Oh Dear: Dealing with Deer, Woodchucks and More

Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 · Leave a Comment 

My dog Daphne tells the deer a wolf is near

I’ve never had much trouble with deer eating my vegetables or flowers. I know gardeners who have wept when they saw that their lovely tulips had been munched by deer just when they were achieving perfection. But I’ve always had dogs, and dogs leave scents that are scary to deer. My little corgi, Daphne, leaves messages saying to the deer, “I am actually a wolf.” And they believe her.

 

 

So what do you do if you don’t have a resident wolf? Some gardeners use deer repellents. In general, they work for a while and then the deer get used to them, and come for lunch. Irish Spring brand soap, little containers with cotton balls soaked in coyote urine, rotten-egg based repellents. Yes, the work, but if you have a lot of deer and they want to come in, they will.

 

 

Garlic clips

The best repellent I’ve found are called garlic clips that I get from Gardeners Supply. These are little devices that hold garlic oil and clip onto branches. You must first puncture a seal with a little tool that comes with it. They’ve worked all winter for me on tasty shrubs.

 

 

But the only truly sure-fire solution is to put up an 8-foot tall fence. In recent years manufacturers have come up with good sturdy plastic fine-mesh fencing that weighs little and is affordable. But you still have to put up the fence posts – which is hard work or can be a considerable expense.  

 

 

You can buy 8-foot steel posts that can be pushed and pounded into the ground. You can buy cedar posts and use a post hole digger. Ten-foot pressure treated 4 by 4 posts last forever, but may leach chemicals into the ground.

 

 

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I saw an alternative method once. The gardener bought lengths of plastic pipe, the kind used by plumbers. He cut it into 12- to 24- inch sections and buried them in the ground every 10 feet. He used either a crow bar or an auger to make holes big enough for the pipe.

 

 

Then he cut saplings of an appropriate size, say and inch and a half across at the base, and 10-feet tall or more. He just slipped the sticks into the pieces of pipe. They were a little loose inside the pipe, and wobbled a little, but the fence worked – and he didn’t have to buy fence posts.

 

 

The slick part of the whole operation was the “door”. He just put 2 extra pieces of pipe in the ground along the fence line, one at the end of the run of fencing, the other 10 feet back. He lifted the final pole (with the attached fencing), and walked it back to an empty pipe 10 feet away and dropped it in. The netting was attached to the fence using plastic zip ties.

 

 

I saw another alternative method at a public garden at Fort Ticonderoga, NY. They used electric fencing enhanced by little pieces of aluminum foil that were attached to the fence with clothes pins. Each piece of foil got a dollop of peanut butter, which attracted the deer.

 

 

When a deer licked the peanut butter it got a non-lethal but very unpleasant jolt. The power to the fence was turned off each day when visitors were present, and the fence was rolled up, along with the fiberglass rods that supported it. This system has an initial start-up expense of the fence charger, wire and 4-foot posts, but it worked perfectly. The deer did not forget the jolt, even if they were hungry and they certainly could jump the fence.

 

 

A less serious, but very aggravating problem is with your neighbor’s cat, who, at this time of the year uses your freshly prepared and seeded carrot or lettuce bed as its personal kitty box. An easy fix? Prune your roses or raspberries and place the thorny branches over them. Felix the cat will stay away, and before long your plants will make it look less inviting.

 

 

Then there are the rodents: woodchucks, chipmunks and squirrels, possums and raccoons. Again, there are repellents and fencing, with fencing working better. Every 10 or 15 years I am inundated with squirrels. The only method I have found to salvage my garden is to trap them in Hav-a-Hart traps and deport them 5 miles away (that may be overkill) on a lonely road, far from a house.

 

 

Woodchuck in Havahart

Trap size is important: a woodchuck or large animal needs a trap with a 12-inch square opening that is about 36 inches long. Squirrels do fine in something with a 6-inch square door that is 18 inches long.

 

 

In order to catch a rodent, it is best to use a trap that only has one door, or to wire one door shut if the trap has two. Put the bait food past the trigger, so the animal will have to step on the trigger to get to the food. Woodchucks like watermelon, apples or beans. Squirrels and chipmunks love sunflower seeds and peanut butter on a cracker. Chunky or smooth? They don’t seem to care.

 

 

Trapping is not a solution I like. Why? A released rodent has only a small chance of survival, I am told. Also, in some towns there are laws against transporting wild animals. Maybe we should all just learn to share our bounty with the critters.

 

 

Henry is a long-time UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. Write him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364 Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

 

Filed under Article · Tagged with deer fencing, deer in the garden, how to repel woodchucks

What to Do About Those Wile Woodchucks!

Woodchucks, alas, are out and about. Fortunately I don’t have lettuce or green beans growing in my garden yet, as I saw my first one lounging in the sun on April 11 in a neighbor’s field. It was looking relaxed and happy. If you’ve have had woodchucks in the past, now is the time to take action to remove or repel them – before they have a litter of babies to join in the carnage of our gardens. They know danger and are willing and able to relocate – at least as far away as the next-door neighbor’s house.

When my corgi, Daphne, was a youngster I was working in a garden in Woodstock, Vermont when I saw a woodchuck sunning by my client’s barn. I let her out of the car and told her to “Go get it.” That was a new command, but she got the idea immediately and took off at a dead run.

Woodchucks are waking up from winter Mary Holland photo

The woodchuck was not paying attention – and barely made it down its hole before Deadly Daphne got there. Daffy tried to go down the hole, and got her front end in, but then perhaps a turn in the tunnel blocked her way. But I could hear the terrified woodchuck squealing inside the hole. My client reported that she never saw a woodchuck again. Not that summer, not the next. Perhaps, like 1930’s hoboes, the woodchuck left an “X” on the barn to warn the next marauding woodchuck that the place was not safe.

Woodchucks have 2 to 6 babies which are usually born in April or May. Females are generally have one litter in their second summer, but occasionally they will have young their first year of life. It is important to encourage woodchucks to relocate now, before they have babies. Since I have snow on the ground and little for them to eat, I am confident they haven’t had babies yet. Farther south? Who knows?

If you’ve had woodchucks in the past, you should check to see if their dens are active. Put strips of newspaper or stuff some hay in the openings, loosely plugging them, and check them daily. Each den will have 2 to 5 openings, each hole about 8 inches across. The back door(s) may be well hidden. I once saw a woodchuck disappear into a stone wall, but that may have been a temporary move – my dog was chasing it.

Once a mother woodchuck has had babies, it will be hard or impossible to get her to leave her den. For humane reasons you should defer relocating woodchucks until 3 weeks after the babies are born.

So how do you evict a woodchuck? According to the Humane Society Website, You can scare it away by partially digging out the opening and cutting away any vegetation near it. Or you can put urine-saturated cat litter down the hole, and then shovel some dirt in to loosely seal the burrow. They also suggest reflective Mylar strips hanging near ground level in the garden.

To keep woodchucks from returning to their burrow, close off the entrances with wire mesh screening with openings no bigger than 3 inches across. Cut a 3-foot square and stuff it into the entrance. Woodchucks have been known to return to a good home up to several years later.

What other options do you have? You can fence your garden with 3 to 4 feet of metal fencing such as chicken wire. Leave the top 18 inches floppy so that even an ambitious ground hog will find it hard to get over the top. Bury the bottom in the soil, and pin it down with landscape staples.

Only use a Hav-a-Hart trap to relocate a woodchuck if all attempts to get it to relocate have failed

If you’ve tried everything else and want to use a Hav-a-Hart trap to catch one, bait the trap with something fruity and fragrant. Sliced apples or watermelon work, though I know someone who used green beans. It makes sense to use something not available outside the trap. And place the trap along the pathway from the den to the garden.

According to Vermont naturalist Ted Levin, catching a rodent (woodchucks included) in a Hav-a-Hart trap and moving it away is generally a death sentence. When they land in new territory they are likely to fall prey to a fox, coyote or other predator. Food is uncertain, too, especially if yours is dependent on your garden produce. So please, only use Hav-a-Hart traps as a last resort. In some communities trapping wild animals is prohibited, so check with your town clerk or animal warden before investing in a trap.

I happen to like woodchucks. They remind me of fuzzy little bears. I love seeing them standing up and looking around like miniature grizzlies. I just don’t want them on my land. So if one turns up, I’ll try to scare it away. Daphne can earn her kibbles!

Read Henry’s blog posts at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. His e-mail address is henry.homeyer@comcast.net. Henry is a UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books.

Copyright © 2014 Henry Homeyer

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