Wife WAS excited about the first good sized tomato ripening then one morning recently it was gone. Possums have been seen in the neighborhood, So. Calif. Coast, and we've spotted piles of feces and presumed possum. Repellants for ants are suggested so I thought this might bring someting helpful.
I bought a device called "Critter Getter". You mount it on a stake facing the garden & it detects infa-red from critters & sets off an audible alarm with strobe lights. It will scare off the pests. Do a "Google" search for it. I've had mine for 4 years & it's kept the deer & rabbits out of my garden.
I had invasion problems with Possoms AND Coons....Kept biting the heads off my baby kittens, damn their nocturnal souls.
So after some Google research, I tried an experiment...
Deep at night, before bedtime, I would go to each of the four corners of my property, and take a big healthy dump.
(Marking with my personal scent, a.k.a. "Critter Email") .
Now this is not a joke...I really did that, and it stopped the Possoms and Coons coming, COLD.
If that don't work, it's time to buy a big 'ol hogleg .44!
Bubba's in jail Kanter. Just waiting to service you. Use a 45. It's louder and will get the p.d. there quicker.
fetch boy.
:D
Search is easier if it's spelled right: "Critter Gitter" :-). ^ Doesn't the noise and lights bother you or your neighbors, specially at night?
20 is all that's needed... :)
Fi-Shock. Google it.
They work beautifully for all sorts of varmints.
Steve
You can take a big healthy dump four times in that short of a time span? What the f*ck are you eating?
Are the plants too large at this point to attach to a vertical support? That achieves a number of goals, including keeping the fruit away from small beasts.
Great, but in most 1/8 acre neighborhoods, the neighbors and cops get a little twitchy when you fire a real gun. They're right, too. I'd love to, but I hear jail cells really suck. And there's no beer there.
Welcome, executive wanker.
John
[snip bottom quote]
Critter Gitter seems to be available here:
The plants are too big now for a tomato cage, I suppose, but I wonder if staking around the plants and making a cage of chicken wire, or finer like mechanics wire, would keep possums off. Sorry, but my only experience with a possum was trying to get one out of the garage late one night. Nasty thing.
Yes, also don't put the "cage" too close, keep branches off the wire by tying them up/back. Tomato plants can be tough, but they wouldn't survive even a small napalm drop, with or without Agent Orange. Ask a Vietnamese :-).
What sorts of animals are the firearms used on?
If the branches rest on fine wire, they may get sliced as they rub back & forth. Not that it matters - most tomato plants are so robust by this time of the season that they'd probably withstand a napalm attack. Losing a few branches won't matter much.
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