By Wally Peck
Beltrami County Master Gardener
One thing that gardeners notice this time of year is how the eating habits of local wildlife change. You may go out one morning and find all the new shoots on your apple tree missing on the lower part of your tree. I noticed the nice green leaves on our strawberries had been surgically removed in the middle of the night.
Deer, rabbits, mice and others change their eating habits this time of year and it is a constant battle to stay on hop ahead of them. There are three things you can do now to minimize damage this fall and winter. They include barriers, repellents, and hygiene.
One of the most severe injuries to a shrub or small tree is girdling of the trunk by mice or rabbits. The plant will die the following spring if the bark and cambium layer is eaten all around the trunk. This is an easy one to prevent by making a cylinder of hardware cloth that fits loosely around the trunk. One-quarter or one-half inch mesh works the best for mice, larger is OK if rabbits are your nemesis. Make sure it is tall enough to prevent the critters from standing on top of the snow and eating from there! There are also commercially available tree sleeves that do the trick as well.
We have arbor vitae and cedars that require a more substantial barrier from the deer that think they are wintertime candy. Plastic snow fence has served us well for many years now. Available in either orange or black, it is lightweight and easy to wrap around your favorite bush or tree. Keep in mind that a deer will stand on its hind legs to get at their favorite food when hungry so placement is important.
A barrier that does not seem like one at all is the use of mono filament fish line placed about chest high to a deer around a bed you do not want them in. Gardeners have used this method with varied success. If you try it, find a heavier mono filament, 20 lb. or so and use electric fence posts as support. Placing chicken netting over a bulb-planting area can keep critters from digging them up.
There are a number of animal repellents on the market that work well for many people. We have used Plantskydd® for many years. We apply in the fall on raspberries, cedars, fruit trees and other plants that deer and rabbits seem to enjoy. Rather than spraying which is a little unpleasant, we mix it up and apply by dipping a brush into the mixture and shaking it on the branches. There are a number of other brands available including Liquid Fence®, Deer Guard®, and others. Relying on these alone may not be a good strategy for a prize specimen.
Good hygiene goes a long way to prevent much of the damage that occurs to shrubs and young fruit trees from mice and voles. These critters tunnel under the snow in winter looking for long grass to munch on. If you pull or cut the grass underneath shrubs and trees before winter, they tend to stop there and stay in the longer grass. We found this out the hard way by losing a number of sand cherries to mouse girdling.
