Wacky ways to stop pests!

[Nikki Arnold]

Crazy scarecrows, strings of CDs, elaborate fences and frames...we know just how creative (and slightly obsessive) us GYO-ers can get when it comes to pest control!

As the warmer weather approaches and activity on the lottie increases, we thought it might be fun to discuss some of the most innovative (and wacky) examples of pest control that you've come across on the allotment site, and divulge your own DIY deterrents!

Your comments may be edited and published in the April issue of Grow Your Own.

[solway cropper]

I sit in the sun with my air pistol and shoot the greenfly.

[super trowel]

Cd is to high tech for me!
I have gone down the road of the old cassette tape.
I get a length of cassette tape and tie each end to a bamboo cane.
Stretch out and stake in to the ground.
I scatter a few of these up the plot at different heights and different lengths.
Basically when the wind blows the tape makes a buzzing noise.
In theory its to stop the old birds, but I think they kind of get used to it.

[lottie dolly]

1 or 2 on our site have council bin bags flying in the wind,it makes a little rustle ,1 even had a metal thing hanging up and it clanked like mad in the wind,
myself,last 2 years recycled some yellow hose pipe,painted different shapes on a few strips aprox.,2.5 inch long,stuck a lbit of bamboo in 1 end ,and hay presto a snake lookalike,i had read somewhere that some birds are put of by them,i was given a big drum of green florestry ribbon,so some of it was used to make flapabout kite strips,have tried cd's in the past,i don't think anything realy works,yet we all must try these things out,if nothing else they brighten up the plot,
Last year we thought about a bird kite on a long pole,we were tolled by the seeler that a lot of peeps had them for this,but the wildlife simply get used to it,birds only seem scared away when thwer is sudden movement or and noise,nets are your answer,

[veggiechicken]

At a friend's party, there were helium filled, parrot shaped, foil balloons, floating above the guests' heads. At the end of the party, I "borrowed" them and walked home with a flock of parrots over my head! Fortunately it was quite late! Next day, they were floating over my soft fruit and giving the real birds a lot of grief!

[Bexy]

only pests i have had are sab suckin little wee bugs and i just spray with washin liquid and water in a spray bottle....

[kfan]

My biggest problem is my dog who pulls out carrots, carefully eats fruit from the bushes, digs out bulbs & potatoes, snacks on salads and scares away birds to have some tomatoes. So I (please don't call the SSPCA) scare her off with the hose form my veg and fruit when voice commands such as a desperate 'leave it' don't work... obviously she is a Labrador....

(not to mention my friends collie x who comes to stay every now and then who likes to dig holes in the ground no matter if there are actually plants or veggies growing there, and she chases the poor birds which are trying hard to get rid of the snails for me)

[VirginVegGrower]

I'm trying to be organic so don't like to spray. I tend to live and let live a bit on insects. If it's really bad then they might just get a squirt of soapy water. Birds on the other hand, I net against. It's the only way.

[Snadger]

I'm at a loss! Rats nibbled my swede crop last year so I'm looking for a way to grow them 'rat free' this.
Gotta feeling that I am going to need something really quite wacky to foil them, but I know not what?

[singleseeder]

I'm at a loss! Rats nibbled my swede crop last year so I'm looking for a way to grow them 'rat free' this.
Gotta feeling that I am going to need something really quite wacky to foil them, but I know not what?

Wacky? I read the title of this thread and the first thing that came into my head was 'hammer'. Rather time consuming though.............

[Davyburns]

I sit in the sun with my air pistol and shoot the greenfly.

I dont like killing them, so I only shoot their wings off

[Aberdeenplotter]

Worst pests I have ever had in my plot have been rabbits. Anything planted out was just grazed off at ground level and I have to say at that time my plot was a place that depressed me rather than somewhere I could relax and de-stress. The rabbits were small and harbouring underneath my shed and even although I dug concrete blogs into the ground around the shed, the furry beasties just dug under them and continued to wreak havoc. Eventually I borrowed a mink trap from my uncle - a farmer, made an exit route from under the shed to the trap using bricks and then managed to trap two baby rabbits alive. My instinct was to shoot them with my air rifle but I was persuaded by my better half to take them well away from the plots and release them which I did in the car park of a local church on the outskirts of the part of the town where I live. Instead of running into the adjoining woods, within two minutes, they had both run out on to the road at the other side of the car park and been run over by passing cars. Doesn't happen that way in Bugs Bunny

[maytreefrannie]

I've grown carrots in bins above the height of 21 inches. No carrot fly damage. I don't know if there's truth in the saying (that carrot can't fly above 21") but it seems to have worked for three years.

[Two_Sheds]

I lose a lot of strawberries to blackbirds, so now I slip a jar (or cut off plastic clear bottle) over the ripening fruits. I think this was a tip from Bob Flowerdew some years ago.
They ripen perfectly well inside the jar and the birds can't get at them. Slugs still can, so you need to consider that.

[chris]

Suspend the strawberry in the jar somehow, beer in the bottom of it?

Two birds, and one jar (or something like that)