Various forms of wildlife feed in the garden.
1. Deer feed on leaves and fruit. They are most active at dawn and dusk.
2. Raccoons knock over cornstalks to feed on maturing ears. They may also feed on other ripening fruit. Raccoons feed at night.
3. Squirrels feed on ripening fruit and climb cornstalks to feed on maturing ears.
4. Rabbits feed on young bean, pea, lettuce, and cabbage plants, eating the young leaves and frequently leaving short stubs of the stems standing in the soil.
5. Woodchucks, also called groundhogs, feed in the afternoons and avoid tomatoes, eggplants, red and green peppers, chives, and onions.
6. Mice may bite into ripening tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans that are close to the ground to eat the seeds inside. Mice frequently travel underground in mole tunnels.
There are several ways to exclude or repel wildlife from your garden.
1. The only sure way to exclude deer is with a woven wire fence 8 feet tall. They are sometimes repelled by cotton drawstring bags filled with bloodmeal fertilizer or human hair and suspended on stakes in the garden.
2. Exclude raccoons with a 6-foot-tall fence. Electric fencing above the fence may also be needed. Protect corn by interplanting with members of the cucurbit family. Raccoons will not walk on the prickly vines. Sprinkle ripening corn with cayenne pepper.
3. Protect ears of corn from squirrels by sprinkling corn silks with cayenne pepper.
4. To exclude rabbits, erect a fence 18 inches tall and anchor it by burying the edges 5 to 6 inches deep in the soil.
5. Deter woodchucks with a wire fence that is buried 1 foot deep and extended horizontally underground 10 to 12 inches.
6. Stake, trellis, or cage plants to keep fruit off the ground, and away from mice.