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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

I don't know anything about moles, but with armadillos----bane of deerhunters 
and country folk alike.  If they decide to dig underneath your rocks they 
will.  I've seen them dig a burrow undeneath the concrete slab of a patio.  
They don't want your garden plants. Probably, you have worms, etc in your 
garden composted soil.  That's their munchies. 

You've done just about everything you can do except buying a case of .22 
short rifle  .  That might help with rabbits also.   The only other option , 
other than  your roofed cage, is a pair of totally outside dogs.  A big mean 
one for the armadillos and a beagle for the rabbits...bford   


--- On Tue, 6/24/08, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

> From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> Subject: [Homestead] Garden pests, four-legged variety
> To: "Homestead" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 8:59 AM
> As many gardeners know, the better the soil one creates, the
> more  
> attractive to certain pests. In my case, moles and
> armadillos. To  
> thwart the moles I am conducting an experiment--putting all
> of my  
> urine onto the sod area at the top of the nearly perfect
> kitchen  
> garden directly out from the kitchen window. The results of
> that  
> experiment are as yet unknown but appear promising.
> 
> Next up are the armadillos. Thanks to Texans who protected
> them--grr-- 
> and Midwest warming, they have overpopulated their southern
> habitat  
> and have moved north. When I came here thirty years ago no
> one had  
> ever seen one in the county. They are now one of the common
> roadkills,  
> joining turtles, coons, possums, skunks and squirrels.
> Insufficient  
> numbers are killed by cars and they have overrun woods,
> pastures,  
> lawns and gardens.
> 
> When Dax was alive he and Benny would run them down and Dax
> would one- 
> crunch them--over forty-five in a two-month period. Benny
> is now  
> twelve and spends most of every night resting for the hard
> day  
> following, which consists mostly of resting in a cool
> place. Yes, I  
> need a couple of pups.
> 
> After replanting the devastated kitchen garden several
> times I bought  
> two-foot fence and a bunch of three-foot metal posts and
> installed the  
> fence on all parts other than the raised stone wall in the
> front. They  
> pushed under the fence. I replanted and installed pins of
> scrap wood  
> and nails, driving the bottom of the fence into the ground.
> They found  
> a weak place. I replanted. I then spent the better part of
> a day  
> loading, hauling and placing rocks--too heavy for them to
> move with  
> their hoglike thick neck muscles--at the outside bottom of
> the fence.
> 
> Three mornings now without having to replant the garden.
> Unless they  
> learn how to climb or fly I think it is good. Now I have
> only to  
> occasionally straighten up the grass clippings that serve
> as a mulch  
> to keep weeds down out from the rocks; they still make
> their nightly  
> rounds and hope springs eternal.
> 
> Thinking I have now created a garden fortress, I stepped
> out yesterday  
> afternoon to see a rabbit leap down from the wall and run
> away. He had  
> spotted the waning lettuce and couldn't resist. Sigh.
> 
> I'm thinking maybe a welded-wire roofed cage with
> quarter-inch  
> hardware cloth affixed on the interior and with two-foot
> deep concrete  
> footings and a padlocked entry gate.
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