Unwanted guests can be a frustrating aspect of owning any size of the garden. Not only do they come in and cause a mess, destroying your flowers and plants, but they could also be a danger to small children and pets. So what can you do to get rid of them and keep them away from good?
Ensure No Food Source In Your Garden
To begin with, you should determine why they’re visiting your garden. In most cases, you have food that is easily accessible to them that they want to eat. An unfortunate consequence of increasing urbanization is that more and more animals are discovering easy picking from the waste people produce. This could be from waste food or merely food that you leave out for the birds (looking at you, squirrels). Pest control specialists over at flightcontrol.com recommend that keeping your waste food in inaccessible areas will reduce the number of unwanted visitors you have in your yard. While their point is specific to birds, it is a relevant point for all animals, from birds to bears. Some ideas you can follow up on include:
- Buying trash cans with sealable lids.
- Use thick, heavy-duty bags that they can’t rip open easily.
- Rinse cans and bottles out before you throw them away. I.e., get rid of as much food residue as possible.
- Build a trash can enclosure that has a door.
- Buy new bins if your old ones are damaged.
- Install movement sensors that activate lights. This will scare off larger animals.
- Keep garbage away from your house.
By following some of those tips, you will severely cut off the food supply available to them and hopefully, make them move on elsewhere.
Use Replants
The easiest way to drive animals away is to use repellents. They are scented in a way that is not pleasing to animals. Be sure to read the label of repellents carefully and use them responsibly because they can be highly toxic. One option is ammonia. This is best used as far away from your home as possible because it is poisonous and has an incredibly unpleasant smell. Luckily, it is undesirable to most animals as well. You could choose to spray it in targeted areas where you know they enter your yard or diffuse around your garbage which should eventually put them off coming altogether. You can also buy specially made animal repellents from most hardware stores which work exceptionally well. However, if you have animals and children, be careful how liberally you use it because it can be harmful and even deadly if your pets ingest it.
Keep It Clean
Perhaps the most straightforward method to keeping unwanted wild animals away from your yard is to keep the place clean. This means cleaning away debris from areas they are known to live in and ensuring that you can see everywhere unobstructed. There are specialist landscaping companies that concentrate on setting up your garden in such a way that looks visually appealing but denies quarry for the vermin that enter. This can include strategically placed water features that are large enough to obstruct all but the most significant animals and certain trees and plants like cactus that provide a natural barrier.
Build A Fence
The construction of a Cedar Mountain Fence around your property is one of the most convenient techniques. This is a physical barrier that can deter most animals. However, the main drawback is that it cannot keep out many smaller animals adept at climbing and jumping. Nevertheless, if there is anything in your yard that attracts them, you could focus your effort on that. For example, if you have a vegetable patch that is particularly enticing to certain wildlife, you could build a small fence around it with netting over the top. After a few failed attempts, most vermin will move on and leave you alone.
Use A Guard Dog For Larger Animals
If your animal trespassers are of the larger variety, you could get yourself a guard dog, or t at least a large dog in general. You can then train it to give chase to certain animals that enter. For example, if you are having trouble with deer, you could feed them deer meat and allow them to get to know the smell of deer. Then, as soon as a deer enters, it will recognize the scent and chase it away. To prevent your dog from biting off more than he can chew and attacking something like a bear, you should take certain precautions, especially in its training. If you do have bears, it is probably best to call an animal control expert to help you deal with them.
Use A Cat For Smaller Animals
If mice, raccoons, or small squirrels are bothering you, a cat could be a fantastic, natural repellent. Your cat should be outdoors and be allowed to run free. You will discover in no time that many of the vermin make a hasty retreat, never to return. The reason for this is that cats are natural hunters. While a cat is a great option, you should be aware that they will also scare away the animals you might want. For example, if you enjoy having birds around, you will probably have to make peace because they will become scarcer. It would be best to weigh up how much you want other animals gone compared to how much you want to keep others.
Install Motion-Controlled Strobe LIghting
Setting up a motion sensor that switches on a bright strobe light can be enough to disorientate and scare intruders away. This has the benefit of working on wild animals and human intruders. You should use strobe lighting because it will startle the animal and frighten them into running away. Once this happens enough times, they tend not to come back again.
Keeping away unwanted visitors can sometimes prove to be a fruitless and challenging task. Nonetheless, some of the ideas in this post could be enough to scare them off and keep them away for good. Furthermore, you can opt for one method or use a mixture to get the best results.