Cheap seedling protection?

[whitenack]

Anyone out there got any ideas for cheap/homemade remedies for seedling protection from squirrels/rabbits? I don't want to spend alot/any money. Will anything around the house work?

 

[Newfie]

Try something called hardware cloth (at least in my neck of the woods). It looks like heavy duty screen material and comes in rolls that are 3 or 4 feet wide. I comes in various size weaves, I'd probably try something with a 1/2" pattern. Make a cylinder around your seedlings so the buggers can't reach through and strip leaves. Weave the cut end together or use some ties or something. Push it into the soil a bit (don't damage any roots) and hold it down with some landscape staples.

I'm not an arborist and I don't play one on TV but thats what I would have done a couple of weeks ago when we were discussing beverages and dingle dangles.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

My little hardware cloth prison I made to protect my little Oak lasted about two years, then one day there was a little hole in the soil next to, and inside the cage. You guessed it, a chipmunk dug under and ate the tree, at the time about 8" high.
I don't know how they make it on their own.
Maybe the trick is to plant about a hundred in the area you want an Oak, and cross your fingers and hope one makes it.

There is a product called dried blood, it's high in nitrogen and repels critters, but must be reapplied after rainfalls.

Keep us updated on your Oaks!

 

[Newfie]

Chipmunks are tricky. I've found they are best lured to a feeder and then quickly dispatched with a hockey stick. "He shoots, He scores!!!"

 

[Dan F]

"Chipmunks are tricky. I've found they are best lured to a feeder and then quickly dispatched with a hockey stick. "He shoots, He scores!!!" "

I was going to suggest a slingshot or a BB gun, but it looks like you have already got a decent solution.

.22 shells only cost about 2 cents per....


Dan