Humans and animals compete for space

    Gardeners have forever struggled to protect their produce against little critters with a taste for vegetables. Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Supervisor Don Pfeiffer said that fighting over plants in a garden is not the only place where the human and animal worlds collide, but it is the one most commonly cited as a problem by property owners.

    ?The biggest pest that people report is rabbits in their garden,? said Pfeiffer. ?The reason the rabbits are there is because they have found habitat they like.?

    Pfeiffer also mentioned groundhogs, which plague not just gardeners but property owners in general.

    ?People don?t like groundhogs because they burrow around buildings, and they eat food from the garden such as beans, peas, alfalfa, flowers and any kind of legume.?

    Pfeiffer said that people often feel threatened by groundhogs because of their size. He said that, generally speaking, people overreact to animal problems. He said he has a hard time convincing people that some animals are not as harmful as people think they are.

    ?If you?re worried about rabbits, put up a fence or put half an apple in a live trap,? said Pfeiffer.

    A live trap is a trap that does not kill or injure the animal.

    A few animals are known to carry diseases, and Pfeiffer recommends looking out for them. He mentioned a starling, which he described as ?very filthy.?

    ?Starlings carry different diseases such as salmonella, and they usually have mites, too,? said Pfeiffer.

    Pfeiffer said that starlings like to make nests in garages and any other place out of the elements. He said they make their way into garages because the owner has left a window open or because there is a hole in the garage. He mentioned one instance in which a homeowner filled four garbage bags of straw from their garage that a group of starlings had brought in.

For more, see our May 19 print edition.