Ravenous Rabbits and other Garden Pests Part #2.

I was reading on another gardening website that people are using Blood Meal to deter rabbits, squirrels and voles. People there were very pleased with the results.


In looking for info on Blood Meal, there were cautions re not using to much and not getting it on the plants or directly into their root zones.

I have a bag, as I was going to use it to treat some chlorotic shrubs, so I may sprinkle it around all of the shrubs in my shrub bed and see if it helps.

I'm happy to report that Rick caught his 'critter'! And even happier to report that it wasn't a skunk after all but a possum!!! Definitely a lot easier to relocate :)

Interesting about the blood meal. I had always remembered reading that dogs were attracted to the scent and sure enough after a quick surf I found stories of gardeners whose dogs had dug through their gardens after applying it as well as all the crows and vultures who show up after the scent attracts them! I'd like to try using it but considering I've been pretty successful keeping Phoebe from digging in the gardens maybe this is one option for controlling the 'critters' I don't want to try!

I have also heard that blood meal (dried blood) deters rabbits. I have used it, but it is hard to tell. If it rains or you sprinkle or water, it dissolves and goes into the ground and you have to re-apply it. You don't do a heavy application--just a light sprinkle with your fingers.

Not much harm is done--as blood meal is an almost pure Nitrogen fertilizer. Of course--too much of any good thing may be bad.....

Yes! I have also read that it attracts meat-eating critters.

You can get a small bag of blood meal at any HD. In mine, it is sold wherever all the houseplant fertilizers and soils are. We have a greenhouse--so it is in there...

Gita

Well, do Crows and Vultures eat living things?????? It's a shame, RCN. I thought it might be a pet friendly solution for you. Guess it's TOO pet friendly!!!!

I actually stumbled upon it by reading about a Swedish product that folks were raving about. The product's active ingredient was Blood Meal and it was mixed with something that made it weatherproof. It said that it would last for 3 months.

I was looking for a less expensive product than Shake-away. I don't want to have to reapply any less than 2 to 3 months. It was lucky for me to buy up all of that Snake-a-way at half price.

That's great news about Rick's possum!!

Well I can't stand them but this really was so cute. Little junior taking a nap on my deck.

close up

Jen, That is really cute and so is your flower cart!! May he RIP!!!!

My-oh-my!! Don't they look like perfect angels when they sleep?? LOL!!

To Snake-away or Blood Meal, that is the question. I see that blood meal does work. I haven't tried it bcause I have a dog and he already digs holes trying to de-earth the chipmunks.

When we lived in Old Town Alexndria, we had opossum getting into the trash cans. The Humane Society told us to soak bleach on some rags and put them around the yard and we did, and the varmits were gone!! So bleach is another option for them, but I don't know about bunnies. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, now that I'm thinking about it. I just don't like the idea of rags....

It was pretty cute watching him fall asleep, his eyes would start to close, then open, droop close, then open, finally fell asleep. Too cute.
He slept there for about 15 minutes.

I got a bottle of Snake Away at Lowes yesterday. It was close to $14.
Stocking up for next year! Hope it works.......

f-jen- that is so cute!! I've never seen a sleeping squirrel before.

Gita, The squirrels are back in my yard now. Guess I'll head over to Loews. The $7 price that I had gotten at HD was a deal. I'm going to go back and search the thread for the source that Hart posted.

Today I had to replant 4 Ligularia that I planted yesterday. I still have a ton of bulbs to plant and don't want to have to keep replanting them. Yesterday It was the new ferns. The day before, bleeding hearts. When they dig up something bare root, I don't always find it right away and it dries up an dies. I've lost many Astilbe this way.They are a real pain in the B.!!!!!!

Last weekend I planted 30 Hosta in wire pots. By now over a dozen of them have holes dug right up to the pots.

Here's a newly planted Heuchera

A new fern.

A brand new Corydalis

The squirells are now having a hey day digging too. I went to Hd & Loews and neither one had any snake-a-way, although Loews was completely out fitted for Christmas!!!! Guess I'll have to try to get some of it or the Shake-away online.

Try the garden section of Walmart. Or if you have a Tractor Supply, Southern States or other farm and feed store. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be Snake Away. The other product they make for other critters would work too I'm sure.

Gemplers has it online.

Stormy--I got mine at Lowes--$13.67 (or such). It was not with all the usual critter stuff, but in the aisle across from it--I think next to the Bird sees...?

Stormy, how frustrating! Reminds me that I noticed a similar 'hole' yesterday on the slope leading into Rick's woodland garden and I forgot to tell him :( Of course, I could have done something about it myself but I've got my own 'holes' to contend with!

Gita, The Loewes garden dept had been dispersed to several aisles to allow for the Xmas stuff. I asked 3 employees for the snake-a-way and bone meal. They all said they didn't have either. While checking out the Store Manager had to be called and so I told him about their not having bone meal at this time of year. Well, he quickly came up with 2 bags. BTW a person at Greer Gardens told me that putting Bone Meal in the planting holes for new shrubs would reduce transplant shock. Never heard this before. I've been spraying them with Wilt-Pruf.

Hart, I've tried at least 6 other Critter Ridder type of products. None of them work on the squirrels. Thanks for the Gemplers info. I'm going to price it against the Shake-away. Maybe I'll use both, but in different in different beds.

RCN, is there a way to forward a Dmail to you? Roserairie wrote to me about her vole fighting efforts.

stormy--

You can't forward a D-mail---BUT--you can copy/paste the text into a new D-mail that you can send to anyone. Copy/paste is one of the most useful things in computer use....

If you do not know the c/p procedure--it is as simple as clicking your mouse. Write me a D-mail and I will walk you through it.....

Bone meal is a useful product. It is usually used when planting bulbs. Do not use bone meal on acid loving plants....it is an alkaline-type product.
Besides--it is made from ground up bones and so carries an 'animal scent" with it. I have heard that it can attract carnivorous animals. I don't think this is a big issue though---Does anyone else have any info. on this? Are voles in that category???

The product that really helps with hen transplanting is Kelp Meal, but it is expensive....It is dried sea weed....I have used it for years....

Gita

stormy, heck - if it's okay with Roserairie, copy and paste it here! We might all benefit from her "vole fighting efforts" :)

Gita, Voles are plant eaters. They are food for carnivors. Oh where oh where are those carnivors?? Maybe I've chased them away with the snake-a-way!!!! This morning I put down 3 bottles of other types of critter repellents that were on hand but never used because I had previously found them ineffective.

I bought the bone meal for the bulbs that I have yet to plant. Before I plant anything, I give all plants a soaking bath in Biotone root starter diluted in water, there is Mycorrhizza in it. I keep a very large galvanized steel tub about a quarter full of the mix by my potting bench. If I'm out of the liquid Biotone, I add some of the granulated form to the planting soil. When planting shrubs, I use Mycorrhiza in the holes and spray the entire plant with Wilt-pruf. The Wilt-Pruf makes an incredible difference especially when trying to plant thirsty Hydrangea in August heat.

I've read good things about the Kelp, but have been happy with what I'm doing now so haven't tried it. If the plants come packed in moss, I put that in the holes too. I also feed all new plantings with Alaska Fish emulsion. There seem to be 2 or more schools of thought about feeding new plantings, but I've seen a big improvement with the fish food.

RCN, I'll write to Roserarie for permission to post it.

The Snake-a-way is available on Amazon.com for $11.89 for 4lbs.

The Shake-away is available on Amazon.com for 27% off of MSRP.

Gita, Thanks for reminding me about the akaline/acid thing with the bone meal. I had forgotten that. I wasn't going to use it for anything but bulbs. But, as the last thing that I ordered from Greer were Camellias, that certainly wouldn't have been good advice!!!!

Stormy, I'm doing my usual fall battle with field mice. They're determined to come in and have a nice warm spot to live for the winter. I'm determined they will not. LOL I won't use poisons and was loading up on mousetraps the other day because my Ratzapper was in the shop. A lady there told me about something called Mouse Miracle that she said Andre Viette says is best to repel mice.

So off I went to Viette's site, still haven't found anything about mice or Miracle Mouse, but I found this article on voles. He has a nice list of things that help, including Rat-Away, a sister product to Snake-Away. He mentions in the article using Espoma Soil Perfector in and around the planting holes/beds.

He also recommends something called Bonide, mostly repellents. There's a link on the page upper right that takes you to the Bonide website.

Here's the article.
http://www.viette.com/v.php?pg=253

another article on voles here
http://www.viette.com/v.php?pg=252

Viette is a daylily hybridizer down in Augusta County. He did In the Garden on radio in the DC area for years. Not sure if he still does that show since I get no radio reception here.

Ah, yes he does along with his son, Mark.
http://www.viette.com/v.php?pg=257

OMG folks, I have twice typed long posts relaying my findings on the 3 hours surf inspired by Hart. Both times I goofed and sent the post off into the great internet vortex!!!! Tomorrow is another day & i'll give you my info then. Thank you, Hart.

Hart, interesting information - thanks! Andre has always encouraged the use of Espoma products but the darned stuff is expensive! I'm hoping the cheap starter grit I picked up at the local Farmer's Co-op will create the same "barrier out of coarse aggregate with jagged edges". I'm not seeing as much activity where I did use it but stupid me, I didn't include it in every single hole and they're still tunneling in the area :(

Looked up the Sherman traps - might just have to order a few! Found them available several places online ($20-25 each!) but they're not too expensive directly from Sherman. http://www.shermantraps.com/pc-29-3-sfa-folding-trap.aspx

This message was edited Oct 8, 2008 5:40 AM

Are those for live trapping? You do know if you trap and release rodents you have to take them several miles away? Otherwise they come right back.

When Weber Nursery up in Winchester has their half price sale every year, they put everything on half price. I always head straight for the Espoma aisle first thing. I think they carry pretty much everything made by Espoma. Also, Costco usually has either Plant Tone or Holly Tone for a pretty good price in the spring and summer when they have their garden stuff out. One of the large bags will usually last me a year or two since you only need to use it two or three times a season.

I buy ALL Espoma products for all my fertilizing--except lawn--but I have a bag of that too....
All their names end in "tone"....and they are all organic.

Bulb Tone
Rose Tone
Plant tone
Holly Tone........etc......

Good, slow-release stuff.....Gita

Only the regular fertilizers end in Tone. They also carry a lot of other soil improvement products and specialized fertilizers that don't have Tone in the name such as phosphorus, greensand, lime, that sort of thing, and other things like weed preventers and lawn fertilizers that don't have Tone in the name.

All of their stuff is topnotch, all organic and their fertilizers I think all include micronutrients. It lasts for a while too. You just sprinkle it once every three months, so a large bag will last a long time, even if you have lots of beds to fertilize.

You are absolutely right--hart! I was being too general......my life's fault--generalizing......

I was thinking of only the big-bagged goods.....The Systemic Granules I used in all the plants I was bringing in was also made by Bonide....

I trust the name of "Bonide" and if available--I will buy that product....

Gita

Hello to all. I hadn't kept up since August 22 until this morning. Stormy asked about the goats. They came and left already. They were rented by a neighbor for two weeks to help clear an area where he plans to put in his driveway when he builds. It was really kind of neat to go to my back deck and see the two large white dogs that were part of the rental package come to check and see what the commotion was at this end of the property. I missed them when they moved on to their next job. The only time that I acutally saw a goat was one evening John took me in the car to ride nearby where the goats and dogs were staying then. Goats are such strange animals.

Ruby

Thanks, Ruby, Did they do a good job?

Hart, Those were great links and I did find 3 good ideas that I'm going to try. At this point, I don't know what would be cheaper, replacing plants or buying all of these critter ridder, and defense products.

The first is Dr T.'s Mole Out. It's castor bean oil soaked long lasting granuals. The oil makes them stomache ill and supposedly they move on to other places. Almost all of the Mole/vole products are castor bean oil. What makes this one different is that it lasts 2 to 3 months even with heavy rains. It does say that it takes them 3 weeks to figure out what's making them sick before they start to leave. For good results it should be applied in Spring, summer and fall.

The other one is Chew-not, which is primarily a deer repellent. It is a foul tasting product that makes them stop chewing I can use this on all of my shrubs, especially the lower branches. It is Thiriam mixed with acrylic polymer. It forms a tranpirant hard seal that will crack open as the plant grows. Fall application will prevent their winter chewing and have the added benefit of protecting the shrub from cold. I have some liquid thiriam, and it does work, but it needs to be constantly reapplied. This should help with the squirrels and bunnies chewing as well.

The third was the idea of creating ring barriers around 4"deep with Espoma soil protector,or some kind of grit/gravel. Roserarie actually surrounded her beds with these "moats". The first year was disasterous because she trapped the voles inside of the bed. Then she chased them out with one of the castor oil spray products and now they won't come back. She actually made all new raised beds on top of wire cloth and surrounded them with the gravel borders. Viette actually recommends planting everything in the Espoma Soil protector, instead of in soil, including bulbs. The price for this product is reasonable, only $9 for a 27lb bag, but the shipping costs are $18 a bag!!!! I called a local nursery who sometimes specialorders things formeto see if it would be cheaper to get it from them. I would mix it with soil as a deterrent, but the cost to use it instead of soil would be very high. Obviously with mature trees and shrubs in the beds, wire cloth on the ground is not an option. Even the cost and effort involved to create the ring barriers around plants would be enormous, but over time I could do it around their favorite snacks, hosta, rhodos, laurels, azaleas,daphnes. Going forward,it would have to be done around new plantings.

Yesterday,even though my wire pots stick anywhere from 2 to 4" above the ground, I found that they dug down into 2 of them. About 20 others have holes in the ground burrowed down against the pots. If they only managed to get into 2, I'll consider that a success.

I did read that all rodents are repelled by the smell of Milorganite. That's food for thought. My landscaper friend told me that it's all they use.

The Bonide products were not effective against the voles.

The Rat-a-way is designed to create a barrier on the surface of the ground around buildings to keep rodents out of the structure.This might work for Hart's mice problem.

Relocating live rodents?????????? Beasties need to be dead, the sooner, the better.

In the meanwhile, I'll keep putting down poison trying to reduce the population. Thank, Hart, it was great reading!

Soil Perfector was in stock at my Southern States type store, as well as turkey or chicken grit I'd assume- Don't know the prices.

....and you can get Melorganite at any HD. It should be in the aisle where they sell lawn fertilizers, Lime, etc. I think it is fairly cheap.....comes in a big bag....like 15K lawn stuff.

Just don't use it around any food crops!!! It has a high "metal" content....

Gita

The other reason why you don't use it around food crops is because it's made from sludge from a sewage plant. LOL Don't panic, though, it's very well composted, just looks like dirt and doesn't have any significant smell. It's a fertilizer though so I imagine you wouldn't want to dump it too deeply around your plants.

BTW, watch using too much of the poultry grit. It's made of shells and would raise the ph of the soil where you use it. Even if you have acid soil, the soil around foundations is usually fairly high ph because of leaching from concrete foundations.

It is essentially going to give you the same kind of soil I have - limey and rocky - so you'll have to make sure those beds get plenty of water. They'll drain a lot faster. I don't know about the Soil Perfector but since it's for any soil, it sounds like it doesn't affect the ph.

http://www.espoma.com/content.aspx?type=sp

Stormy, the fields all around me are full of field mice and I'm in a really old house with a stone foundation. Snake-Away around the foundation wouldn't do much to keep them out, I'm afraid. I know I had a black snake in the cellar last year. It must have been living high on the hog on all the mice coming through the cellar. You should have heard me screaming when I went down there and started back up the steps only to find a snake on the steps. Thank goodness SO was home or I'd have been stuck in the cellar for a long time. LOL

Here's the list from the Espoma site of places near you, Stormy, that carry their products. The numbers on the far right are how many miles from your zipcode.

Plymouth Nursery 1043 Belvoir Road Plymouth Meeting PA 610-277-4120 3.2

Holod's True Value 700 Ridge Pike Lafayette Hill PA 610-828-4505 4.5

Keystone Gardens 250 B Conestoga Road Wayne PA 610-688-5969 5.7

Hardware Plus I I Inc. 143 Pennsylvania Ave Wayne PA 610-995-2977 5.7

Montgomery Nursery 948 Sproul Road Bryn Mawr PA 610-525-4105 6.0

Rhoads Garden, Inc. 570 Route 202 (De Kalb Pike) N. Wales PA 215-699-2207 6.4

Albrecht's Garden Center 650 Montgomery Avenue Narberth PA 610-664-4300 7.2

Payne Seed & Garden 25 Rittenhouse Place Ardmore PA 215-649-2544 7.3

Waterloo Gardens 136 Lancaster Pike Devon PA 610-293-0800 7.8

Oaks Gardens 1506 Egypt Road Oaks PA 610-650-0320 8.0

hart----

You are a wealth of information! OR--you have a lot of time to look up all these websites to help people out. Nothing like being comfortable in passing on what you know......

I don't always "practice what I preach"--but still like to pass on my knowledge of anything I have picked up along the years of gardening....AND--what I have learned on DG.

Gita