Thank you so much to Debbie for sharing this recipe from a friend.

PROTECTING YOUR GARDEN
This is a Great recipe for protecting your garden. And believe me it works. A kind gardener
gave me this recipe when I first started gardening. This was her post to me:

“Debbie, my sister swears by the following recipe to keep away squirrels, moles, mice, racoons, possums, etc. from her garden. She has used it for years.

I bet it works for geese and snakes too. The dogs go around my garden now. It doesn’t hurt the animals, but it does keep them out. It’s like an electric fence . They go up to it and turn around

Into an old milk jug add:

2 cups water
3/4 Tbsp ground cayenne pepper
1/3 Small bottle of hot tabasco sauce
1 Tbsp Caster Oil
Squirt of liquid dishwashing detergent (Dawn or any other)
Shake everything well

Pour on plants or the ground where bulbs are planted. It doesn't harm plants or environment. You can mix bottles ahead of time and store as long as you wish.

Also, do not try putting it in a sprayer. The castor oil and soap makes it too thick to come out of a sprayer.

Probably the best way to use it is to just pour it out of the bottle or jug, or if you have an old watering can that you can drill the holes bigger in it, that would be ideal.

For birdseeds, another trick that I use (my DS gave it to me) is to put cayenne pepper and tabasco sauce in a big plastic baggie. Shake well. Then throw in bird seeds and shake. Doesn't hurt birds and they don't even notice the hotness, yet keeps away mice, raccoons, etc. I especially like this because it doesn't draw rats/mice when cracked seeds fall to the ground.

Very Good....

Thanks Lynn - this is a great forum!

I don't know why I didn't start this long ago. I hate hunting through threads trying to find a helpful hint.

Great idea - nice to have one place to look!

I just found this Lynn. Thanks so much for me to have a place to link others to, in times of stress, uh, I mean pest.

Is that your dog? He (or she) is precious!

You are so welcome Debbie.
That's Nikki she tries really hard to keep the pest away, but it's difficult since she is an indoor dog most of the time. She will not tolerate feathered or furry things in her yard. In that picture she just saw a bird land in the yard on the other side of the creek.

Here are a couple more things to help with birds and squirrels.
Owls: These have to be moved every couple of days to remain effective. But I am finding that they work really well if I move them around the beds.
I bought these online, but garden centers may carry them, I just don't have any close by. The holographic one seems to work better, probably because of the movement and reflecting colors.

Rubber Snakes: Have really worked well for me. Again, the trick is moving them around the beds. Wish I could find a nice gopher snake one.

I would have a heart attack if I came upon one of those snakes!

I made sure to let my DH know they were out there. I told him so he wouldn't have a heart attach or in a panic chop them into little pieces.
The birds must feel the same way, they have not bothered the baby semps since I put the snakes out there.

After literally years of my semps getting dug up by a critter nearly every night, I have finally found the ultimate in pest control and have won the battle!!! I’ve tried fences, mouse traps, live traps, glue traps, repellents (liquid, blood-based, pellets, powder), shiny objects (aluminum pans, bright metallic strung beads), plastic snakes and poison. Nothing phased this destructive monster. Then last weekend at our local Ace Hardware store I came across this ultrasonic heavy duty pest repeller. Since the day I plugged it in, I haven’t had one single semp dug up!! It’s a miracle!!! (I believe the culprits are voles, since I have seen them around our yard.)

It works by emitting quiet ultrasonic sounds that disrupt the pests’ habitat and affects their feeding and communication habits so they leave. It has a bunch of different settings that work on different pests: Mice, rats, small rodents, bats, spiders, insects/bugs, fleas, flies, ticks, cockroaches, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, opossum. And it has a range of 2,000 – 3,500 sq. ft., depending on the setting you use. (They also sell bird repellers.)

It’s not cheap, but was worth every penny to me. I got the Transonic Pro model. Here is the link. This link shows the price at $95, but I paid $45. http://www.bird-x.com/transoni...

So when everything else fails, I really recommend one of these. I do the happy dance every morning when I find all my plants where they belong!

I might need that one soon - I've spotted rabbits right in the yard! Bracken is loud and obnoxious, but I doubt if he's fast enough to catch them. My little terrier used to catch them, and eat them - and they were as big as her!

I scared a baby rabbit out of hiding in the garden last night. It was only about 6" long. I looked around but didn't find any nests, so I hope it was just passing through, although that's pretty small to be out on it's own. Those terriers are fiesty little dogs!

Mine found a bunny nest last Monday. I won't go into detail.
Wonder if it will work on cats. I do see they have one that will work on birds.
Chris, do you have a photo of a vole to post in your above post? Or any pest?

This one won't work on cats or dogs, but I read in their testimonials that one of them does. I'll work on finding a pest picture to post too.

Watching for the pest picture. : )

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the pesky chipmunk in the greenhouse caught in the rat trap. I just couldn't bring myself to take a photo of it...

I always feel so bad about doing the furry creatures in. Like the tiny bunnies that are native to our area. They are very small and very cute, but very destructive. The dogs keep them at bay.