Gardening > Pest ControlNovember 26, 2009

Something Eating My Hibiscus

Varmints are digging into the mulch we spread around Hibiscus and Hydrangea plants. They are digging into the top and the side and looks like they are eating stems and maybe even bulbs. We thought to cover with screen wire hopefully that will let winter sun in and block the varmints. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated. Thanks.
BJ

Hardiness Zone: 6a

By BJ from mid MO

Answers

Read answers for this post below.

By
12/03/2009

Forget the hot sauce. Make a mix of: 1/3rd each of black pepper, crushed red pepper like they put on pizza & ground red pepper. Then mix in about 1/8 cup of dry hot mustard. Put into something you can sprinkle it from water well, if the ground needs it & then sprinkle it, then leave it alone for at least a week. It chases off pretty much anything that sniffs. All animals sniff to find what they want & most of them have long memories. I have had it work for cats & dogs for up to 4-5mos. When I water this area, I run a slow hose to soak the ground, rather than spray with a nozzle It's pretty amazing, but when you mix it, do it outside & be up wind of it. Mix slowly, this can get in your nose. It's pretty bad, & you don't need to cover the ground, just sprinkle it around. Make sure you cover the entire area. It's great stuff. I got this from Jerry Baker. He has books on stuff for the garden from your kitchen.

By
11/27/2009

Hot sauce can work. You can dip a cotton ball in hot sauce and place it in the pot.

By
11/26/2009

Spray them with hot sauce, maybe it will help, critters do not like hot stuff, good luck.

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