Post #807512 by TIKIGIKI on Sat, Jan 21, 2023 6:31 PM

Referring back to the problems with animals destroying your gardens, first up I'll say I don't really know your gun laws or the laws on feral animals. (And yes, this probably is a thread high-jack!)

That being said I harbour absolutely NO tolerance of rats whatsoever. They are disease spreading, filthy creatures and I will/have eliminated them ruthlessly. They will devastate any vegetable garden.

Baiting proves very effective here, using the anti-coagulative baits. Do not put the baits out every night because although one feed will kill the rat, it doesn't do so instantly and they will continue to needlessly gorge the "food" (which is expensive here) while ever it's available. Every third/fourth night works best and if the infestation is bad you will have to repeat in about two weeks to get the new generation. Unfortunately in your location this will need to be ongoing but you will certainly reduce the population which sounds out of control at the moment. Sadly, there will ALWAYS be rats. (I have not forgotten your part in The Black Death you filthy little bastards!)

Rabbits here are listed as feral pests and if your property is infested with them you are by law supposed to take some action to get rid of them. Now admittedly this is rarely enforced but there is no prohibition on destroying them. For those who care to look it up Australia was once almost completed turned to desert by a plague of rabbits. They are NOT native, but were imported by the English colonists to be hunted for fun. It got somewhat out of hand. Government sponsored schemes use carrots scattered on the ground containing an approved poison. Does the foxes in too. Another non-native with a devastating effect on our wildlife. (Thanks you red-coated, horse-riding, hound-chasing Pommies for bringing us that pest too!)

Now to those pesky deer. Are they native to your area or feral? (Planting supposed "repellent" plants seems too passive and rarely very effective.) I see footage on the net of Americans hunting deer all the time so it must be legal to kill them? Specially if they are on YOUR property? Many Americans have guns....or bow and arrows? So just put two and two together? (Only the criminals have guns in Australia now, ....thanks to an idiotic ill-conceived anti-gun scheme run by a former Prime Minister some time back!) OR if that makes you squeamish what about using ELECTRIC FENCES? They are cheap to buy here and not costly to run, but deer being short-furred animals, the shock would work very well. And it doesn't kill them. The "fences" work very well here at keeping much larger cattle or horses in check. I'd be giving it a try. Animals very quickly learn to avoid the fences, which are little more than a long piece of tape on very small poles. Hardly intrusive, but highly effective. Something as simple as THIS here could easily surround your garden unobtrusively.

Or maybe get a dog? Sure they might dig, but this can be curbed with proper training but surely they would hunt/frighten any deer away? (Well maybe not a chihuahua, .....something larger perhaps?)

My garden is MY piece of Paradise. I work hard on it, spend lots of money on it, so no four-legged uninvited intruder is about to destroy it!

[ Edited by TIKIGIKI on 2023-01-21 19:54:35 ]