Critter Control

Critter control was the theme of July.

Not only did we have problems with moles and gophers, but also deer. For the first time since we moved to our home deer showed up in our garden. They came in and nipped all the rosebuds off leaving stubs and then proceeded to chomp into my heirloom tomatoes.

I must say it is a bit aggravating to spend months cultivating something only to have it gone literally overnight. In fact, one night I woke up from a sound sleep thinking something was in the backyard, and sure enough when I went out back there was a doe and two fawns enjoying themselves.

We purchased something called a Scarecrow, which is a motion sensory device that shoots water up to 30 feet away if there is any movement in its view. We have used these before, and it really works to scare away the deer. Apparently we didn’t angle it close enough to the veggie garden, and that’s when the tomatoes got eaten.

As for the moles and gophers, Sam bought two electronic devices to scare them away. The device emits a sound that is supposed to make them want to leave. It seems to work well with moles, but not those darn gophers. The picture shows the device right next to a gopher mound. When we put the device in the ground, there was no gopher in sight. Almost everyday the mound gets bigger and the device keeps making its noise. So much for scaring it away. It probably finds the sound soothing.