Protect Pot Plants From Birds, Squirrels, Cats and Monkeys

If you are asking how to protect plants from birds, squirrels, cats or monkeys, the honest answer is the same for all four: a physical barrier works, and almost nothing else does for long. Netting pulled tight over seedlings and fruit keeps birds off, pebbles or upright skewers on the soil stop squirrels and cats digging, and in monkey country only a full mesh cage protects anything worth eating. No poison. No glue traps. Below: how to tell who the culprit is, the barrier for each, and the popular tricks that fail.

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How do I know which animal is damaging my pots?

Look at the time and the mess. Birds work in the early morning and leave clean nips, which on a balcony means seedlings cut off at the soil, peas pulled out of the ground, or a triangular beak mark in the shoulder of a ripening tomato. Squirrels dig. They also come by day, leaving neat holes two or three fingers wide and soil scattered on the floor, usually within a day or two of sowing because freshly turned soil signals buried food to them.

Cats visit at night and choose the largest pot with the loosest, driest soil, which to a cat is a litter tray. Monkeys leave no doubt: pots tipped, plants pulled out by the root, fruit half eaten and dropped.

Did you know? Birds often peck ripe tomatoes in hot weather for the moisture as much as the food. Many gardeners find that a shallow dish of water set well away from the pots reduces the damage. Change it daily, so mosquitoes cannot breed.

How do I stop birds eating seedlings and fruit?

Cover the plant during the weeks it is vulnerable, which means the first three to four weeks after sprouting and the last fortnight before fruit ripens.

1. For seed trays and small pots, use a mesh cloche. An upturned plastic fruit basket, a wire wastepaper bin or an old kitchen sieve placed over the pot lets in light and rain and keeps beaks out. Weigh it down with a stone.
2. For larger pots, build a frame first. Push three or four bamboo sticks into the pot edge so they stand higher than the plant, then drape netting over them. Net lying directly on leaves lets birds peck straight through.
3. Choose fine mesh, about 1.5 to 2 cm or smaller. Old mosquito netting or a net curtain is ideal for seedlings.
4. Pull it taut and tie it at the base. Use clothes pegs, string or a ring of elastic around the pot rim, leaving no loose folds and no gap at the bottom.
5. For single fruits, bag them. A paper bag or a small cloth or mesh pouch tied around a guava, a tomato truss or a bunch of chillies is easier than netting the whole plant.

Parrots chew through thin plastic net. For a guava or pomegranate in a pot use a sturdier woven net tied firmly around the trunk. Our guide to seed starting at home covers raising them under cover until they are tough enough to face the balcony.

Which bird net is right for a balcony garden?

Where pigeons roost, a fixed net stretched drum tight across the whole balcony opening is the lasting answer. For individual pots, the fine mesh described above is safer than wide garden netting.

Why? Loose, slack net with large holes traps wings and feet, and a bird left tangled dies slowly, so check any net every morning; if one is caught, cover it gently with a cloth, cut the net away instead of pulling, and wash your hands afterwards.

How do I stop squirrels digging in pots and cats using them as a litter tray?

Both problems have one cause, bare loose soil, and one answer. Armour it.

Two habits help. Never leave a filled but unplanted pot sitting around, and water in the evening where cats are the problem, because they dislike wet soil. If you are still preparing your soil, the potting mix ratio guide explains the blend that goes under the pebbles.

If a cat has already used the pot, lift out the droppings and the soil around them with gloves or a scoop, bag it and bin it. Do not grow herbs or greens you eat raw in that pot for the rest of the season.

How do I protect a vegetable garden from monkeys?

With a cage. In hill towns such as Murree, Shimla and Mussoorie, and in parts of Delhi and Islamabad near green belts, monkeys treat an open balcony as a buffet, and they learn quickly that scarecrows, noise and shiny objects are harmless.

• Enclose the growing area fully. A frame of welded wire mesh or chain link on all sides and the top, with a door that latches, is the only reliable protection. A net with an open roof does nothing.
• Remove the reward. Pick ripe fruit promptly, keep kitchen waste and compost covered, and never feed monkeys from the house.
• Do not confront them. Do not stare, shout at close range or try to snatch anything back. Step inside and shut the door.

On most of the plains and the coast the usual visitors are parrots, crows, squirrels and the neighbourhood cats instead.

Myth: shiny tape and chilli powder keep everything away

Reflective tape, old CDs, plastic owls and rubber snakes do startle birds for a few days, until the birds notice that nothing happens and carry on. Scare devices only help if you move them every two or three days and use them alongside a net. Never alone.

Chilli powder is the other favourite, and against birds it is close to useless, because birds do not feel the burn of chilli the way mammals do. It may put off a squirrel or cat briefly, but it washes away with the first watering and can get into the eyes of pets and of children who touch the soil, which is a poor trade for a day of protection. Skip it. Mothballs are worse, being poisonous if swallowed.

Birds, squirrels, cats and monkeys: your questions

Once the pots are protected, the month by month sowing calendar shows what to sow next, and how often to water potted plants covers the watering. More guides are in Zero-Waste Kitchen.

Sources

• CDC: Preventing Toxoplasmosis
• WHO: Rabies fact sheet