It's not just those pesky snails and adorable deer that threaten all your hard work in the garden. Lots of other animals want to get in on the feast too. Here are easy, and tried and true ways to keep them from harvesting all your veggies before you do.

Mice, Moles and Voles

Mice

Moles eat in general earthworms and grubs. Voles eat plants, especially perennial roots, seeds and bulbs. Here are some ideas to convince them to go eat elsewhere.
• Boards: Mice and moles love melons. Place a board under the fruit to deter moles from digging directly underneath your fruit.
• Urine: Human urine poured into a mole hole will encourage them to move elsewhere.
• Trench: Dig a trench around either your orchad or around private plants that gophers and moles are targeting. In the trench, bury mesh metal wire fencing or metal window screen at least 18" inches deep, and fill the trench in again. Make sure the mesh is small adequate that the moles can't get straight through it. When the gophers and moles are digging, they won't be able to get to your plants or the surrounding area because they will run into the fencing and not be able to chew or dig through.
• Castor bean plants: These are poisonous to gophers and moles. If you plant these in your yard or garden, rodents should no longer be a problem. However, castor bean plants are poisonous so be just with children and pets. You can also try putting castor oil down the mole hole.
• High frequency emitting device: The noises are undetectable to the human ear, and also do not seem to bother household pets. Pests do not like the sound and move elsewhere.
• Put used kitty litter down the hole
• Buy lava rocks and soak them in an onion and garlic solution.

Squirrels

• Petroleum jelly: Place bird feeders away from the orchad and at least 6 feet off the ground. If the bird feeder is on top of a pole, place a baffle on the pole so that it cannot be climbed, or lubricate the pole with petroleum jelly to keep the squirrel (or chipmunk) from getting a good foothold.
• Plastic pipe: Place plastic pipe over the wire of your suspended bird feeder, so squirrels cannot get a good footing.
• Wire mesh: protect newly planted bulbs with one inch mesh poultry wire over the plantings. Cover them with mulch. The plants will grow straight through the mesh, but squirrels will be prevented from digging.
• Motion detection sprinklers: Sudden bursts of water will frighten squirrels (and other critters), at least temporarily.

Rabbits

• White vinegar: Same as deer, raccoons, dogs and cats -- rabbits don't like the scent of vinegar either. Rags soaked in white vinegar once a week should keep them away.
• Wire mesh: Surround your orchad with 1/2" inch wire mesh. Fence should be 2 to 3 feet high above ground and at least 1 foot deep to stop rabbits from burrowing under the fencing. Bend the top 6" inches of mesh outward to stop rabbits from getting over the top of the fence.
• Kitty litter: Spread used kitty litter along the edge of the orchad once a week to scare rabbits away.
• Human hair: Sprinkle human hair clippings from your local attractiveness shop around the plants. It's best if you can get hair that hasn't been washed.

Crows

• Soaker hose: Place any soaker hoses around in the garden, and curve them so they look like snakes.
• Owl decoys: Place an owl decoy near the site where crows flock, and leave it there for a day or two. Some crows do get used to the immobile owl figure, and identify that it is not a real owl after some time, so remove it for any days and replace in a different location.
• Clean up: Keep your surroundings clean. Crows sometimes flock to areas that aren't clean... Areas where there are poor garbage disposal practices, and where there's plentifulness of food for them.
• Shiny things: Hang shiny things from around trees, stakes, or from the plants themselves. Try Cds, aluminum foil or reflective streamers.

Happy Gardening!

Humane mouse traps have appeared on the scene in the last decade and a half.  They answered a need - namely how to get rid of mice in a safe and antiseptic way while still being an sufficient solution. This record will survey why other ways of ridding your house of mice are less than satisfactory, and why you should think this more humane approach.

Traditional ways to get rid of mice

Mice

For thousands of years, cats and definite types of dogs have been used to control mice and rat populations. In more contemporary times the traditional ways to rid a house of mice were the spring loaded trap, glue pads and poison.

Spring loaded traps

These have been used extensively, and they are what comes to mind approximately automatically when you think of controlling a mouse problem. They are small, you bait them with cheese, or more effectively peanut butter and grains, you put them along the path you thing the mice will take, and hope for the best.

Drawbacks to these are that in the act of capturing the mouse and killing it (by bludgeoning it with a tightly coiled spring), several things can happen that are not very desirable. If the mouse is only partially killed, blood can spill onto the floor. And if the mouse finally dies, it will release urine and feces. All of these can spread disease. Also, since mice are quick and intelligent, mice can grab the food and go hide, foiling the trap.

Glue Pads

Glue pads lay flat on the floor, and the idea is that when a mouse travels over it, the glue will preclude the mouse from escaping. The mouse then dies from starvation or thirst. More often the home owner will find the squealing mouse which is scared and angry and will have to arrange of it. How do you pick it up without getting bitten? Do you kill the mouse (and how?). Where do you arrange of it. Not good questions to have to deal with.

Poisons

Poisons will in effect kill mice, but they will also kill pets and child children. And if a mouse eats the poison the succeed is not immediate, so it can scurry off to a place that is inaccessible to die a horrible death. And afterwards decompose and emit a noteworthy stench that can last weeks. Obviously this is not an ideal solution.

Humane Mouse Traps

These traps are made of plastic or metal and their purpose is to trap the mouse without killing it. They have proven themselves to be quite sufficient in doing so. Customers have said that colonies of mice have been trapped and gotten rid of within a matter of weeks. And gotten rid for good.

You bait them with peanut butter and grains, like oatmeal, put them where you hypothesize mice are traveling along walls and furniture, and often overnight you will find one or two mice trapped in the container. You take the box to a place away from your home, release the mice and you're done. No spread of disease, no poisons to deal with, no snarling, squealing mice. Plus they are quite affordable.