Garden pests and diseases - Animals

It's typical you just get your prize specimen plant to finally flower and some creature decides to have it for breakfast. Below you will see some suggestions of how to protect your blooms.

Animal	Symptoms	Suggestion
Cats	General damage. Using your garden as a toilet.	Whilst the Animals Act of 1971 owners are obliged to keep their pets under control, it excludes cats, which are treated as wild. Under law you are allowed to remove or scare away the cat, but you may not cause it harm. Try some of these methods to try to deter them Keep a super soaker waterpistol to hand and squirt the cat when you see it. After a few drenchings it should get the message. Mirrors placed at ground level where the cat enters the garden have proved successful, a similar method is to fill lemonade bottles with water and place where the cats enter the garden. Cats are look at the bottles, see their enlarged reflection and think that they are in a larger cats territory. Cats don't like the smell of moth balls, so hang some of these where the cat is entering the garden, although the smell from them will fade over time. Mixing orange or lemon peel with water and watering a post may deter the cat.
Deer	General damage to new shoots and plants. Fleshly leaved plants disappearing overnight.	Deterrents Plastic carrier bags on the end of plant supports. Wire netting. Fence at least 6 foot high. CD's tied to fishing line and hung from trees, deer see a flash of light and thinking that it's the tail of another fleeing deer are frightened off - it also gives you something to do with all those free AOL CD's that come through the post :-). Cresote soaked rag, this masks all smells in the gardern, deer use their sense of smell as an early warning system. Human urine. Plants that deer don't like:- Rhododendrons, azaleas, laurel, beech, heather, lupins, foxgloves, geraniums, gladiola, hydrangea, helichrysum. Bulbs - daffodil and snowdrop although they do particularly like tulip and crocus.
Heron	Eating of fish and other pond wildlife	A heron can clear a pond of fish very quickly, I should know - I lost 50 odd in one go!! Cover the pond with netting, or if you have small children that visit the garden, install a steel grate over the pond Place a decoy heron in or around the pond, herons are territorial and will be discouraged from landing, if they see a bird already feeding. Move the decoy regularly, herons will realise that it is a decoy if it doesn't move. Fishing line supported 18" above the surface of the pond, will discourage herons from feeding from your pond. Herons land and walk into the water, they do not like anything touching their legs. Herons, like other wild birds, are protected. Please do not harm these beautiful birds.

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