A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 cat/gopher/raccoon?

Hey everyone,
The time to plant my vegetable garden this year is coming up. However, something has been eating the sprouts. I mainly plant pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon. The plants would always be eaten last year only when they were sprouts. Any older than that and I didnt have a problem. I think it is probably a cat but it could be a gopher or raccoon, all three are common where I live. I come out to find that the leaves have been chewed up and sometimes the animal will be rude enough to dig it up (I know it has claws because I can see the claw marks) and leave feces on it. Whats a good, cost-efficient way to stop this without killing what ever it is? What do you think it is?

Put some netting over the young plants. If they persist, use wire netting with pegs to hold it in the ground.

Thanks! Good idea!

If you are sure it is a cat,coon, or some other critter besides a skunk, you can get a have a heart trap for a reasonable price and catch the critter and relocate it. By the way, squirrels like to munch away on new seedlings as well. I caught about 15 of them last year and moved them. I like to use peanut butter with some birdseed as bait.

Good idea, but I think traps might be too much trouble. I dont really want to pay to rent them and go to the trouble of relocating the animals. Paying for the traps alone isnt worth the small vegetable garden. Ill try the netting and see if that works.

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