Heritage Pest Control

As you planted your vegetable garden this weekend, visions of succulent lettuce leaves and delicious vitamin-rich vegetables danced through your head. Your mind was on the coming harvest, not on the threat of hungry wildlife. Especially in spring while food sources are still scarce, newly planted northern New Jersey vegetable and flower gardens offer a smorgasbord of treats for hungry deer, groundhogs, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and birds. All the hard work — and money — you’ve invested in your garden can be gobbled up by marauding wildlife in just a few nights.

Here’s what  you can do to protect your garden:

• Surround your garden with a fence of chicken wire or plastic mesh. For deer, fencing should be 8 feet high; for burrowing animals like groundhogs, fencing should extend 1 foot below ground surface. Top with a strand of electric line to deter climbers.
• Providing an alternate food source. A pan of seeds and nuts on the ground may help fill animal bellies so they won’t be tempted by garden seedlings.
• Motion-detector lights or motion-activated sprinklers startle and frighten away many garden bandits.
• Mylar tape and metallic pinwheels will frighten off timid groundhogs.
• Ring your garden with natural repellents like blood meal, garlic oil spray or desiccated coyote or fox urine to scare off critters.

If these measures don’t help or if wildlife take up residence under a porch or deck or in your attic or garage, call the wildlife exclusion experts at Heritage Pest Control.