults and the gosling will gain the ability to fly around the same time that the gosling grow their first batch of “flight feathers,” about 70 days from hatching.  It is also for this reason that geese are almost impossible to get rid of once they have goslings, and why it is imperative that a goose control regimen begin in early spring, when the adult goose is still mobile enough to evacuate your yard.

Geese are actually very intelligent animals, and often a few methods will be needed to encourage a mated pair to leave your area if it seems that they are dead set on living in your yard. One great alternative that has worked effectively is the “goose fence” but another idea that can work well with backyard water features and lawns is a simple rope trick I will talk about below.

How To Use “Line of Sight” Against Geese

Geese, and most waterfowl that I have worked with, do not like rope anywhere near them. They especially feel unsafe when they come across rope near their “safety zone,” which is any body of water they have adopted as their home base, and any turf area they frequent.  Geese have been studied avoiding areas that they once nested around, and even passing those areas over mid-flight, when their “line of sight” is disrupted across a pond, or a grazing area.  Geese rely on their social “warning structure” when on the ground, to become aware of threats to their safety.  Their warning structure comes into play when geese are grazing, and one goose at a time takes a turn at monitoring the area for predators, or danger.  When there is an obstruction to this view, the geese feel that their safety is in question. They also instinctively know that they are vulnerable around their neck, and will avoid obstacles that appear to target their neck area. Running a rope straight across a backyard pond, and anchoring it to two sides of your pond can cause geese to feel that not only if their “line of sight” diminished across a pond, but also that the rope itself, when hung correctly, is a threat to their safety.  A rope used to block “line of sight” for geese can be used across ponds, and also across lawns, with minimal time for set-up, and few materials needed.  The key points to hit in making this rope trick work for you are time selection, and height.

• Time selection: The best time to use this trick is early in the year, when Geese are beginning to return from winter grounds in search of nesting sites.  If you can make your lawn, or backyard pond look less welcoming, and harder to navigate safely for the geese early in the year, you may find that the flock passes you over entirely without even stopping mid-flight to investigate.  If there are a lot of geese around already, your goal is then to make the area seem unwelcome.  Running sections of rope across your lawn, and pond will help in creating what the geese perceive as an impenetrable barrier through sections of what was excellent habitat.
• Height: For this fence to properly target geese, you need to have securely tied rope that is held taut on stakes over either grass, or the water surface.  The ideal height for this over the water would be 6-12 inches from the rope to the surface of the water.  This height properly blocks the swimming ability of the adult goose through the entire pond, and hinders their line of sight in the pond, and when flying over the pond. The rope acts like a visual and physical barrier, and casting shadows over the pond that the geese don’t understand as well.
• Rope Selection: I always recommend using rope is either white, or bright yellow, because these are the easiest colors for the geese to see.  Rope does not have to be the thickest on the market either, a thin nylon rope of construction grade will suffice as long as it is about the width of a human finger, to provide the most visual impact for the goose.

If you are using this method on a lawn, the best way to make your lawn and garden look inhospitable is to create several of these rope areas in either a large “M” or “N” formations where geese are the most nuisance, or, by simply creating a box of your lawn, enclosing it in a small shin-height fence that the geese cannot pass through.  If you are using diagonal lines, make sure to mix up the angles of the lines (M, or N), so that the geese cannot figure out how to graze up and down the “isles” of your roped area. Experiment with any rope that you buy, and see what meets your needs best, and what is allowed by your community (in case there are guidelines that may become problematic as you implement this).  Remember, geese cannot step over things, and cannot duck under things, so anything that would require a goose to do either of these things is in their minds an impassible object.

Don’t lose hope!

If Goose droppings are what bother you, remember a small amount of goose poo isn’t bad for your lawn. The droppings themselves are almost entirely grass, condensed into a form high in nitrogen. It is only when there is a high concentration of droppings that there is a danger of “burning” the lawn.

You don’t have to go any farther than your grocery store to purchase a green, and low cost solution that will solve your deer problems with a handy deer repellent.  I for one believe that if a homeowner wants to grow Vegetables, Tulips, Hosta, or Hibiscus, that they should be able to, without having to errect an 8ft. fence around them!

Common powdered milk, when dusted on your garden will easily prevent deer from eating those treasures in your garden!  Like many of the more expensive (and potentially harmful) chemical treatments on the market today, dried milk renders a plant inedible, and scent deterring to deer.  Deer do not like the smell or taste of milk after they have been weaned, and routine dustings of this harmless grocery item on your plants will train deer to believe that what you are growing in your yard is not edible.

If you are having trouble with deer try this method out!  It works on flowers, shrubs, and sapling trees. Powdered milk won’t harm your plants, or deter pollinators from them, and its a cheap fix that you can stock up on the next time you are already planning a trip to the grocery store.

Your Thoughts: Have you found a unique home remedy that works on repelling deer?  Have you tried Powdered milk?  Let me know if you find this method works for you!

In my area in particular, Canadian Geese are a large seasonal problem.  With each goose producing a pound of poop a day, they can quickly wear out their welcome, and your lawn! I’ve seen several suggestions online, as to how to control a goose population, including swan decoys, lawn treatments, and planting options, but I want to share with you an idea that is cheaper, and that will produce far more consistent results!  On the job, I manage mowed pond areas, lushly planted habitat areas, areas with high pedestrian traffic, and those with none. I have tried versions of many things to humanely reduce and control the  goose population,  but for the homeowner who wants to discourage water birds in general from landing on your yard, and grazing there, here is a quick and cheap way to keep waterfowl out, without using chemicals, or repellents, and without planting shrubs that will distort your water view.

What to Do: Measure the perimeter around the body of water that borders your property, preferably 2-3 feet from the water line. Divide the perimeter number by five. This is the number of posts you will need to buy. The second calculation you need with the original perimeter number is for the length of rope you will need. To get this number, multiply the perimeter number by 2.

What to Buy:

• Purchase 3-4 foot stakes, or posts (metal, wood, bamboo, or pier pilings, depending on the look you want to achieve).
• Purchase commercial-grade rope, of white, or yellow color.  The thickness of the rope doesn’t matter, thin rope will work just as well.

How To Build Your Goose Fence:

• Place the stakes you purchased at five foot intervals, approximately 2-3 feet from the water line, in a row, hugging the shore line.
• Tap these stakes into the ground ideally leaving 30 inches to 3 and a half feet above the ground (depending on the height of the stake you purchased).  You do not need a tall fence to keep geese, or other water birds away.
• Tie the rope from post to post, leaving a generous swag bowing down in between each post (this is the key to making this fence work).  The rope must not touch the grass line, and should be about one foot off the ground at it’s lowest point.

Tips:

• This idea works best with regularly mowed areas, although it will work in more naturalized areas as well.
• White and yellow rope are easiest for waterfowl to see, as opposed to other colored rope that may blend in the water or grass.

Why This Works:

Geese love large ponds and lakefront property! The reason they happily target these areas is because they may associate close proximity to humans with a free food source, and (especially if the area is mowed), because in these areas it becomes easier for the geese to see predators a long way off, which gives them a feeling of safety.  What this little rope fence does is unsettle geese, who do not understand navigating over and under rope lines.  It plays into their fear as water birds, that they will not be able to reach the water in time, if they are running to avoid a predator.  Water birds absolutely know how slow and akward they are on land, and they know that it is on land that they are the most vulnerable to predation.

This method of goose repelling, will last you until the rope dries out (and needs to be replaced - every couple years), and will pay for itself rapidly in the time and money it saves you cleaning up goose poop, and buying and applying chemicals to deter the birds.

I personally recommend this method for homeowners above every other method.  This method works better than planting grasses, and shrubs as well, and here’s why:  Geese love open spaces to graze in, but lets remember what geese are looking for in a sleeping ground, and a nesting area.  For a goose looking for an area to rear her young, a planted area is best for protecting herself, or her mate while they incubate their young, hiding them from predators, and observation.  A planted area is also ideal for entire goose families to sleep, while feeling sheltered, and hidden.  Waterfowl can be creatures of habit, choosing a designated “home” area to frequent for the weeks before migration practice lessens their visits to your property.

I also recommend this method over Mute Swan decoys, or “tame” live Mute Swans (especially those that are used to close contact with humans).  In a heavily human populated area, there is a high probability that not only geese, but swans, and ducks are being fed by picnic goers, and joggers.  There is no Mute Swan in the world, plastic or otherwise, that will chase families with goslings away from free food for any long period of time.  I have personally seen Canadian Geese chase swans twice their size across entire lakes if the swan got too close to a group of goslings.  Since most goose control issues occur during the months of goose reproduction, this is not a method that I recommend relying on. Live Mute Swans can shorten the duration of Goose occupations, but a plastic swan will not deter geese reliably for any period of time.

NOTE: This rope fence method of goose control is not recommended for areas where tame waterfowl are being kept, or in areas where birds like ducks are welcome.  Water birds of all kinds will swim by this fence, but will not cross the perimeter.  Bird watchers are advised to use this method only when they are happy to accept a certain amount of distance between themselves and the subjects they are viewing.

Want some more tips to keep geese off your property?  Click here for more articles!

Your Thoughts: Having dealt with Goose issues for several years, here is what has worked for me.  If you have a great method of goose control that works around your home, please feel free to share!

I was called into an apartment building lobby last Thursday by a lady at the main desk, who urgently wanted me to look at a wounded bird that one of the housekeeping ladies had found near an exterior door.  Since I have a reputation for knowing what to do with, or who to call over injured wildlife, a small group of women had boxed up a wounded Mourning Dove, and tried to get it to me, in the hopes that the bird could be saved.

The bird had a badly broken jaw, most likely from running into a window, or glass door.  It was stressed and breathing heavily, but seemed to have potential damage to it’s windpipe along with other issues.  I looked the bird over, but decided that for this bird, sweet as it was, it would not be realistic to try and repair the damage done.  With breathing issues,  potential infections on the torn flesh of the face, trouble swallowing, and future trouble with eating, trying to fix this wild bird would be near impossible.  The amount of stress that the bird would go through, in the process of trying to fix it, would not be anything that the bird would understand.  I took the bird to a quiet corner of a nearby pond, and left it to die in peace.

The activity level of wild bird populations in spring and early summer is obviously much higher than in the winter, and with newly fledged birds still learning to navigate through yards and buildings, there is an increased number of bird injuries near human populations.  From house-cat hunting injuries, window collisions, and nests being built in inappropriate places (like clothes dryer vents), there may come a time when you will want to know “what do I do with this bird?”

For young babies, and adult birds, whose survival seems likely, there are Wildlife Rehabilitators in your area who will be able to assist you in bringing your wild bird back to full health.  Most of these rehabilitators have received specialized training and licences to care for wildlife legally, and their services are free to the public.  There have been a few times in the past that I have asked a rehabilitator to take a bird, or a nest full of abandoned babies, and each time, they have not only been helpful, but have also given me valuable information about the species itself.

How To Find A Rehabilitator:

• Ask your veterinarian if they can recommend anyone to you.
• Contact the Ornithology Society, or group, active in your state.
• Contact The Audubon Society, or a Wild Bird Store for local contacts
• Call your local Humane Society, State Wildlife Agency, or City Animal Control office.
• Check the US Fish and Wildlife Website, they will have a list for rehabilitators in your area.

For birds in need, visit this great resource, for a visual map, and checklist to help you discern the proper action to take for wounded, or abandoned birds. It also features a detailed list of the steps to take when securing baby birds for pick-up by a rehabilitator.

Your Thoughts: Have you ever run across an injured or abandoned wild bird?  What did you do?

One of the areas I manage is a complex that features a large enclosed courtyard, with lush vegetation, and a small pond with a waterfall.  Last summer, a pregnant Mallard came to scope out the courtyard with her mate only a few weeks after the construction was finished.  She and her mate would sit on tree mounds, and in garden beds on one side of the courtyard or the other, to watch the people pass by, and search the bushes for likely nesting places.  Regardless of the constant human traffic through this area, she latched on to this spot as the perfect location for her family. After several weeks of her frequent visitations, she disappeared for a time, only to reappear with babies in tow. The entire summer, she and her ducklings camped out “poolside,” by the tiny water feature, awaiting the free Saltines and cracked corn that come with Condo living for puddle ducks.  All fall and winter, the apartment dwellers where she had taken up residence were placing wagers on the likelihood that she would return, and hoping to see her again.

This year, “Lil’ Momma”, as we call her, hatched 12 babies, so she has been incredibly busy watching overall of them, as they investigate their world in twelve different directions at once. It seems like they have designated “exploration time” with Lil’ Momma, as well as a special time for sunbathing, and swimming lessons.  Momma keeps them in line, and on target with each new activity, and with only one or two quiet peeps from her, everyone moving as one unit toward the next activity with no questions asked.

Initially the tiny pond they were paddling around was amply large to teach ducklings how to swim, and properly dabble at the water’s edge.  I had to wonder how the family would continue to fit in the pond, as the duckling grew in size.  Last year’s ducklings stayed through late July, and never attempted flight. I ended up personally assisting several of them on their way to a larger pond on the premises, where I hoped that they would learn to fly, and socialize with the other water birds.  The photo at right was taken about two months ago of Lil’ Momma, and her kids.  Right now, the Mother duck is still very protective of them, even though they have grown to a size approximate to hers! As you can see in the picture below, they are currently packed in the pond like sardines for their “All Swim” sessions!

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll let them be where they are, since the young ducks don’t have room in the enclosed courtyard to learn to fly, and with the constant supply of food handed over to them, are not learning to fend for themselves.  Thursday of last week, I went into the courtyard to replenish the bowl of corn for them, and discovered that one of Lil’ Momma’s daughters from last year had just hatched her own brood in the courtyard, and had her own duckling paddling around the pond.

Watching the full-sized ducklings bum crackers off the passers by, and the day old “newbies” circle their protective, young mother in the pond, I’m reminded of a Shel Silverstein poem entitled “Crowded Tub!”