Here are some simple solutions to typical backyard habitat problems:
Backyard deer: In many urban areas, particularly cities on the Prairies, deer populations can cause a variety of backyard problems. White-tailed deer are notorious for eating the shoots, bark, and leaves of backyard plants, especially shrubs. Bark is frayed when males mark trees with their scent glands or rub velvet from their antlers in the fall.
Keep deer and other large animals out of your habitat by erecting wire-mesh fences at least 2 m high. If deer are damaging particular trees and shrubs, encircle the trunks and stems with 1.5-m-high wire netting. Commercial repellents are available at garden centres, but may provide only short-term protection. Make sure the product contains only organic ingredients. Another strategy is to buy soap bars in bulk and use strings to hang them from trees. You might also mix five eggs with four litres of water and spray plants thoroughly with the resulting solution, reapplying after it rains.
Small grazing mammals: Groundhogs, prairie dogs, rabbits, and other four-footed creatures can cause severe damage to your backyard garden by eating branchlets, seedlings, buds, and fruits. They're also inclined to strip bark from trees and graze low-growing plants to the ground. If they outstay their welcome on your property, try encircling vulnerable areas or individual plants with wire netting about 1 m high and sunken an additional 15 cm under the ground. Alternately, use humane traps to capture small mammals and release them in a natural habitat at least 2 km from your property. Homemade and commercial repellents like the ones described in "Give First Aid to Insect-infected Trees" may also be effective.
Wildlife sharing your nest: Ants, bats, mice, voles, crickets, squirrels, raccoons, and a variety of other wild creatures may be getting inside your home. Keep these unwanted visitors in their place by repairing holes around gutters and underneath eaves. Cover up entrances like uncapped chimneys and openings in attics and roofs. Block other entrances with sheet metal, or place rustproof screening over air vents and chimneys. Seal cracks in your house's foundation. Stop up seams and spaces around windows and wherever pipes enter the house with weatherproof caulk. Install weather-stripping on exterior doors. With these measures, you'll not only prevent wildlife from moving in with you, you'll also get lower heating and cooling bills.
Mosquitoes: These biting invaders are hard to control since they may come from a distance. Because they breed in stagnant water and damp areas, you can reduce their populations by cleaning out eaves troughs and eliminating other standing water from your property. You can also keep mosquitoes under control by attracting hungry insectivores like bats, purple martins, and predatory insects. (See the planting and building projects outlined in the third and fourth chapters of this guide.)
Back-porch intruders: A porch light left burning all night beckons moths, mosquitoes, June bugs, and a myriad of other unwelcome insects from far and wide. It's of almost no value in deterring raccoons; they need little incentive to overcome their aversion to well-lit areas. A more effective strategy is to install sensor lights in areas where raccoons appear frequently at night. These devices switch on in response to motion and switch off a few minutes later. They're reasonably priced and quickly pay for themselves through lower power bills. Use yellow bulbs in back-porch light fixtures – flies and moths are less attracted to them than to white bulbs.