Animal Resistant Gardening Your garden landscape can be altered to discourage animals from visiting. The selection and placement of plants can either attract animals or repel them. For example, creating a barrier of tall hedges will reduce a deer's view of the garden. Fruit trees are a natural attractant so all fruit should be harvested and fallen fruit should be removed promptly. Grass and underbrush should be kept trimmed. Attractants can be surrounded by repellent plants. White Flower Farms provides an exhaustive list of plants that are less tasty to deer and other animals. Here are a few:
Resistant Trees, Shrubs and Vines: Bottle brush, Daphne, Douglas Fir, Euonymous, Hackberry, Holly, jasmine, Maple, Oleander, Limber Pine, Pinon Pine, Pomegranate, Rhododendron, Wild Lilac, Rockrose, Santolina, Scotch Broom, Blue Spruce
Resistant Flowers: Black-eyed Susan, Chrysanthemum, Daffodil, Fosglove, Hyacinth, Iceland Poppy, Iris, Lavender, Lily of the Nile, Oriental Poppy, Snowflake, Zinnia
Fencing: Both perimeter fencing and mesh netting can prevent animals from visiting your property. For more information go to www.bennersgardens.com
Chemical And Behavioral Repellents: An evergrowing assortment of nonlethal chemical and behavioral repellents are available from stores and mail order/internet catalogs.
Behavioral repellents involve fear tactics using:
Visual stimuli such as strobe lights, mylar tape, scarecrows and scare-eye balloons.
Auditory stimuli such as ultrasonic devices and loud noises.
Motion activated water sprays will also deter wildlife as well as companion animals.
Do not use animal urine based repellents. Animal urine production is a cruelty-based industry. These animals live their lives in unhealthy conditions so that their urine can be collected and sold. This is the case for horses (PMU-pregnant mare urine) in the production of Premarin (Pre-pregnant, mar-mare, and in-urine) or predators (bobcats, foxes, coyotes etc.) in the production of wildlife repellents. BOYCOTT ANIMAL URINE BASED PRODUCTS!
Cruelty-free repellents include: odor repellents made from ammonia (Hinder), citrus scent (Deer chaser) and treated sewage (Milorganite) and taste repellents made from castor oil and capsaicin (N.I.M.B.Y.) and denatonium benzoate (Tree Guard, Ropel and No-Bite tablets). Do not apply these repellents to food crops unless specifically labeled as approved.
