I recently wrote here about my drip irrigation lines getting chewed up by urban wildlife. I’ve seen squirrels, skunks, raccoons, and opossums in my backyard over the years, but learned that coyotes could also be implicated where biting into these soft plastic water lines is concerned.
Mick Boersma, who gardens in La Mirada, wrote me as follows:
“Nocturnal visitors are a problem we have faced. Aside from a family of raccoons wandering the streets at night, we have a healthy and curious family of squirrels in the park nearby.
I recall with horror the first time I saw the emitters on our system nipped off. At 50 cents a piece, I was not amused. After realizing it was probably not a criminal gang bent on plasticide (is that a word?), I wondered if baby squirrels were using them as a teething opportunity. The actual culprits were, I suspect, the same critters who seem to think there are fish in my fountain – raccoons.
After combing the internet for ideas, the one that worked for me was simple. I brewed up a batch of pepper tea, throwing in chili powder and every other hot pepper product in my house. After a nice long steep, I let it cool down, strained it, loaded it into a spray bottle, and shot the emitters liberally with the concoction. It was applied every few days for a while, as our watering cycle would dilute the effect, but eventually, the problem was solved. I have not had to reapply in months. But to hedge my bets, I’m buying cheaper emitters now at our local big box hardware store. Live and learn.”
Jonathan Zimmerman eliminated chewing on his drip lines with some innovative thinking, as described below:
“I managed a 600-tree drip-irrigated orange orchard in Moorpark and spent many mornings repairing chewed irrigation lines. I thought perhaps the critters were thirsty and chewing the lines for water so I put an emitter that dripped into a pie tin at the end of each line and it worked, mostly. The big chew problem was solved but I still had occasional pinprick leaks caused by what looked like tiny little teeth. I thought perhaps the young critters were chewing on the lines for fun so I chopped some old plastic irrigation lines into 4″ sections and scattered them throughout the orchard. Problem solved. No more leaks and lots of presumably happy coyote pups.”
The picture that emerges from these recommendations is that wildlife is particularly interested in chewing on emitters, as opposed to the drip line itself, since this is where the water is most available to drink. Thus, drip tubing like mine whose emitters are embedded inline will require the most extensive repairs where wildlife roam; in order to get at the emitters, the main line itself must be chewed.
Enter Gene Goldstein. He has extensive experience in drip irrigation and has settled on 1/4″ spaghetti tubing that you connect to the main line wherever an emitter is needed. While most of us think of emitters as being at ground level, he stakes his DIG Micro Spray (or Spray Jet) emitters four inches up in the air, although 13″ inch stakes from the same manufacturer are typically utilized for staking these emitters. You screw the threaded emitter into the spaghetti tubing prior to attaching it to a stake. To protect the tubing and emitter from chewing animals, Goldstein encases them (along with the stake) in “pet screen,” a thin metal mesh available at home improvement centers. He cuts the screen with metal shears, crafting a cylinder that fits over the spaghetti tubing, emitter, and stake; zip ties hold the cylinder in place.
Goldstein’s emitters spray to a distance of three feet and are available in full, half, or quarter-circle configurations, as well as for narrow strip applications. It must be said that an advantage of placing spraying emitters on stakes is that you can instantly see if they are working. When emitters leak water directly into the ground, it is a chore to make sure they are working and not clogged and, to be sure, clogging of emitters often occurs.
In Banning, Susan Savolainen suggested that those faced with this problem should “try putting out buckets of water so the critters can get water without damaging your drip lines. After learning that coyote pups like to chew the sprinkler heads and risers, putting out chew bones has helped.” She also offers this: “If you have drip tubing being chewed you can enclose it in hardware cloth (thick woven metal fabric). Yes, it’s expensive, but so is replacing dead plants and repairing drip line.”
Jenny Iyer, who works at the Land Use Learning Center demonstration garden in Riverside, has similarly deterred coyotes, squirrels, and opossums from chewing on drip lines by placing bowls next to emitters, providing the critters with readily accessible water whenever the irrigation system is running. She cautions that bowls should be cleaned and emptied regularly to prevent disease and keep mosquitos away. Also, pets should be kept from drinking out of such bowls, which could make them sick.
California native of the week: Cape Mendocino reedgrass (Calamagrostis foliosa) is a stunning, fountainesque beauty that forms a mound one foot tall and two feet wide. Although it does best growing along the coast in full sun, where it tolerates wind and ocean spray, it can also thrive in hotter inland locations when given some shade. Leaves are blue-green with purple streaks. “In mid-spring through early summer appear the attractive, short, arching silvery-purple heads of flowers that age to a golden wheat color and are attractive into fall.” The preceding words are a description of its reproductive growth from San Marcos Growers (smgrowers.com), a nursery that grows it. This species is not meant to be cut back since that practice will hasten its demise. Instead, unsightly dead growth can be removed with a bow rake. In any case, this is a grass that does not live for more than seven years, and often less. However, during this time, you can divide it into small clumps which can then be planted in appropriate spots throughout the garden.
Do you have any money-saving gardening tips? If so, send them to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions, comments, and recommendations are always welcome. Photos of unusual plants, taken with horizontal orientation that are at least 1 MB (1000 KB) in size, are also invited for possible publication in the column.
