We all sometimes
suffer from uninvited guests and, although we don't want to harm them,
we do want to persuade them to leave our property. Here are some suggestions
that might help:
Ants
Ants are harmless and are only looking for sweet stuff when they come into
the house, so keep all sugar, jams, honey, cakes etc in tightly closed
tins and jars. Wipe kitchen surfaces down with a solution of equal parts
of vinegar and water. Find where the ants are entering the house, block
up any obvious holes and cracks and sprinkle red chilli pepper and/or paprika
and/or dried peppermint or pennyroyal across their line of entry. We have
also read that they dislike coffee grounds, if placed in a dish on the
worktop, they will avoid the entire worktop. Crumbled bay leaves or sprigs
of pennyroyal in cupboards and corners may also act as a deterrent.
Birds
If birds are scratching up your seeds or eating your lettuces you can deter
them with sillouettes of hawks (on sale in many garden centres), scarecrows,
strips of coloured plastic or tinfoil flapping in the breeze on strings.
Please don't fasten lengths of cotton or nylon over your rows of plants/seeds.
Birds may get entangled in the yarn and may even lose a leg.
Cats
Can make a mess of your garden if they decide its a good place to use as
a lavatory. Try jam jars half full of water left at intervals in the flower
beds, rose prunings placed around your most precious plants and some say
a length of hose pipe left on the lawn frightens cats, who mistake it for
a snake.
Fleas
and Ticks
Feed brewers yeast to pets. Fennel, rue and rosemary repel fleas.
Foxes
Urban foxes can be a nuisance in gardens and may pose a danger to small
pets like rabbits and guinea pigs. For advice on deterring them humanely,
contact the Fox Project, 01892 545 468. The National Fox Welfare number
- 01933 411 996, might also be useful.
Herons
We hear that a plastic replica heron standing by your poolside will deter
live herons from feeding on your fish as they assume the pool is already
occupied and fly past.
House
Flies
Try vases of fresh herbs around the house, or hang up dried herbs in winter.
Eau-de-Cologne Mint, Penny Royal, Rosemary, Rue, Thyme and Tansy are said
to repel flies.
Mice
Look for humane mouse traps like the Triptrap, in pet shops and garden
centres. These trap the mouse alive and you can release it away from your
property, it will need to be taken about a quarter of a mile away or it
will find its way back! You must inspect these traps regularly or the mouse
will die of thirst which is more cruel than a conventional mouse trap,
and remember to store the traps in such a way that no animal can get in
accidentally when you are not using them.
A wide range of humane traps
suitable for many small animals, eg mice, rats, squirrels, foxes, minks
and pigeons can be obtained from commercial suppliers: Unlike the TripTrap,
their mouse box will catch several at once, so may be more suitable
if you have a serious problem.
Sonic deterrents which are supposed
to emit a sound too high for human hearing, but unpleasant to rodents
and other small animals, are becoming widely available.
If
you do not have cats in your house it may be worth "borrowing" a friend's
cat and let it roam the house for a while, the scent of the cat may
put of the
mice becoming
established or building nests.
Midges
A dab of lavender or citronella oil is said to repel midges. We've also
heard that biting insects are attracted by colour contrasts, so if you
are pale skinned, wear pale colours, if dark skinned, wear dark colours.
Moles
One idea is that you should locate the mole's run by drawing a line between
two mole hills, dig down until you find the run, then insert the movement
from a musical birthday card. It seems moles detest noise and will all
abscond to your neighbours' garden. Another method is to place a number
of children's toy windmills around the garden so the sticks are embedded
in the mole runs. As the wind turns the windmills, it sets up vibrations
which the moles dislike.
Moths
Place cedar chips or lavender sachets amongst clothes.
Wasps
These
insects get a bad press. They really do a very important job of maintaining
the balance of nature by preying on other insect pests and they are
not vicious by nature. They don't attack humans unless provoked but
unfortunately,
people panic when they hear the buzzing, wave their arms about and
practically ask to be stung. Keep calm. To keep them out of the house,
make sure all
sweet things are securely covered. Put net curtains at open windows
and bead curtains over the kitchen door to discourage them from flying
in.
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