Critter Cages

 

 

As you saw in one of my garden updates, we were excited to grow what we thought would be a good crop of watermelons this year. However, soon after ten or twelve melons began producing on the vines something began eating large holes in the fruit shattering our hopes of a productive season.

After we lost around twenty five melons we tried a trap to no avail and never saw the critter that did the damage. Was it crows, squirrels, rabbits, or maybe field mice? We even considered a raccoon, but could not catch the critters who obviously came regularly for a sweet midnight snack.

After much discussion, Jerry and I put our heads together and came up with critter cages. Using materials we had available we made a simple cage from pieces of plastic fencing, sturdy string bamboo stakes and heavy wire.. The fencing was folded and the string secured the ends. The bamboo stakes were place in the cage for support then the wire was cut and one end shaped into a hook like make shift tent spikes. Next these wire spikes were placed in intervals around the bottom of the cage to keep the critters out. These cages let the sun, rain and needed bees in to do their jobs and hopefully solve the critter dilemma

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But like any successful invention we still have kinks to work out of our cages. As you can see above these critters are just as determined as we are to enjoy the fruits of our watermelons. But often failure can make you smarter, so we'll upgrade next year and use a flexible wire instead of the plastic fencing.

Hope your garden hasn't had the critter problems we've experienced, so far this year.  Let me know if you have a better solution because three or more heads are better than two!

Until next time..........

Happy Gardening 2012!