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Eliminating Garden Pests using Cat's Litter
By: Alfred
Everyone has had this problem eventually if you have a
garden or a great lawn you want to keep in one piece,
mysterious divots and holes that appear sometimes over
night. It's that wonderful pest we call a gopher or mole.
You may never see them. They lurk around underground and
seldom poke their little noses out to meet you face to face.
But your lawn and garden can certainly show all the signs of
their presence: Mounds of soil scattered over the lawn,
disrupted root systems in the garden. Moles and gophers can
wreak havoc on your lawn and garden.
To control these pesky underground creatures, you first need
to identify which one has invaded your yard. Moles leave
low, messy mounds of soil scattered all over. The mole's
mounds are shaped like a small volcano only few inches high.
Gophers also leave mounds of soil piled up around their
tunnels, but gopher mounds are more fan-shaped or sometimes
horseshoe-shaped, where the gopher has flung the dirt out
behind it as it dug. Both animals dig up the soil as they
dig themselves underground tunnels in search of their
favorite foods of grubs and earthworms.
Not many people know that, rather than risking poisoning
yourself, pets or your garden, or getting creative with
explosives or guns, there is a simpler way to get rid of
said pests. Instead of filling in the hole with dirt again
and praying the animal will choke on it, try pouring used
cat litter down the hole.
Used cat litter puts out a loud and clear warning to moles
and gophers that there is a predator living nearby. You will
most likely not see them again, or if you do it will be in
another part of your lawn or garden or a different mole or
gopher. Just keep pouring that used cat litter down those
holes and they will get the point and leave for safer
pastures.
This is one way to dispose of your cat litter and have it be
put to good use rather than in a garbage dump somewhere. You
may not know this, but clay cat litter is not biodegradable
like the more natural alternative cat litters and poses an
environmental problem, albeit a small one.
What works with this method is the odor of the predator
(cat) feces within the cat litter. Prey creatures
instinctively shy away from predator territory,
understandably. So getting a biodegradable cat litter and
let your cat stink it up real good and then poring it down a
gopher or mole hole not only gets rid of the pest but it
fertilizes your garden or lawn.
This method is not recommended in a garden with vegetables
and fruit, however, because the cat litter can carry
Toxoplasmosis parasite or E. coli. This is more for lawns
and flower gardens than vegetable or fruit gardens.
For getting rid of pests in a vegetable garden or fruit
garden try trapping. It's more humane and these creatures,
although they are a pest to you, do provide a valuable
service where they are found in the wild. You can simply
trap them and take them to a good patch of woods and they
will be fine there digging up grubs and earthworms to eat
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