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Unwanted Wildlife:
Outwitting Garden Critters
By Julie Dunlap

The verbal assaults are reminiscent of a nasty political campaign. "Greedy," "sneaky," even "criminal" are just a few of the insults gardeners hurl at their furred and feathered foes. But the deer, rabbits, crows, and other backyard wildlife seem too busy eating to listen.

Ann Summerfelt calls the deer problem in her Kent Island neighborhood "huge." They gobble azalea bushes, daylilies, roses, and garden vegetables, especially corn. The herds munched or trampled all three of Summerfelt's corn patches, leaving only one ear for her. Yet she loves living around wildlife. "It's why I chose a rural area," says Summerfelt. But as suburbia has pushed deeper into deer country, the animals have lost the shy ways of "Bambi" fame. Now, Summerfelt reports, they don't even run away when her dog barks at them.

Deer aren't the only backyard interlopers. A gardener's Most Unwanted Wildlife list may include chipmunks, opossums, raccoons, and moles. Greg Elmer of Pheonix says a blue heron snatched the fish from his ornamental pond, while Jim Koenig's neighbor in Crofton lost his vegetable garden in one night to a groundhog. Some of the worst fall and winter trouble-makers are squirrels, mice, and voles (mouse-like rodents with shorter tails). These little critters can't resist digging up flower beds for tulip, crocus, and other bulbs. With 200 to 400 voles per acre, your spring flower crop may be devoured before it has a chance to sprout.

People react to such losses of money, time, and landscaping aesthetics in different ways. A few, like Summerfelt, can shrug off the damage. "Deer were here first," says Summerfelt, "We moved into their environment." But even the most tolerant gardeners, after losing yet another prize hosta or turning an ankle on a mole hill, can get fed up. As animal populations seem to soar, many complain there's too much of a good thing. Says Elmer, "When they stop being wildlife, they become pests." Frustrations can fuel an almost primeval urge to protect the homestead, and soon the varmints are dispatched with guns, poisons, or gas bombs dropped down burrows.

More compassionate conservationists favor less lethal solutions, but what's an increasingly desperate homeowner to do? The first recourse is often the local garden center. "The repellent aisle is very active," says Donna Shipp, Garden Supply Manager at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville. One of her favorite products is Repellex, tablets that, if placed at the base of a bush, can discourage browsing deer for up to two years. The goal, she says, is to teach deer and other creatures that munching your plants is a memorably unpleasant experience. She also recommends placing Vole Block around tubers and bulbs during fall planting. Voles dislike digging through the sharp-edged stones and will seek lunch elsewhere.

Homestead's customers report varying success with other approaches. Shipp says, "You can have religious testimony on some things." Some swear by folk remedies, such as hanging bags of human hair from tree branches, dousing the blueberries with pepper spray, or dropping mothballs into mole holes. To frighten off nuisance birds, scare methods include dangling aluminum pie tins, reflective tape, balloons decorated to resemble giant eye balls, and blaring radios. An entertaining new device. the Smart Scarecrow, combines a motion detector with a garden hose; every approaching deer is greeted with a blast of water. Keep trying different techniques, Shipp says, since even if something works at first, the animals may learn to outsmart it.

Look for simple solutions first, suggests Thistle Cone, Science Educator at Annapolis's Chesapeake Ecology Center. An expensive ultrasonic device failed to end her squirrel infestation, but installing squirrel-proof bird feeders and cleaning up spilled seed can send squirrels-and rats--packing. In the fall, Cone says, "Start with basic yard maintenance." If you have a groundhog or rabbit problem, get rid of the brush pile. Rake up leaf litter and keep mulch away from the bases of trees to give voles fewer places to hide. To avoid raccoons and opossums, feed pets indoors, turn the compose heap often, and keep the trash can lids secured.

Another key to outwitting critters, says Cone, is learning more about them. Are you sure you know the guilty party? Even if you don't catch the culprit red-hooved or pawed, you can look for tracks or other clues. Deer, for example, lack upper incisors, so plants they chew look ragged, while rabbits neatly snip off leaves and stems. The possibility of false accusations is why Donna Shipp recommends live trapping. She says, "You can look at what you have and let the good animals go."

Even better than knowing who to blame is preventing the damage in the first place. "Once wildlife make a habit," says Cone, "They'll come back." So if neighbors complain of problems, put up an electric fence, plant bulbs inside wire baskets, or wrap young trees in hardware cloth before hungry visitors reach your yard. Like thieves who find your doors locked, they may just move on to another spot with easier pickings.

Cone also emphasizes that if a particular plant attracts miscreants, replace it. Tulips, for example, are deer candy, and pulling them out may mean fewer deer in your vegetables. Instead, this fall put in bulbs that deer and other species dislike, notably daffodils but also scillas, iris, and alium. Fall's also a good time to plant mountain laurel, forsythia, and other shrubs that deer tend to ignore. Cone especially encourages gardeners to plant hardy native flowers and grasses. Deer can nibble native asters, Cone says, but "They can handle it." Deer dislike other some natives, such as black-eyed Susans, columbine, and beebalm, and rarely sample them. Cone says, "Compare the cost of a six to eight foot fence, which is the only real solution in suburban areas, to choosing deer resistant plants. And if the plants are native, you're doing a great thing for the environment."

The native plant gardens at Chesapeake Ecology Center are living proof of Cone's sound advice. Despite the bordering woods, she says, "We haven't had any deer problems at all." Carol Proudfit, a Master Gardener, sees similar results in the native plant gardens at Quiet Waters Park. Although she's seen hoof prints and bite marks, "Apparently the deer found this not to be a salad to their liking." Both Proudfit and Cone invite the public to view native gardens at Quiet Waters, the Ecology Center, and elsewhere to get to know the plants and find ideas that will work at home.

But Proudfit warns that even the most distasteful natives will be eaten during a bad winter. She says, "No plant is truly deer resistant if the deer are hungry enough." As Homestead's Shipp points out, "As long as we don't have predators, we're going to have problems." The ultimate answer to backyard wildlife problems, Cone insists, is an attitude shift. "You're probably not going to get rid of them all," she says. "Learn to co-exist with them, and get to know local wildlife." Keeping a sense of humor is a good idea, too. As Cone says, "I like to think of wildlife as neighbors. You don't always agree with what they're doing, but you can learn to love them."

Wildlife Problem Resources:

Anne Arundel Animal Control will lend homeowners a live trap, teach how to bait it, and pick up the captured animal. For details, call Animal Control at 410-222-8900 or visit 411 Maxwell Frye Road, Millersville www.aacounty.org/AnimalControl/.

The Chesapeake Ecology Center invites visitors interested in learning about deer-resistant native plants. The Center is at Adams Academy at Adams Park, 245 Clay Street, Annapolis, MD 21401, and on the web at http://www.severnriver.org/CBEC.htm.

Quiet Waters Park also welcomes the public. Look for the native plant gardens by the compost demonstration site at 600 Quiet Waters Park Road, Annapolis, or visit their web site, www.friendsofquietwaterspark.homestead.com/composting.

For a comprehensive guidebook, check out Wild Neighbors: The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife, by John Hadidian, Guy Hodge, and John Grandy, Fulcrum, 1997.

www.mydeergarden.com. Online advice on repellents and barriers to deer, plus a comprehensive list of deer-resistant plants.

www.hgic.umd.edu. Maryland Cooperative Extension Service site offering information about backyard wildlife, problems they cause, and possible solutions.

www.chesapeakenatives.com. Local native nursery presents an illustrated catalog and schedules of native plant talks and farm tours.

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