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Dealing with Unwanted Garden Visitors

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June 27, 2019 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

When you aim to grow food outside, it is highly likely that you will get some garden visitors. Of course, some of those will be wanted such spiders that eat flies, and ladybugs that eat aphids. However, you are likely to get some that aren’t so desirable as well, including raccoons, rats, slugs, and the like. Luckily, you don’t have to put up with unwanted garden guests. In fact, you can find out how to deal with them in my post below. 

Dealing with raccoons 

OK, so there is plenty of social media evidence out there that make raccoons look pretty darn cute. However, a domesticated raccoon free of disease is a very different animal to one that lives in the wild and has all its wild instincts still intact. 

In fact, having a problem with raccoons on your farm or homestead can result in all sorts of issues including damage to buildings, disease, and even digging up of vegetable beds as they seek to get to the grubs living in the soil. Luckily, if you do find yourself with a raccoon infestation, there are some steps you can take. 

One of these is to browse animal control specialists online that work in your area to see if they have the faculties for handing raccoons. This usually involves capturing them and taking them off of your property. Additionally, you may wish to try making sure any trash bins are covered so these animals can’t get in. Using cayenne pepper to discourage them is also a tremendous organic hack that can help. 

Dealing with rats 

Just like raccoons, rats on your homestead or farm are also bad news. Of course, the primary concern here is that rats are known to be carriers of all sorts of nasty diseases that can be incredibly harmful to humans. 

With that in mind, identifying that you have a rat problem and getting rid of it as quickly as possible is essential. One way to do this is to use natural substances like peppermint oil or mothballs as a repellent, placing them around the areas most heavily used by the rodents. 

You may even want to look into using traps, many of which are now humane, so you can catch the animals and then take them far away from your property. 

Dealing with slugs 

Lastly, for any farm or homestead, an infestation of bugs like slugs can be devastating. This because they tend to help themselves to your precious crops, ruining them in the process. The good news is that slugs do have a weakness that any homesteader can exploit, and it’s copper. 

By using copper tape or even pennies to create a barrier in between the slugs and your plants, you can stop them munching through the crops intended for sale or your own use. The best thing about this method is that it does not require the use of nasty chemical sprays either, so it won’t affect the status of your organic crops. 

Filed Under: HOME & HOMESTEADTagged With: GARDENING

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Hi, I’m Kristi!

A little about me….For the past 6 years, we have lived on a scant acre in Southern California. I am the wife of the greatest guy ever….also a veteran ex-homeschooling mom of 3, grandma of 1, and fur mom of many!

Besides writing, my hobbies are gardening, herbs, crafting, scratch cooking, food preservation, goat breeding, and teaching all of these things here, to you, on Stone Family Farmstead’s website.


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