Living near wildlife offers spectacular opportunities to see animals in their natural habitats , doing what they do best, but gardeners know that sometimes wildlife starts to look back. If wild turkeys start looking too closely at your yard, you have a tough battle on your hands, but you can win with persistence.
Wild turkey control
Wild turkeys in garden areas are certainly a nuisance, but before you assume that the wild turkey you saw this morning was the same one that ate your corn to nothing, you have to do a little legwork. Most of the time crop damage is caused by wildlife other than turkeys; They are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Look around damaged plants for signs of scratches or turkey footprints. If the attack on your crop occurred after dark, you will know to look for other suspects, since turkeys sleep at night.
Once you are sure that wild turkeys are the ones eating your plants, you need to think like a turkey. Deterring wild turkeys works best when you use their own nature against them. For example, fear deterrents are very effective, but only if you vary them so the turkey doesn’t detect a pattern. Wild turkey pest management is most effective when you do these things:
- Make your garden less friendly . This means keeping the lawn short so there is no grass seed to feed wandering turkeys and making sure dense bushes and other vegetation are pruned and thinned. Without adequate cover or a decent place to rest, your garden might not be as easy to target.
- Eliminate temptation . If you have a small garden, you can cover it with a wire run or build a high fence to keep turkeys out. Although turkeys fly, they generally do not fly into a small fenced area unless they are very hungry or what you fence is of great value to them.
- Harass persistent birds . Any bird that continues to prowl after you have made it clear that it is not welcome can be sent on its way with simple, constant harassment. Sprinklers on motion detectors, fireworks, dogs, and even shooting your rifle over their heads will eventually send these guys running, as long as they use many different methods of harassment together. Pie pans and other basic noises will lose their power as soon as the turkeys realize they pose no real threat.