Garden Adversity

[McDonough]

I've always wondered about cactus gardens in suburban areas, whether small animals, or even dogs, get stuck.  Now I know   These days I don't have much compassion for squirrels and chipmunks, although I too would feel bad about one stuck in such a prickly situation, thanks for showing this example.

At any given time, there are a dozen+ gray squirrels on or close-by my property, dozens more all around nearby, there are red squirrels too. When I'm inspired to temporarily reduce the population, I use two Havahart (non-lethal) traps, a larger one for gray squirrels, and a smaller one for chipmunks and red squirrels. They're easy to catch with either peanuts or peanut butter as bait.  I release the catch about a mile away.  One has to be discreet about relocating these rodents, as I've heard you can get fined for doing this (although ironically it's perfectly okay to kill them if one is so inclined, but I don't kill them).  This gets tedious, but after a couple weeks of trapping and relocating 10-20 varmints, I can be relatively squirrel/chipmunk free for a couple weeks, but soon new ones move in.

[James McGee]

Having an outdoor cat would also scare off your rodents.  They say females are the best since they actually stick around.

Someone abandoned a cat at an apartment complex where I used to live.  The previous owners had declawed the cat so it was unable to hunt for itself.  We felt sorry for the cat and fed it.  Once this cat had regained its strength after a few weeks we stopped feeling sorry for it.  When it was not desperately hungry, it was a really mean cat.  It started chasing me around my apartment trying to attack me.  I took a towel, caught the cat in it, and put it back outside.

We watched this cat chase the squirrels around.  The fat town squirrels were not very predator savy.  The cat never caught the squirrels, just ran circles around them until they escaped up a tree.  This kind of cat would be a good deterrent to keep squirrels out of a garden.

In the end, this cat ended up in some animal rescue cat barn in the country.  A cat that attacks people is not exactly the adoptable type.

James

[McDonough]

In the end, this cat ended up in some animal rescue cat barn in the country.  A cat that attacks people is not exactly the adoptable type.

James

There are 3 roaming neighborhood cats in my yard all the time (every day), and they're hunting.  So far, I have only found evidence of moles (rare) and mourning doves being killed (mourning doves love to sit on the ground to sun themselves, thus easy prey).  The squirrel/chipmunk/vole/mole population doesn't seem the slightest bit deterred.  Personally, I think having a cat to do the job is a red herring.  In fact, I'm irritated by cats who come into the yard and spray (stinks) or those who use rock-garden sandy soil as their toilet, either digging up plants in one's sandy beds, or worse yet, burying their turds in the soil and then the gardener "discovering" the foul turd squeezed within their hand while planting or cultivating an area.

[James McGee]

Personally, I think having a cat to do the job is a red herring. 

Mark, I let someone who actually has a garden/greenhouse cat take this one.

James

[externmed]

Ah yes, garden adversity.  I've been making vole feeders the last two days. Stryrofoam dinner plates on top of  styrofoam bowls, with 3 little feet and a one inch mouse hole on the low side.  I feel like Caddyshack, but the voles girdled almost everything up to a 8 inch apple tree last season *and collected* and ate large mounds of tulips and crocus.  The resurgence of coyotes make cats a doubtful prospect.  Then there are the deer (with Lyme disease for us) woodchucks and rabbits - and - slugs and snails, misc. caterpillars, spider mites and ants which seem to particularly like my sand bed - especially the part that I specially prepared for Lewisia rediviva; and fungus.  (Oh I forgot beavers, they haven't been a problem in the garden, yet as far as I know.) 

So Mark are Alliums impervious to any or most of these?; if so, watch out, I may be converting to all Allium.

Crazy extremely warm November.  Realized yesterday that Allium thunbergii is full of ripe seeds--never matured seed before.  Many Crocus, Alliums and some Colchicum have foliage up, way too much.  Forecast to go to 14F tonight and then 45+F in a few days with rain.  Made up my mind I'm going to cover the tender stuff today with pine needles.  With info from all accounts, will resist the urge to cover cacti. Though covering with a sash open on the ends seems safe.

Good luck to all with  their adversities.

Charles S MA USA Z 6a+/-

[Peter George]

All I can say about cats is that I have 2 that go outside, and in the past 10 years I've had no squirrels, no chipmunks and a very tiny number of voles in the gardens. Once in a while a find a bird, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 a summer, but I find at least 5 dead voles every week from April through October. I grow catnip in my 'butterfly' garden, and the cats love to congregate there, so they stay close to the plants most of the time.

So from my standpoint, cats are a huge benefit. And my property is about 3 1/2 acres, almost entirely surrounded by stone walls, which are normally home to literally hundreds of chipmunks. My cats, by the way, do their 'bathrooming' out of sight, usually behind my barn is the loose soil around the foundation. I don't garden there, nor do I even spend any time there, so it works out perfectly for them and for me.

And one more think; my cats keep neighbor cats off the property, so I don't have to deal with visitors who don't respect my garden beds, etc. And of course being somewhat rural, we have coyotes, foxes, fishers and weasels who also hunt the rodents, and sometimes the local cats, so we don't usually let ours stay out overnight.

[McDonough]

I suspect chipmunk and squirrel populations is not strictly even or averaged situations, there might be influencing factors, with areas of population at much greater density than others.  In my area, mature red oaks are a dominant feature of the deciduous woods, as are black walnut trees, probably supporting much greater populations of these varmints.  The oaks produce incredible profusion of acorns; intended on taking a photo this autumn where it would be easy to gather up wheelbarrows full of acorns in minutes... I thought it would make for a funny photo op, never took the photo though.  Judging from the squirrel diggings this fall, it was a big year for black walnuts too... just went out to toss some vegetable matter in a compost heap, and noticed that even with the ground frozen, there were several fresh large "potholes" in my Epimedium seedling beds... with heavy-thick shells of black walnuts in evidence, several Epimedium seedlings dug up as collateral damage and lying there bare-rooted and frozen...grrrrr!

When I first moved to my current town, my wife and I saw three homes that we liked, one was in a more wooded population, and I remember to this day one thing that struck me most; dozens upon dozens of gray squirrels frolicking about, everywhere one looked... the woods were almost entirely red oak.  Instead, I chose my current location, with a whole acre of sun and some distance from nearby woodlands, the flanking woodlands having lots of sugar maples.  Even so, chipmunks, plus red and gray squirrels are plentiful. In my more ambitious chipmunk removal periods, I could catch as many as 10-12 a day.  Each live critter was put into a large trash barrel with leaves at the bottom, and at the end of the day, I would drive them several miles away to be released.  With the squirrels, I need a new regime and will resort to more drastic measures, trapping them and then...  

Charles, after 24 years in my current location, only recently have woodchucks and rabbits moved in (the last 2 years), the woodchucks being particularly destructive.  I think it's very possible for pests that have not been an issue whatsoever for many years, suddenly become a problem by moving in, and with subsequent broods of young ones, they keep coming back.

Ever since I've been here, I've been battling mole damage... It never gets any better, no relief.  here are a couple photos last winter / early spring, after a thick mantle of 12-18" of snow receded, the tunneling damage in lawn and garden areas can be extensive (even when I winter baited).  One doesn't see the damage until spring.  Regarding Alliums, it's somewhat of a myth that Alliums keep the critters away, they do not, and I have lost large patches of Allium due to tunneling. At times, I feel like Bill Murray in CaddyShack too, going to war with rats with fluffy twitchy tails, and various tunneling vermin.

 

[McDonough]

Sometimes garden adversity happens in small and memorable ways.

I had excellent germination of Aquilegia saximontana from Jane Hendricks seed.  Then one day I noticed a disturbance in the flat, and lo and behold, it was a toad.  Now, I understand the benefits of toads in the garden, invariably I get one or two that'll scoop out a seed pot (they like round ones best) and half bury themselves in their cozy nest,  But why is it they always seem to target the best thing one's growing? 

I gently scooted the little fellow out of the flat, replanted the disturbed seedlings as well as I could, then covered the flat with wire mesh (my new seed sowing standard, otherwise chipmunks, squirrels, and occassional toads, will surely dig in each and every pot).

[Hoy]

Seems that slugs and snails - and occasionally a rat or squirrel - isn't always the worse problem after all

You know Mark, toads or slugs  in pots where you have you most precious plants is as it is according to Murphy's laws 

Red oak, is it Q. rubra? And black walnut, J. nigra?

[Spiegel]

Yesterday was the last day of hunting season and the hunter who has come here for many years bagged his last deer of the year - a mega-doe weighing in at almost 200 lbs.  Her size was probably due to the number of my plants she had been eating.  One more down and too many more to go.

[externmed]

Anne, Congrats on one less deer - probably would have had twins.

Sometimes smoke bombs will work for woodchucks in their holes, usually takes serveral tries.

If I really have to get one, Campanula "Elizabeth" in a sufficiently large have-a-heart seems to work 80%+.  About $7.00 for the plant and nothing left once it's spent several hours in a trap with a woodchuck.

Charles MA USA

[McDonough]

Sometimes smoke bombs will work for woodchucks in their holes, usually takes serveral tries.

If I really have to get one, Campanula "Elizabeth" in a sufficiently large have-a-heart seems to work 80%+.  About $7.00 for the plant and nothing left once it's spent several hours in a trap with a woodchuck.

Charles MA USA

Charles, I have tried the smoke bombs before... one needs to know the entrances to their burrow (if there is more than one), to seal all but one ahead of time, make sure the critter is inside, and light the bomb and cover with some heavy chunks of sod to contain the smoke.  Unfortunately they nest in an area with brush piles that is not easy to access or contain, and of recent, they burrow under my garden shed without any good way of getting at the varmints.  It is yet another project, to excavate around my shed circumferance, and install heavy wire mesh, and backfill.  Maybe I should try your large Havahart trap idea, with the sacrificial Elizabeth Campanula.
http://woodchuck-x.com/smokebomb.htm

Just visited the Havahart website, has anyone tried the Critter Ridder animal repellent?
http://www.havahart.com/store/animal-repellents/3146
http://www.havahart.com/

[Schier]

Sometimes garden adversity happens in small and memorable ways.

  But why is it they always seem to target the best thing one's growing? 

Mark I know, almost any varmint seems to pick on the best thing, the thing that you've tried hardest to grow etc.  I've had too many "heartbreaking" mornings in my little greenhouse, almost unable to believe my eyes. It can't be gone, where the **** is it???
But yes it's gone.  I've been doing the screen thing over the seedlings, kind of a pain in the neck but it works, so screening it is.

[Jan Jeddeloh]

Well, I live in the slug capitol of the world.  Red, black, grey, multicolored, introduced, native we have them all.  As to  the native banana slug which, according to the naturalists, doesn't eat living plants just decaying matter, well, I must have a special breed of banana slug because I can assure you they do eat living plants.  Now that we don't have a dog I'm going to use both the iron phosphate bait and the metaldehyde bait this year. And if it takes out a coyote or two that's all to the good.  I have an indoor/outdoor cat and we always worry about her becoming dinner. 

And moles.  I hate moles.  They always unearth a plant you really care about, not something destined for the compost heap.  We used to have a former barn cat who was really good at catching moles- she knocked off five babies in one day-but she died last spring.  Our remaining cat has a sweet disposition but isn't much for "moleing".  And because of the coyote problem any future cats need to be indoor only.  I can't tell you how many "missing cat" flyers I see around the neighborhood......My hands are both very small and not that strong so setting traps really isn't an option for me. My husband doesn't seem to be willing to do this for me and my neighbor is now a former trapper (really the guy used to work as a fur trapper)  Mostly I just curse...

For anyone who wants to try trapping their stray cats my neighbor did say to make sure you get a fair sized trap.  Cats don't like to crawl into small traps.

Jan
Jan

[McDonough]

This is my new standard seed sowing procedure; all flats or pots must be covered with some sort of protection from digging varmints. This "hardware cloth" is not terribly expensive at a hardware store, it is easily snipped with a pair of wire snips, and easily bent over the flats to hold them in place.  The one thing to look out for is the germinating seedlings popping through the wire mesh and making it difficult to remove the mesh without damaging seedlings.  Typically I watch for germination, and when it occurs, loosen the wire mesh piece and create a sort of teepee or arched "hoop house" effect over the flat... still keeps the squirrels out yet allows the seedlings to grow without getting tangled in the mesh.



Jan, I feel your pain, the slug issue in the Pacific Northwest is not to be underestimated; it was a huge eye-opener when I lived in the Seattle, Washington area.  And yes, banana slugs ate plants like there was no tomorrow.