Making cages to keep animals away from plants

[MJPassion]

Glad I discovered this thread before attempting my outdoor project. Think I'll start my Lowryder yungins off in a rabbit cage to keep critters out. By the time they start flowering hopefully they'll be less appealing to rabbits, possums, armadillos & other small creatures in the area.

For insects I have Seven Dust, but will only use that EARLY in the grow if there's an acute insect infestation. Not too keen about using that on my plants but I hear it works so I can always just do a thorough flush before harvesting. Other natural repellent ideas I can use as a first-line of defense: human hair, human urine, soap shavings, aluminum foil around stalk (for slugs), garlic, sharp spikes & various essential oils. (This is not a guerilla grow in some forest but we do have a plethora of bugs & small critters like rabbits & gophers).

No deer, thank goodness, and no wild boars this close to where I'll be planting! Some of y'all have it ROUGH!

I would do all I could to avoid using seven dust as well as anything similar to it.
If you must use dust, go to the ag store & purchase some diatomaceous earth.

 

[Anne_Fetamine]

^Thanks! It's definitely not my fave choice being a chemical pesticide & all... Perhaps just putting it around the surrounding area--not on my actual plant--would be sufficient. I'd try homemade sprays made from essential oils, garlic & other repellents before I'd reach for the "hard stuff". I only have access to what I can buy online w/ Paypal but have heard good things about diatomaceous earth from many sources so will look into that.

But hopefully I won't need anything like that since I'm doing an autoflower that finishes so quickly. IDK whether aphids & similar pests are a big problem here but I imagine they probably are. Tons of nasty little bugs in this area.

 

[HIMALAYAN GANJA]

hello anne.... can you eleborate on the aluminium foil around stls for slugs??? how does that deter slugs? i have lots of slugs to deal with so i ask

 

[CrushnYuba]

Do people really have that much of a problem with animals?
I don't have fencing in any of my gardens. I use liquid fence For deer at the beginning of the year. Once mid veg sometimes. Smells terrible but Not toxic.

For veggies, nothing is quicker and cheaper then a couple t posts or u posts and a roll of plastic deer fence.

 

[Rory Borealis]

It depends on your region. My area now has coyote, they will dig up soil if they smell anything that is similar to blood meal. Raccoons were a big problem several years ago. You really have to ask your self...How determined are you to keep your crop? Chicken wire and posts have worked the best for my applications. I urinate in a circle around the crops, just to let the animals know.

 

[f-e]

The 25mm mesh guards let mice straight in, and the rabbits deformed them unless time was taken to add 3 sticks. Using 15mm mesh stopped the mice and uses a lot more metal. We were able to bury the guards ~60mm and forget sticks. Though occasionally a horizontal stick below ground level makes a good anchor. The fastening needs to be good at ground level, as any weakness is an invitation to exploit it.

Plastic guards made from bottles or sign board protect well when 200mm is enough. That's mice sorted. Rabbits are usually stopped with 600mm guards. Hares ~750mm. Taller grazers need 1200mm. Past that and your building something. Searching for tree guards might give a better idea than my distant memories though.


I don't actually like wire. I sprayed the rolls and they did about vanish from sight. Winning the stealth award for sure. My experience with them is bad though. Cut pieces are sharp and snag on everything. You can't slot one within another easily, Or put them in a polyester bag. To move them on/off site you have to flatten them, and straighten. Ours went downhill quickly. Digging them in, caused them to get rooted in. They pulled out, but it stretched them. A few remain on a secure site, but most have been retired.

I like plastic. It's the chosen material of professionals in my country. You can make them offsite, to stack like Russian dolls. Most backpacks take two rolls. Enough pop-up shelters for 10-20 individual plants. Then you bring them home for winter, and repeat. They don't cost twice as much, but seem to be lasting forever. Taking very little time to deploy each year.

Plant health differences between protection styles is a thing. It took a few years to notice, then a couple saying 'do you notice' before settling on black plastic without windows. The windows might actually be better at first, but dirt accumulation and whitening of the thin material, had us poking them out before ever seeing any benefit from them. We got a selection that had popped off in progressive afforestation. Brown, green and black. Some with windows. Plus our chicken wire. Just what we could find to begin with. The black open mesh has been much better than wire(almost inseparable from dark green though). We have a few ideas why. The cossetting windbreak may keep a little more of the plants own humidity effects around. Temperature peaks may be greater, so on cold days they may do something, when others don't. More of the suns thermal radiation is caught in close proximity to the plant. This supposedly warmer air could have ground warming effects. I dunno. But they get a better start and out of the black tubes first. I thought about clear food wrap to make an open top greenhouse, but I'm trying to make this easy and food wrap is plastic waste.

I wouldn't use plastic protection in a disposable situation. The cost is too great for the pocket and environment. 50 meter rolls are around $50 and make perhaps 70 shelters. You can't buy less easily. Not the proper stuff, that's UV proof and has the smooth top edge. I got quite a bit more than I needed, but It's one of my better, yet overlooked, buys.

 

[f-e]

Are yes.. the chimney effect. The warmer column of air in the tube will want to rise out. Pulling ground level air in and upwards. A humidity advantage perhaps. It's ages since the choice was made. Years of watching plastic do better.

 

[St. Phatty]

Do people really have that much of a problem with animals?
I don't have fencing in any of my gardens. I use liquid fence For deer at the beginning of the year. Once mid veg sometimes. Smells terrible but Not toxic.

For veggies, nothing is quicker and cheaper then a couple t posts or u posts and a roll of plastic deer fence.

I do. All my winter lettuce is in cages, which I was able to slowly peel back once the rains started, though I still risk an over-night wipe-out from a deer.

Indoors, it's worse ! Got some seedlings, 7 flats of seedlings each with a wire mesh cover.

I want to transplant - indoors under LED's - but have to make special new covers to keep the cats off the transplanted seedlings !

Indoor cats + me letting the birds be inside after our November mountain lion visit = ANIMAL FARM.

Big Rooster outdoors starts crowing around 4 AM. Little Silkie Rooster indoors picks up the chorus & carries it. = EAR-PLUGS - a big box of machinist ear-plugs next to the bed in the Master Bedroom.

 

[f-e]

A liquid fence is helpful. I poured my own pee along an open boundary the neighbours dog was crossing to foul in my yard. Instant result. On site, I will try and make good use of any pee break I need. I don't see a before and after result, but my pee smells of many meats. I'm a frequently visiting predator, and that has to mean something.

Venison steak? Maybe a mince and pee tea? They won't be impressed.


I have used Grazers on things to put out. Each time the vermin have had a bad year though, so no conclusive result. Nothing sprayed has been seriously hit though. Just nibbled at, then left.

I might be drifting a bit far off topic now. Enough

 

[aridbud]

hello anne.... can you eleborate on the aluminium foil around stls for slugs??? how does that deter slugs? i have lots of slugs to deal with so i ask

If you take a small container like a tuna tin, fill it with beer, and set it on the ground. The slugs will be attracted to the beer, go for a sip, fall in and drown. Don't submerge the top of the tin even with the soil level or you might also kill ground beetles which eat slugs. Keep rims at least 1″ above soil level.

 

[marmarb]

I haven't had any deer issues but I know they have gone near my plots in the past so this yr I'm going to cage them up just to be safe

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Deer, rabbits and a family of raccoons last year all but wiped me out three weeks after planting so you can be sure I'm caging this year. The only plants that did survive were caged.

 

[JDubsocal]

Not sure if the pic will come thru but I build cages to keep animals, bugs, and unwanted people out of my plants.complete with locking door.

 

[JDubsocal]

 

[JDubsocal]

From last year

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I won't be making 1000 of those.

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

The chicken wire cages I make do fine to keep away deer, but I've had bears come by and trample them multiple times.

Is there anything to keep bears off?

 

[wvkindbud38]

You guys should give that deer and rabbit repellent from Wal-Mart a try. I swear I spray that and deers walk past them, all summer last yr they never touched nothing. And I've got plants deer are always walking past this year. I'm not saying don't built cages, maybe try it and save yourself some work. It works great around here for these deers, you can get a gal for like 20$.

 

[Rory Borealis]

The chicken wire cages I make do fine to keep away deer, but I've had bears come by and trample them multiple times.

Is there anything to keep bears off?

A bear is a mauling animal. It uses its weight and brute strength. Bear traps are the only thing to keep them away. A strong poison or chemical would be the second best thing to deter a creature of that size.


There really aren't many "organic" options for dealing with bears. Violence is really the only solution in THAT situation.

 

[Rory Borealis]

Raccoons have attempted to dig into some of my cages, this season. Fortunately, I buried the half of the cage(5ft tall) below the surface, the other half above. Upon recently visiting the site, I saw paw marks in the dirt where a raccoon attempted to dig its way in.