An infestation of rodents is a gardener’s greatest nightmare. Crop-eating, poop-strewing, disease-spreading, and elusive, they can be found lurking among the most inconspicuous of places. Furthermore, their rate of reproduction is terrifying. The gestation period of a rat is only three weeks. A female can have up to 14 offspring in one litter and might do so as many as ten times a year.
What’s more, that’s just one single rodent. Please take prompt action to eliminate any rodents you find in your garden. Here are some methods for preventing rodents from damaging your garden:
Remove Their Shelter
Mice and rats often construct their nests in wood heaps, brush piles, or thick grass. Maintain a neatly mowed lawn all during the growing season. Don’t just toss your dead plants into a mess next to your garden; instead, bag them up and throw them away. Repeatedly rearranging wood piles is a good idea. If you have a problem with mice in your compost pile, you should make the pile as undesirable as possible to rodents. Turn the compost off once a week and shower it with water from the garden hose.
Eliminate Their Food Sources
If you notice that rodents are frequenting your garden because of the bird feeders, you may remove them for a short period (say, two weeks) to send the message that the free food source is no longer available. Fill your feeder slowly and carefully to avoid spills, and keep your bird seed in sealed metal containers that rats can’t gnaw through.
Get A Cat
It’s no secret that felines delight in the hunt for rodents. Having an outside cat will eliminate your mouse problem without any effort on your part. Self-sufficiency is one of the cats’ many endearing qualities. You’re OK to go as long as you provide enough care for the cat (including feeding, watering, and shelter) and have had it spayed or neutered.
Set Up Fences
Robust barriers help prevent gophers from damaging a garden. In addition to avoiding gophers, a fence can deter rabbits from entering the yard. Build a wall around your garden using hardware cloth a quarter of an inch in thickness. The hardware cloth will stop any gophers from tunneling further under the lawn.
Improve Sanitation Near Your Garden
Remember to clean your trash and recycling cans if you keep them close to your garden. Once a week, spray them thoroughly with the hose and wash them from the inside out with some standard household cleanser. The dumpsters’ lingering odors or bits of discarded food may be drawing vermin into the yard.
Conclusion
If things get really bad, the best thing to do is hire a pest professional. Try to get help from Tornado Pest Control LLC provides pest control, lawn care, and pressure washing services. Our experts have experience dealing with problems like weeds, pests, disease, and drought—so you can relax knowing we’ve got your yard under control! Call now for a free quote!
