Foil Garden Pests

You may think aluminum foil is just a handy kitchen product. But it's actually one of the best outdoor tools against pesky pests, as well! Here’s how to put it to work:

Keep out cats. Fill empty 2-liter bottles halfway with water. Add a tiny bit of bleach to prevent algae from growing, and drop 3 long strips of foil into each one. Set the bottles around any areas of your yard you want to protect from unwanted visitors.
Repel birds, rabbits, and raccoons with a flashing fence. Pound stakes into the soil at 3- to 4-foot intervals all around your garden, and run twine between them. Cut aluminum foil into strips that are about 1 inch wide and about 5 inches long, and tape the strips to the twine, spaced out from each other by a foot or so.
Fend off cutworms, which commonly attack young plants, by wrapping foil loosely around the stems of any delicate seedlings. The foil should extend about 2 inches below the ground and 3 inches above. When the stems of your plants reach about ½ inch in diameter and are too thick for cutworms to damage, remove the foil.
Deter flying insects by placing several pieces of aluminum foil on the soil around any plants you want to protect. The reflecting light will confuse the bugs so that they can’t land. Just make sure to poke a few holes in the foil so that water can still reach your plants’ roots.
Stop snails and slugs. These troublemakers will snack on just about any kind of plant under the sun! To keep 'em from munching, simply wrap the base of each plant that you want to protect in a 1-inch piece (or larger, if you’d like) of foil. They'll keep right on movin'.

For more critter-busting quick-tricks, check out our bestselling book, Critter Control & Pest Prevention. You can even try it out FREE for a full 21 days with our Free Preview!

That's a Wrap!

It’s time to take care of any last-minute gift-wrapping! But if your scissors are dull, worn out, and making it impossible to cut through your wrapping paper, you're ready for an upgrade—and here’s one that won’t even cost you a dime!

Sharpen your scissors in a hurry with this simple trick: Just fold a piece of aluminum foil into three or four layers, and cut it into strips with your dull scissors. Eight or ten slices should put those clippers back on the cutting edge. Now, get wrappin'!

And when you’re done with your foil pieces, don’t throw them out! Instead, cut holiday shapes out of cardboard by tracing cookie cutters, and wrap the shapes with your leftover foil pieces (shiny side out). Add stripes by gluing on a few scraps of festive wrap. Punch a hole in each one, and attach string.Then hang them inside—or even outside! They are great for decorating your yard, and that flashy foil will even keep pesky birds away from your fruit trees and berry bushes!

These terrific tricks are from our bestselling book, It Pays to be Cheap! See all the helpful hints it has to offer for FREE with our 21-Day Free Preview. Also, visit our Bookstore to see more of our amazing offers, and sign up for our Free E-Newsletter for special offers and exciting news each week!

That is NOT your litter box!

All across the country these days, more and more folks are doing their gardening in containers. And judging from the letters in my mailbag, the vast majority of them share a common problem: cats that mistake the big pots for their own personal bathrooms. Well, here are four ways to say, “Take your potty break elsewhere!”:

Plant low-growing groundcovers around the base of your potted trees and shrubs. You’ll spiff up the container scheme and keep Fluffy out at the same time.

Saturate cotton balls in lemon-oil furniture polish, and tuck them into the pots. Cats won’t like the smell one bit! One ball will work for a small container; for larger ones, use two or three.

Cover the soil surface with aluminum foil, and spread a thin layer of mulch on top. When Fluffy leaps into the pot to do her duty, the rustling sound and strange feel will make her hop right out again.

Lay prickly branches—like ones you’ve pruned from roses, bramble fruits, or sharp-needled evergreens—on the soil. It’s like posting a “Kitties Keep Out!” sign. 

Hooray—Foiled Again!

You may think of aluminum foil as simply a handy kitchen aid. But its strength and light-reflecting texture make it one of the most potent tools you can have in your pest-control arsenal. Here’s how to put it to work outside:

Make your garden cat-free. Fill empty 2-liter pop bottles halfway with water, and add a few drops of bleach to keep algae from growing. Then drop two or three long, thin strips of aluminum foil into each bottle, and set the containers every few feet around the area you want to protect. The constantly changing reflections from the foil and water will make cats think twice before they venture closer.

Erect a flashing fence. To keep birds and four-legged critters like rabbits and raccoons away from your garden, pound stakes into the soil at 3- to 4-foot intervals all around the plot, and run twine between the stakes. Then cut aluminum foil into strips about 1 inch wide and 5 inches long, and tape them every foot or so to the twine.

Foil cutworms. All seedlings are vulnerable to these pests. To bar the “door,” wrap foil loosely around the stem of each tender young plant. The foil should extend about 2 inches below the ground and 3 inches above. You can remove the wrapping when the stalk is about ½ inch in diameter and too thick for the cutworms to damage.

Fend off slugs. These slimy villains will sink their jaws into just about any kind of plant under the sun. But the good news is that they can’t get through a coat of metallic armor. To protect single-stemmed plants, wrap a 1-inch-high band of crinkled aluminum foil around the bottom of the stem. For multi-stemmed plants, make a foil ring that’s long enough to encircle the whole base of the slugs’ target.

Deter flying insects. When placed on the soil around plants, aluminum foil will deter aphids, moths, thrips, whiteflies, and other destructive and disease-spreading insects. How? The light reflecting off the foil confuses the bugs so much that they can’t land. When you use this trick, it’s important to poke holes a few inches apart in the foil so that water can get down to the plants’ roots. Also, check on it periodically to see if the shiny covering is reflecting too much hot sun onto the foliage. If the plants’ lower leaves appear dry or crinkled, remove the foil immediately and give your plants a nice, cool drink of water.