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Home made cloches work wonders for protecting seedlings.

Ask Gardenerd: What’s Eating My Seeds?

A great question came into Ask Gardenerd this week about plant protection:

It seems that every time I start seeds or plant out transplants in my raised bed, they get eaten overnight. It’s so frustrating. Help!”

Home made cloches work wonders for protecting seedlings.
Home made cloches work wonders for protecting seedlings.

I have had the same problem over the years and I have found a few solutions that can help. The primary defense against nocturnal foragers is a physical barrier. Let’s look at the options:

Cloches – if you only have a few seedlings to protect, homemade cloches are the way to go. They prevent crawling and scampering predators alike.

Floating Row Cover – this lightweight fabric allows sunlight and water to penetrate, but keeps bugs, birds and other predators away from your precious seeds and seedlings. See it in action in this Pea Protection post.

Bird netting – a nylon mesh netting that keeps birds from hunting in your beds. We cover our strawberries and fruit trees with it to keep squirrels and rats from investigating our future harvest. Use U-pins to keep the netting in place.

Diligence – keep your plants and seeds covered until they are big enough and have a strong enough root system to withstand the elements on their own. Check regularly under whatever cover you decide to use for damage (then you’ll know if you have a breach somewhere).

Try these and report back your finding. Good luck!

Hey fellow gardenerds – if you  have any other suggestions, post your ideas here.

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. Avril Parsons

    Hello. My sprouts and cabbage seeds have shot up and I bought a fine net to keep out the insects but they are still being eaten. Why???

    1. Christy

      Avril, it could be soil-borne insects like sowbugs, pillbugs, earwigs, grasshoppers, or Bagrada bugs (depending on where you live). Inspect the garden at night with a flashlight to see which critters are doing the damage. Then take action once you figure out who is doing the work.

  2. Bihonyi Mussa

    You have been of help. Thank you so much

  3. Bihonyi Mussa

    What do i do when my seeds are eaten by surbubs

    1. Christy

      I don’t know what a “surbub” is, but generally speaking if your seeds are being eaten by critters before they sprout, use garden fabric or bird netting to keep the bed covered until they germinate and develop roots.

  4. Janine

    I had the same problem. It was a combination of possums and rats/mice. For the fence and raised garden bed edges I smeared a mixture of Vics Vapor Rub and Vasaline (petroleum jelly) which Possums hate the smell and feel of. For the rats/mice I threw out little pouches that only rodents are attracted to (not cats and birds) which contain bait. Fixed in 2 days. No netting or cloches required.

    1. Christy

      Awesome suggestions! I’m curious to know more about the pouches, Janine. Are they mesh? Did you stuff them with something treated with the Vics?

      1. Deb Woodin

        I am curious about the pouches too. Something is eating all of our newly planted corn seeds daily and we have the garden covered in netting.

  5. Brooke

    Thanks for the homemade cloches idea. After all my lettuce was eaten I replanted the seeds with soda bottles and the are doing great!

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