Worst Garden Pest

Have to say that in all our years of gardening, we haven't had hardly any bug problems, a few slugs and japanese beetles, one year some kind of black fungus got some of the corn -alot of rain that year! Guess we have been lucky.

Our biggest pest problem is GROUNDHOGS ! It started a few years ago. 2 years ago, they decimated the brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli, so now we fence the garden. They ate some of my flowers. We have tried numerous countermeasures. My husband read they don't like light, so he drilled small holes through the floor of the shed and put lights down there, Apparently, they like whatever radio station is on whether it's talk radio, hip hop, punk, rock or something equally annoying. My husband is quite proficient in trapping them and he takes them for a ride and then releases them. Sometimes they sit up in the rear yard with their middle fingers extended as they eat the tomatoes. That's when my husband gets really mad.....

- lol. I haven't had any in my yard (though I do have a bunch of chipmunks). I'm fond of them (since I don't have first-hand experience of them destroying my garden); last spring a mama groundhog at work had babies, and we had a riot watching them grow up and frolic.

The beauty of SFG is that you can put hardware mesh in the bottom of the box (then weed cloth on top of that) AND you can make critter cages to protect above ground. OR perhaps table top boxes would be the way to go for you.

bbusacca wrote:Have to say that in all our years of gardening, we haven't had hardly any bug problems, a few slugs and japanese beetles, one year some kind of black fungus got some of the corn -alot of rain that year! Guess we have been lucky.

Our biggest pest problem is GROUNDHOGS ! It started a few years ago. 2 years ago, they decimated the brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli, so now we fence the garden. They ate some of my flowers. We have tried numerous countermeasures. My husband read they don't like light, so he drilled small holes through the floor of the shed and put lights down there, Apparently, they like whatever radio station is on whether it's talk radio, hip hop, punk, rock or something equally annoying. My husband is quite proficient in trapping them and he takes them for a ride and then releases them. Sometimes they sit up in the rear yard with their middle fingers extended as they eat the tomatoes. That's when my husband gets really mad.....

The black fungus that infected your corn was corn smut.

In Mexico it is known as huitlacoche and is quite edible and considered something of a delicacy there (being refereed to as the Mexican "Truffle").

It become a fairly trendy ingredient at high end Mexican restaurants in the United States like Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill.

Just goes to show you one persons "pest" can be another s gourmet delight!

For me, the worst garden pest was a vole infestation 2 years ago. I discovered something was eating my tomatoes before I could pick them. The green tomatoes were being eaten as well. I set a trap and caught a vole.
After that, I bought about 8 more traps and set them around my tomato plants. I wound up catching around 2 dozen.

Kim- thanks for the suggestion about the mesh under the box, will definitely do that ! Last year, we were more successful with the fencing, having sunk it down into the ground;we only had 2 breaches by the groundhog, those areas were reinforced. However, the tomatoes were so prolific last year that they would start hanging over the fence and the groundhogs would just sit there and eat them. Little buggers !

I did tabletop containers for my mini gem Romaine last year and had no problems, even tucked a few in between some basil in the garden for any rabbits.

TTT - we had a vole problem a few years ago in the yard, someone told us to put juicyfruit gum (in the yellow package) down the holes, they don't like it, and it seems to have worked because we haven't had a problem since.

I tried the juicyfruit gum trick but quite honestly, I wanted to see them dead so I know I got them.

I hear ya !!

what part of NJ are you from bbusacca? I do a lot of work in the Plainfield area

TTT,

Burlington County area, near the Rancocas Creek and a few miles from the Delaware River.

bbusacca wrote:TTT,

Burlington County area, near the Rancocas Creek and a few miles from the Delaware River.

I used to live over there. Just across the river now though in PA. Happy Gardening!

ok bbusacca....that's south of the area that I work in.

The neighborhood CATS!!!!

Luci - some folks stick plastic forks in the MM with the tines pointed up...they say it keeps the cats from digging/lying in the mix....

Luci Dawson wrote:The neighborhood CATS!!!!

I second that! Except they're my own cats

nKedrOoStEr wrote:

Luci Dawson wrote:The neighborhood CATS!!!!

I second that! Except they're my own cats

Hey....I had a cat stuck behind my compost bin the other day.

UnderTheBlackWalnut wrote:Luci - some folks stick plastic forks in the MM with the tines pointed up...they say it keeps the cats from digging/lying in the mix....

Thanks for the tip...I'll definitely try that! And it might also work for my little 20# dog who thinks she's a cross between a stump puller and a backhoe in my ornamentals!!!

In previous years, rabbits were always destructive. They'd eat certain plants. They would chew down an entire row of snapdragons(never eating them just biting them in half), and they would feast on tulips, and pansies if I planted them.

This year I bought a bottle of rabbit repellent to spread around the tulips. So far it's working well. So well that none of my tulips (or crocuses) haven't been touched at all. I might even attempt to plant pansies around my house and sprinkle the repellent on them.

for me it is the unleashed dogs well I don't blame them as much as their owners. Yesterday I came home from my nights work to find my strawberries neatly picked from the vines. As the were there at 11pm when I went to work I'm guessing rats? If it were coons they would not have made such a delicate job of it. Besides the coons perfer trash bless them.

I scared a rabbit in my yard yesterday. I was sitting quietly outside between garden tasks and I guess the rabbit didn't know I was there. When I stood up it couldn't decide it first which way to go.

Kay

walshevak wrote:I scared a rabbit in my yard yesterday. I was sitting quietly outside between garden tasks and I guess the rabbit didn't know I was there. When I stood up it couldn't decide it first which way to go.

Kay

Shoulda directed him into your roasting pan

+1 " BRING ME MY Hasenpfeffer!!!!!!!"

shannon1 wrote:+1 " BRING ME MY Hasenpfeffer!!!!!!!"

That's a good one.

I've eaten rabbit before. It's pretty tasty.

Without a doubt, my most despised pest for the yard or garden. They're nasty mean, evil, destructive, persistent... and nearly impossible to get rid of. Even the game wardens won't come for them if you trap them in those humane traps.

curio wrote:Without a doubt, my most despised pest for the yard or garden. They're nasty mean, evil, destructive, persistent... and nearly impossible to get rid of. Even the game wardens won't come for them if you trap them in those humane traps.

I live in town but at the end of a dead end street that buts up against a small woodland brimming with coons. They are city coons and would rather raid trash cans, but would now and again raid my garden too. I don't put any trash out until the morning of collection and read somewhere often it is the moisture they are really after so I make sure there is at least one bucket of water. They were after the water alright, they leave their muddy foot prints everywhere but no crop damage. Since then the only trouble they caused is when I buried some banana for my worms. I won't do that again. Hope that helps.