Rats Mice Mouse Rodents Emergency Pest Control Service

Do your best to keep them out

While it is not always 100% possible, do your best to exclude or deter animals from entering the growing area, and remove things that might attract them in the first place, like tall weeds and grasses around the perimeter of the fence and rotting vegetables in the rows.

Use deterrents such as ultrasonic noise repellent, sprays, moving and shiny objects to scare animals, or traps. There are many options, and they all have varying degree of success, based on what animals you are struggling with.

Fencing is expensive, and not the best answer for all farms, but one of the key strategies many farmers use to exclude animals like deer from high-value crops. There are many different fencing types. This offers a cost-share to help pay for the cost of the materials needed for exclusion fencing if you can show loss from wildlife. 

Can I just use cats to keep rodents away? 

Cats should not be welcomed into a packinghouse or field as rodent control, since cats can carry  which can cause severe illness including blindness, miscarriage, and death. Use unbaited traps in packsheds (such as a Tin Cat trap) to trap mice. Remove anything that might be attracting mice into the packingshed, mow and weed-whip along the edge of the packingshed and remove harborage like stacks of lumber that rodents can hide in. If you choose to, you can use poison bait traps outside the packshed to trap mice (for non certified organic growers).