When young plants poke through the garden soil, colorful berries begin to ripen and leaves flutter in a summer breeze, it’s a big disappointment to go outside one morning and find destruction.

Green beans nibbled to a nub. Plants picked clean of strawberries. Tree trunks missing bark.

Animal visitors had a party at your place during the night.

Master gardener Dennis Culley of Chicora said the most common animal pests in yards and gardens are deer, rabbits, moles and skunks.

“Moles and skunks like the grubs that are in the ground. So if you can kill the grubs, they won’t stay around,” he said.

Moles make tunnels in the yard and kick the soil out, but skunks tear the turf apart.

“It will look like a kid went out with a shovel and started digging around,” Culley said.

If the turf is loose and can be picked up like a carpet, he said it usually means there is a good grub supply.

Milky spore helps eradicate grubs according to Betty Paugh of Oesterling’s Lawn and Garden in Butler.

“It is a bacteria that will spread out through your lawn,” she said.

It doesn’t hurt pets or people, but she said it can take two years to become fully effective. It is guaranteed to work for 10 years.

To keep deer and rabbits away, Culley recommended fencing.

Culley said plants enjoyed by deer include fir trees, Eastern redbud trees, winged euonymus (also known as burning bush), clematis, rhododendron, azaleas, yews and tulips.

“(Deer) are selective,” he said. “Once they find what they love, they bring the kids in and have a little picnic.”

He said some vegetation rarely damaged by deer include barberry, common boxwood, American holly, Colorado blue spruce and Japanese pieris.

Some of these have sharp leaves and edges making them unpleasant for deer, said Rick Miller, store manager for Butler Agway.

A low-voltage electric fence is another way to discourage animal visitors without hurting them. Miller said this is a good solution for protecting large areas from deer.

“It’s just going to give the message to go somewhere else,” said Miller.

A fence to prevent rabbit snacking and ground hog banquets is more effective if a few inches of it are buried in the ground.

“Bend the bottom of the fence at a 90-degree angle,” Culley said. “A lot of diggers will quit because they keep running into the fence.”

Paugh said a garden fence doesn’t have to be high to keep out a ground hog.

“He’s not going to climb it. He’s going to try to dig underneath the wire,” she said.

Paugh said gardeners can use hardware cloth or any fencing that small creatures can’t pass through. She said a fence is just one way to stop chipmunks who like to dig seeds out of the ground and who enjoy munching on strawberries. Repellents are another choice.

She said some packaged repellents contain common kitchen seasonings, such as garlic, cinnamon, cloves, white pepper, rosemary and thyme. Chipmunks and other pesky animals don’t like the smell of these mixtures.

Paugh said none of the animals like the concentrated juice of hot peppers.

“They won’t eat the things it is sprayed on,” she said. “It’s going to burn their mouth.”

“It doesn’t hurt them or the plants,” Miller said.

Miller said the repellents that work through taste and smell teach the animals to stay away.

He said, “Marigolds will actually discourage some rabbits. They need to be the old fashioned marigolds that have the strong smell.”

To prevent chipmunks and burrowing rodents from digging bulbs, Miller said some people buy oyster shells to put in their gardens.

Culley said there are many plants that rabbits and squirrels do not like, for example, ageratum, impatiens, scabiosa and cineraria. Among the perennials, examples include yarrow, coral bells, artemisia, aster, tuberous begonias, campanula, dahlias, bleeding heart and cone flower.

He said people also use animal urine from predators, dried blood and black pepper and bone meal.

Culley said labels for repellent products will indicate what animals they are supposed to deter.

“Read the label in the store so you know what equipment you need like sprayers, gloves, glasses,” he said.

Miller tells people to try to figure out what is causing the damage. But even with the right repellent or a good fence, he said it isn’t always possible to keep animals away from what’s planted.

“When there is nothing else to eat, you’ll be surprised what they’ll eat,” Miller said.

The most common question Paugh gets about animal pests is how to repel them.

“Most people don’t want to kill them. They just want them to stay out of their gardens,” she said.

When Culley is stumped for answers, he visits extension websites. Get to Penn State Extension from http://extension.psu.edu/butler. One of Culley’s favorite places to visit, especially when he wants videos, is “If Plants Could Talk” at http://ifplantscouldtalk.rutgers.edu.