The last thing you need is furry animals that come to ravage the garden to which you have put so much effort. Here are some tactics that might make your four-legged pests understand that they are not welcome.

No groundhog in the garden

A groundhog has settled in your home; But the pest control company is asking you for a few hundred dollars to take action. What she will not tell you, of course, is that it’s easy to stink her quarters – at no cost to you. Every day, when you change your cat’s litter, which does not smell pink, throw it into Lady Marmot’s burrow. After a few strokes of this nauseating censer, your unwanted tenant will take off. When she is gone, fill all entrances to her burrow with gravel to prevent another animal from lodging.

Bambi, outside!

He is adorable, of course, but if he comes to your garden with his whole family, he can cause incredible damage. What to do ? Refuse to buy high-tech gadgets such as strobe lights and discharge lamps, expensive repellents or high and unsightly fences. Arm yourself with eggs instead. Deer hate the taste and smell of raw eggs. This is why in many commercial repellents the solid and smelly elements of eggs are found as the main ingredient.

Recipe for the deer repellent:

1. Break half a dozen eggs into 2 liters (8 cups) of water.
2. Mix perfectly with the whisk.
3. Spray the mixture on the leaves of the plants you want to protect.
4. The repellent will remain effective until it rains. Put back after the rain.

Other odors than deer do not like:

• Hang gauze bags full of stinky socks, deodorant soap or hair in the garden.
• Choose plants that are unpleasant to deer. Certain aromatic plants are particularly painful to them. Plant sagebrush, lavender and Russian sage as a defense.
• Deer also hate begonias, cosmos, daffodils, foxglove, iris, marigolds, carnations, snapdragon and zinnias, as well as some shrubs and trees such as boxwood, holly, juniper, lilac, pine and spruce.

Hinder hares

Sprays and powders are sold to hunt hares from your garden, but many can be dangerous in a vegetable garden. A hare-proof fence is still the best protection. Use wire and make sure the fence is 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) deep into the ground; otherwise, the hares will tunnel underneath. Above ground, the fence must be at least 76 cm (30 in) high.

Try these other ways:

• Remove the thickets where hares can hide. Remove the seeds that fall from bird feeders.
• Climb here and there snakes or owls made of synthetic material on poles; cut off pieces of garden hose as snakes and place them between the plants.
• Remember: hares are not stupid. They will eventually realize that your deterrents are strangely passive; you will have to change scarecrow from time to time.
• Hang gauze bags filled with dog hair or scatter the hair on the ground between plants to scare away hares. Soaps that smell strongly also serve to remove them.
• You can buy coyote or fox urine and water your plants: hares will think that there are some in the neighborhood.