|
Post by breezygardener on Jul 20, 2023 17:52:55 GMT -5
I can see them investigating the fertilizer - especially if it was organic - but pulling up the pepper plants is a mystery to me. I have platoons of everything nature can throw at me, but I've never had anything (apart from insects) touch my tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or potatoes.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Jul 20, 2023 22:26:51 GMT -5
Yes, the fertilizer was organic…and stinky.
I checked the pepper this evening…it’s making a comeback…maybe. Some of the lower leaves are no longer wilted. I’ll have to check earlier tomorrow morning, just in case he strikes again. I doubt he’ll bother the garden…marshmallows await in the live trap.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 14, 2023 22:43:11 GMT -5
A few days ago, I was out near the garden shed, and just as I glanced that way, I saw a brown butt going under the shed. The moment was so brief, I couldn’t be sure what I saw.
Game camera went out …the first day/night, we had some chipmunks, with their pouches full of acorns, playing kissy face, two rabbits, and two raccoons very interested in something under the shed.
The second period of recording shows two raccoons and a groundhog. The raccoons were visiting during the overnight hours, but the groundhog was visiting early afternoon to early evening. It’s hard to know who to bait the live trap for.
|
|
|
Post by gianna on Aug 15, 2023 6:19:03 GMT -5
It’s hard to know who to bait the live trap for. You use only one trap? When I'm seriously at war with critters, I tend to set two or three of them.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 15, 2023 10:48:58 GMT -5
gianna, one critter per day is enough to deal with.
|
|
|
Post by gianna on Aug 15, 2023 11:03:17 GMT -5
one critter per day is enough to deal with. That I understand. When I set more than one trap, I like the odds of catching something. I feel lucky to get just one.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 15, 2023 20:27:53 GMT -5
Checking the camera for overnight/today visitors, there’s two raccoons, a groundhog, and a large rabbit.
A groundhog visiting two days in a row isn’t a visitor. I think he’s a resident. Cam showed him crawling out from under the shed about 8:30 this morning.
Live trap is set with marshmallows for bait. Raccoons love ‘em.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 16, 2023 21:10:10 GMT -5
One of the raccoons had a late night snack of marshmallows…he doesn’t live here anymore. So we’re down one raccoon, but hubby saw the old battered looking ground hog today, and he has a friend. Just great. And they were down by the garden.
|
|
|
Post by gianna on Aug 17, 2023 9:49:11 GMT -5
Congrats on the critter removal. The battle with critters never ends. If you build it, they will come.
We used to get more raccoons here (they'd wash their food on the top step of the now gone swimming pool- where my main garden currently is). I do still see some tracks however. But they seem more interested in the fish pond and let my produce alone. I think. My main damaging garden critters, besides the snails, are the bunnies and ground squirrels and gophers. I usually see one of them running away every morning. Fortunately I've never had to deal with ground hogs.
|
|
|
Post by Mumsey on Aug 17, 2023 15:36:48 GMT -5
binnylou He and his friend probably have a family!
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 17, 2023 21:45:00 GMT -5
24 hour activity, either game cam capture or actual siting…15 turkeys, 4 deer, 2 groundhogs, a bunny, a rabbit (probably bunny’s mom), and 3 raccoons. The raccoon count does not include the one that moved away.
the live trap is set for the night, baited with carrots, honeydew melon, and marshmallows. If one of the critters is caught tonight, I’m guessing it will be a raccoon. Per the game cam clock, they wander in once full dark has arrived. Mr. Groundhog appears to be a late sleeper, crawling out from under the shed about 8:30 a.m.
When picking tomatoes this evening, the deer had just moved under the oak to munch acorns. The Oak tree hangs over part of the garden. I told them to leave…one started huffing…I screeched back…they took off but didn’t go far. They are obsessed about those acorns. Brother thinks I should wear a referee’s whistle to warn them.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Aug 20, 2023 9:37:32 GMT -5
Raccoon # 17 last night. There must be hundreds of them in our little area.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Sept 4, 2023 18:48:50 GMT -5
It’s hard to catch that pesky ground hog when a raccoon continually beats him to the trap.
|
|
|
Post by breezygardener on Sept 5, 2023 14:00:00 GMT -5
I had my first groundhog deck-plant predation the other night. Found the nice potted "Adobe Orange" echinacea that I bought just a couple of weeks ago mowed down. It's slowly coming back, but still. Plant is now residing on a table. Since deer don't care for echinacea, I apparently wrongly assumed that it would be ditto for groundhogs. Not.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Sept 7, 2023 13:55:09 GMT -5
Two legged or four legged…that’s the question. Somebody/something visited my garden overnight. A few days ago, I just had the feeling that I should have more ripe tomatoes than was available for harvest. I can’t say for sure, it’s just a feeling. This morning when I went to the garden, the east gate was open about 18 inches, pushed inward. I never push the gate inward. It’s a heavy metal gate wide enough to drive the tractor through. I always pull it outward. The vertical part of the gate rests on a concrete paver, so there’s some drag when opening the gate. Nothing seems to be bothered…I did have a small amount of water in a bucket and that is mostly gone, but the bucket wasn’t tipped over as I expected. I had left water in it, expecting a raccoon or groundhog visit. Of all the goodies in the garden, nothing seems to be nibbled. Would a deer push his way through the gate? There’s 5 strand electric fence adjacent to the gate, and the deer seem to respect it. The water being gone from the bucket indicates deer, but I just can’t believe that a deer would get that close to a hot fence. And if it was a deer, wouldn’t I find nibbling on the green beans? ******************** update…checking that garden gate this evening, I see that whatever critter found it’s way in to the garden, pushed so hard on the chicken wire that it created a bulge in the wire and broke the zip tie that attached the chicken wire to the lower level of the gate. It had to be a deer…or a bear. We don’t have bears, I think/hope. I secured the gate with a chain tonight. It’s had a chain since the fence was installed, but never felt the need to use it.
|
|