How to stop wild turkeys from ripping up a Berkeley garden

DEAR JOAN: I’m writing to ask if you have any suggestions for controlling turkeys. This large and growing destructive flock is digging up and eating plants in my garden.

Kathy, Berkeley

DEAR KATHY: It might be hard to believe, but wild turkeys, which played such an important role in the survival of newly arrived Europeans in the 1600s, were nearly extinct by the start of the 20th century.

Hunting and destruction of habitat nearly wiped out the turkey population, which was estimated at 10 million when the first settlers arrived. Through conservation efforts, the number is now close to 7 million.

Turkeys aren’t native to California. They came here with settlers in the 1800s, who brought domesticated flocks, some of which escaped into the wild. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife also introduced wild turkeys to the state starting in 1959 as a way to encourage hunting.

The turkeys have expanded their range over the years, and global warming, paired with loss of habitat from fires, have wildlife scientists predicting the turkeys will move northward, which means we’re likely to see more turkeys in gardens.

There is good news. Turkeys, despite their reputation for being stupid, are actually quite bright and when they sense they aren’t welcome somewhere, they pick up the hint before it can even hit the floor.

When you find turkeys in your garden, you need to throw tennis balls at them, beat on pots, blast air horns, yell, squirt them with a hose or run toward them while rapidly opening and closing an umbrella. As long as you don’t harm them, it’s legal to haze them.

Because turkeys remember every frightening encounter they’ve had, they’ll likely leave your garden alone. However, all those insects and tasty seed pods are tempting, so pepper your garden with shiny objects. Tie reflective ribbon to stakes and hang old CDs or tin pie pans around so they move, flash and sparkle in the breeze. The unpredictable movements of these objects will make the turkeys wary.

DEAR JOAN: The lady with the hole-digging critter problem probably will not get relief by having a fence that’s sunk 3 feet. This year, we’ve been inundated with a burrowing pest that’s dug under the sidewalks and driveways and displaced the underlayment of gravel. The holes are all over our neighborhood and extreme in the open space across the street from us. It’s like a huge Whack-A-Mole game. Some of the holes are gaping, and your foot could fall in!

We’ve lived here for more than 30 years and never have seen this kind of digging. I think it’s either moles or ground squirrels. Can the City of San Jose or county help?

Jona Denz-Hamilton, San Jose

DEAR JONA: What you describe is classic ground squirrel behavior. They typically do not burrow deeper than 2 feet, so hardware cloth buried that deep should thwart them.

You should definitely let whatever governing agency is responsible for the open space know about the ground squirrels, although I suspect they already do. Ground squirrels, a native species, are very difficult to control.

Contact Joan Morris at jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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