Raccoons/Skunks

• White grubs are a perfect food source for these animals and they will destroy your lawn to get at them. For small areas apply Critter Ridder. For larger segments place well-anchored chicken wire to prevent them from digging. After a week or two passes the wire can be removed.
• Treat your grub problem before these voracious insects chew their way through the grass roots killing your whole lawn. Beneficial Nematodes are a long-term organic solution to rid the grubs.
• To prevent raccoons from ravaging your water plants and eating all your fish, make it impossible for them to get intoyour water feature. Position flat flagstones so they hang over the water. Raccoons do not like jumping in from an edge. Also, postions rocks with large cavities at the bottom of the water garden to provide a hiding place for fish.

Rabbits

• Spray your plants with Green Earth Animal Repellent, or a homebrew of Tabasco, garlic, and chili powder.
• Surround your vegetable garden plot with strong metal netting or chicken wire stapled to sturdy posts in early spring. Bury 10 cm below the ground or bend the bottom edge outward so they can’t burrow under.
• Plant common Foxglove, Bishop’s Hat, Bergenia, Catmint, Spiderwort, Globeflower, Gooseneck Loosestrife, Lungwort, Rosemary, Periwinkle, Golden Elder, Rockspray Cotoneaster, and Anthony Waterer Spirea as rabbits do not like these.
• Protect the trunks of your Crab Apples and fruit trees in late fall with spiral wrap so rabbits cannot chew the bark through winter.Remove the wrap in early spring.

Deer

• Deer are inconsistent in their likes and dislikes. What they won’t eat in one garden, they’ll completely devour in another. If it’s a very severe winter they’ll eat anything including roses.
• Deer destroy Junipers, Yews, Cedars, Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Euonymus, Hostas, and Daylilies. They also find fruit and vegetables delicious. Corn and apples are particular favourites.
• Deer seem to dislike plants with leaves that are sticky, aromatic, or hairy. So, they generally stay away from things like Herbs, Garlic, and Lamb’s Ear.
• Deer stay away from Barberry, Holly, Potentilla, Forsythia, Privet, Burningbush, Hypericum, Weigela, Butterflybush, certain Dogwoods (Cornus Alba), Boxwood, Japanese Pieris, and Caryopteris.
• Deer do not seem to like Perennial varieties of Salvia, Lavender, Black-Eyed Susan, Yarrow, Iris, Artemisia, Speedwell, Columbine, Rose Campion, Peony, Lupine, Monkshood, Lady’s Mantle, Astilbe, Beebalm, Russian Sage, Foxglove, Poppy, and many Ornamental Grasses.
• Fencing is the best way to keep deer out but should be at least 3 m (9 or 10' high) to prevent them jumping over it.

Squirrels

• Squirrels live for Crocus and Tulip bulbs. To keep them from being dug up in fall, lay chicken wire over your planted area.
• Use Critter Ridder around your plants.
• Squirrels stay away from bulbs of Daffodils, Hyacinths, Crown Imperial, Allium, Scilla, Snowdrops, Grape Hyacinths, and Camassia.
• If you feed the birds, expect the squirrels to get their share of the seed in the feeders.

Cats

• To minimize a cat's digging, try Critter Ridder.
• Spray the area they keep returning to with citrus juice; they don’t like the smell. Even placing lemon, orange, or grapefruit rinds can help.
• Cover the soil with thorny branch clippings, a thick layer of bark chips, or chicken wire.
• Do not encourage them with plantings of catnip.
• Avoid using Blood Meal or Fish Emulsion fertilizer. Cats are drawn to the smell of both.

Moles

• Purchase commercial "thumpers" available to create vibration that discourages groundhogs too.
• Moles do not like castor beans. Make a solution of 1 tablespoon of castor oil and 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap in one gallon of warm water and spray the area thoroughly.
• Place dog or cat hair at the entrance of the mole runs to scare them away.