Humane Pest Control For Critters in Ornamental Landscapes

This page is a general DIY guide that will help you prevent and control various wildlife from visiting your garden or ornamental landscapes through our recommended products and tips. When following the directions on the product labels, local and state laws are still present and must be followed. It is recommended for homeowners to visit with their local animal control office or state website to visit proper rules and regulations associated with the control of listed wildlife.

Those of us who care for animals might find the subject of animal control rather difficult. While having a garden or ornamental landscape infested with raccoon, squirrels, rabbits, or deers is never ideal. Homeowners do not exactly relish the thought of the pest suffering.

Unfortunately, dealing with pests is a natural part of being a plant owner. Even expert gardeners come face to face with the previously mentioned pests. Humane pest control might be your go-to method for controlling unwanted critters. This method of pest control is an alternative that slowly repels wildlife without harm and the aid of toxic chemicals. However, one thing to remember with humane pest control is patience as it can take repeated efforts or time to fully manage infestation.

This DIY guide will help you better understand how to effectively control pest populations so your garden and ornamental landscape can grow effectively. Following the links to each pest control guide and using the recommended tips and products is an essential part of your garden or ornamental garden maintenance program.

Remove Food Sources

Many items you have around your home, especially your garden or ornamental landscape can encourage animals to invade. Often the best, first course of action to take is to secure food sources to decrease competitive food sites and increase the likelihood of other products being used.

For animals such as deer's, rabbits, and squirrels you will need to control the height of vegetation and fallen plant debris to deter food sources. You can do this by mowing when turf reaches a height of 3 inches and pruning over-grown plant foliage.

Pests such as raccoons are omnivorous, meaning they can feast on plants or foods like pet food, eggs, and other contents within your trash can. Secure the lid of your outdoor garbage can and remove any unfinished pet food to prevent raccoons from visiting these areas.

Other food sources like your garden and ornamental foliage, use chicken coop wiring to wrap around the entire plant. Make sure to provide enough space for the leaves and branches to not meet the sides of the wiring otherwise pests can still reach these foliage.

Trapping

Once all competing food sources have been eliminated or properly secured you can begin to set out humane traps. Solutions Humane Live Animal Trap is a ready to use trap that can be used to safely trap and relocate small to large pests like raccoons, squirrels, or rabbits. To contain squirrels, we recommend using a small humane trap and for raccoons and rabbits use a medium or large size trap.

Determine areas where pests are frequently traveling or visiting. Once these areas are found, you will need to place a bait inside the trap. For squirrels, we recommend using peanut butter, sunflower seeds, nuts, and apples. For raccoons, you will want to use a combination of high aroma goods like marshmallows, wet cat food, eggs, and bacon. Rabbits are very wary, so the best thing to do is to place these traps in the pathways most used for rabbits.

Be sure to place your Solutions Humane Live Animal Trap on a flat, even surface. It is important to note that you will want to place your trap in an area that has shade or not in direct, constant sunlight. Trapped animals can perish within a few hours if left too long in the sun without escape.

To set the Solutions Humane Live Animal Trap, push down the trap door lock and lift the cage door. Keep the traps cage door lifted while pulling the trigger arm forward to set it. To tell if the trap is set, the hook at the front of the cage should be holding onto the front cage door and remain open without you holding onto it.

Carefully place the bait at the far end of the trap behind the trigger plate so that when the animal feeds it is more likely to trigger the door of the cage to close.

Install Fencing

Consider installing fencing for large sections of gardens or ornamental landscape areas. Pests such as deer can easily travel to and from these areas by jumping as high as 8 feet.

A simple wood or metal fence built around the perimeter of your garden or ornamental landscape can solve this issue. With a fence in place, these pests will discover the area is impassible leading to animals avoiding these areas. When these fences are built to keep animals out, you will still need to follow your local, state, and neighborhood guidelines.

To keep deer's out of gardens and landscape areas, your fence will need to be as high as 8 feet or more. Deer along with other types of pests can go underneath the fence so you will need to space the wiring or materials no more than 2 inches apart nor have any gaps. Depending on your state, these measurements could vary.

Repellents

Using a repellent can make pest control slightly easier. Repellents are designed to repel pests by taste or odor and are designed to remove pests without harming them. Of course, repellents are most effective when used with other integrated pest management practices.

Animal Stopper Granular Repellent is recommended for raccoon and rabbit control, this granular product will repel these pests for up to 30 days from treated areas. Using gloves, liberally sprinkle granules directly from container or using a spreader. Perform a barrier treatment around area to be protected such as garden plants and flower beds. 

To control squirrels, a product like Squirrel Stopper Aerosol Repellent would work best. Shake the can well before spraying. Spray a fine mist to dens, tunnels, entries made by squirrels and chipmunks until it is completely covered, but not to the point of runoff. Once spraying is complete, allow 20 minutes to pass for treated areas to dry.

For deer control, we recommend using repellents like Deer Stopper Repellent Concentrate. This non-toxic granular product can invoke a fear response to this pest with its natural ingredients like blood meal 42%, which is often associated with death for a deer. Deer Stopper Repellent Concentrate can be applied with a handheld or backpack sprayer. 

Open your sprayer tank lid and mix one part concentrate with nine parts water will make 2.5 gallons of ready to use material (13 oz. will make one gallon of product). Once your concentrate is ready, you apply a fine mist to the top and bottom of desired plant leaves until thoroughly covered, but not to the point of runoff. When using near edible crops, apply a perimeter application.

Key Takeaways

What is Humane Pest Control?

• Humane pest control is a professional or DIY service that humanely removes nuisance wildlife from your property without harming or killing the pest.

How to Humanely Control Pests Without Harming the Environment?

• When it comes to humane control products, we recommend using a repellent. Each product comes as a granular formulation formulated with natural ingredients that repels the target animal through taste and smell without lasting permanent effects on the pests.

How to Make Humane Animal Traps More Effective

• We recommend first removing competitive food sources for the animal such as mowing fallen or excessive plant growth, pruning overgrown or dense foliage, securing lids on outdoor trash cans, and placing wiring around desired foliage.