Fend Off Four-Legged Foes From Your Garden

By Bobbex, Inc.
Images courtesy of Bobbex, Inc.

Pretty blooms and green grass aren't the only signs that it's summertime. Families of groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels and other 4-legged pesky animals will invade your glorious garden, each ready to pounce and plunder, digging burrows where they're not wanted, and devouring your prized plantings.

But these creatures don't have to be the enemy of our gardens, and trapping them won't solve the problem. As a rule of thumb, it is far better to prevent wildlife damage than to wait until it occurs and try to combat it. This summer, Bobbex can help you protect your beautiful backyard with all-natural animal repellents. The products are all easily applied in ready-to-use spray bottles. They work by smell and taste, repelling pesky critters such as rabbits, groundhogs, chipmunks, squirrels, and voles from your backyard. Usable in any weather, they won't burn plants or wash off, and are effective for 30 days.

Bobbex-R is all natural, environmentally friendly, safe for humans and pets and all wildlife including animals, birds and aquatic creatures. It's proven effective at protecting ornamental plantings from small, four-legged garden critters. In testing by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station the product – which works through smell and taste aversion – received a 100 percent efficacy rating.

The ingredients in Bobbex-R are actually good for plants, and help protect plantings during reduced water conditions that hinder a plant's ability to absorb moisture. Bobbex-R's "coating effect" enhances moisture-retention, increasing a plant's chance of survival during hot, dry summer periods.

Bobbex R can even be used as a bulb dip to deter underground damage, or spray it at the entrances to burrows to prevent animals from re-entering.

What's eating your garden?

1. Groundhogs: During spring, summer and early fall, Marota monax, also known as the woodchuck, whistlepig or groundhog, has one goal: to eat as much as possible, which puts him on a collision course within your garden.

Groundhogs are tunnel-boring animals that can cause damage to your garden in two ways. First, they eat vegetables, attacking both root crops and above ground crops. A second problem with tunneling rodents is the mass disruption of root systems, which weakens and can even kill plants.

2. Rabbits: These furry, fluffy creatures seem to multiply at the advent of every spring. They come out to feed overnight and in the predawn/dawn hours. Rabbits are accountable for severe damage to woody plants in your home landscape. The damage can be identified by the characteristic appearance of gnawing on older woody growth and the clean-cut, angled clipping of young stems. Distinctive round droppings in the immediate area are a sign of their presence. 

3. Squirrels and chipmunks: These cute, furry, funny creatures can be quite destructive when it comes to your garden and landscape. Both ground squirrels and chipmunks are burrowing animals. Their burrow entrances are always open, unlike those of pocket gophers who plug theirs with soil.

Ground squirrels and chipmunks can be seen foraging for food during the day. In nature, they feed on green leafy material during the summer and switch to seeds and grains during the fall and winter. One of the biggest complaints about squirrels and chipmunks is their attraction to wild bird feeders. They not only devour the feed, they scare the birds away. (Try using baffles to thwart squirrels at bird feeders.)

For most animals, scent and taste are the primary senses that attract them to food sources. If you disrupt the animal's sense of smell and taste you have won the battle against the constant parade of critters in your landscape. Visit www.bobbex.com for more information on safe, effective animal repellents.

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