ideas for area-denial?

[roo_ster]

The motion activated sprinkler is nifty. Maybe instead of an impact sprinkler, you could place "sprinkler hose" on top of the wall & angle it toward the area?

Combine it with prickly plants.

 

[hso]

http://www.cleveland.police.uk/crime_prevention/home_garden/plants.htm

Google "security plants" and you'll be amazed. We have pyracantha under the accessible windows at our house. I don't even go back in there with the evil things if I don't have to.

 

[wingnutx]

I remember trimming the pyracantha as a kid. That stuff is evil. I may get some of that.

 

[hso]

That stuff is evil. I may get some of that.

It's brilliant for keeping people and critters away. Heck, the dogs won't even go in where we've planted the stuff. Song birds love it for nesting since the only thing that can come in after them is a snake.

You can also make wine from the berries!

 

[SomeKid]

Spread corn syrup on the ground where they like to sit and lay. Whether it attracts ants or not is moot, they will be covered in that crap.

 

[tellner]

Osage orange hedges.

 

[Smurfslayer]

How about impaling several CPR dummies on very large stakes as a warning?

If you're handy with wildlife you could make that are the feeding ground for some normally very sedate critters who don't take kindly to strangers. Porcupine family? Rattlesnakes?

 

[wingnutx]

I'll see if I can score some chupacabra pheremones.

 

[Axman]

I agree with the goat heads. I get those growing around my yard and as long as they are killed in the spring they are kept under control. They grow like weeds, um...they are weeds! Or you can put up a fence with a big dog inside!

 

[ilbob]

call the cops?

 

[.45Guy]

Stinging nettles are always unpleasant

 

[KD5NRH]

Anybody ever figure out a way to cultivate bullnettle? I've thought about trying to move some of what we've got out here to more effective locations, but I'd imagine it roots deep, and I don't think I have any gloves good enough to go take cuttings.

 

[.45Guy]

Never dealt with bull nettle. I could send you some root clumps of U. dioica gracilis though .

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

pyrocantha

is evil!
we had a front stoop that the bums liked. our soulution was to hire one guy and let him claim it and police it. we picked a vet who was the least objectionable.he was our private security guard. we paid him though and our cars were never bothered.And nobody ever bothered my g/f when she ca)me home either. only problem we had was he decided that she deserved the parking space in front of house and tried to make sure no one parked there but g/f. the cops made him stop. we gave him 25 a week credit at the corner store no booze allowed on my dime. he had a disability and actually was able to save a lil money. (he got an occaisional meal too)

 

[geekWithA.45]

How about you weld together a pile of of rusted iron, all sharp & pointy edges, and call it art?

Something caltroppish, perhaps.

 

[Randy in Arizona]

wingnutx -

How much Prickly Pear and Cholla cactus would you like for your new cactus garden? I (or SWMBO) will be in Gilbert Thursday (Oct 5th) evening for a wedding reception. Would be happy to haul up a couple or three cubic feet of assorted sharp spiney nastiness in some cardboard boxes if you want it. Just email me at rfalfanut at yahoo dot com in time for me to box it up.

All you would have to do is rake the ground a bit to rough it up, dump the boxes, spread it out and water it occasionally. More of it will grow than you want if you just water it occasionally.

Even if you don't water it, the bums won't want to sit or walk near the stuff just scattered on the ground.

 

[Zundfolge]

You live in the desert right? So get you some Century Plants

A nice cluster of those and the bums will leave.

 

[wingnutx]

Thanks for the offer, but jumping chollas would end up stuck to my cat.

Pulling cholla balls off of an angry, wounded cat does not sound like a fun time.

I do have some prickly pears growing. My neighbors eat them.

 

[bowfin]

So, here we have in this thread a lot of devious suggestions aimed at helping someone throw people off land that isn't even his.

Maybe this quote will help us all get back on the high road:

“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.”

 

[Randy in Arizona]

I have never seen a cat dumb enough to mess with a cactus - my dogs are (unfortunately) a different story!

YMMV

 

[.45Guy]

So, here we have in this thread a lot of devious suggestions aimed at helping someone throw people off land that isn't even his

The OP mentioned extending the wall, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume it is his property.

 

[wingnutx]

It is my property.

A cat (or a person) doesn't really have to try to mess with jumping cholla. Those things sneak up on you like a ninja.

It's really the worst plant that I have ever encountered.

 

[WayneConrad]

We call jumping cholla "puppy eating cactus."

One fine winter day we had the doors and windows open, enjoying the perfect weather. Then we heard something dying. Or perhaps it was one of hell's minions. We didn't know what, but it really raised the hair on the back of one's neck.

A few houses down the street we found a puppy tangled up with a cholla. Nobody home when we knocked on the door, so we bundled it up in a towel and took it to the vet. Sweetie had a heck of a time holding onto it, there being only a few spots on it that weren't covered in cactus pads. We gave our credit card number to the vet to secure payment. The vet had a hard time finding a spot for an IV so it could put the dog under. It took many hours for the vet and two assistants to remove the bowls (yes, bowls) of spines from the poor puppy.

It was bad news to deliver to the neighbor when they returned home. It turns out the puppy had got out when they left to go somewhere. They made good on the bill, which was substantial, and the puppy did alright. I doubt it tangled with another cactus ever again.

I've run into cholla few times out in the desert, but instead of feeling unfortunate, I count my lucky stars that I'm not in the same lot as the puppy that got eaten by a cactus.

 

[Axman]

I have cholla growing in my yard but it's the goat heads that are the nastiest. Them things are hard as nails and feel like them too. I have had goatheads in me that draw blood. Then the sores hurt like hell for days. You could always dig a snake pit and toss a few mohave green rattlers in there. And yes the century plant (agave) is a dangerously pointy plant too.

 

[Autolycus]

Broken glass. That should keep them from coming into the area if you get enough glass.

The food that they dig out of the dumpsters, well put some of your own. And make it special in some way. Something that will make them doubt eating the food from there again.