critters in the garden

[morgansrgr8]

Yesterday I walked past my mini's and saw something crawling through the groundcover. I figured it to be a vole or something like it. grrrrrr. This morning I saw it again but was a bit quicker to react. I stomped. Got that little pest and threw it to the chickens. A little of the groundcover will need to spring back but my hosta are safer. He probly had friends so I will keep an eye out for them. VOLES BEWARE I AM ON TO YOU.

[ogrefcf]

That's great, good reflexs! The pond I put in this year is causing a big influx of snakes. I caught one eating a fish with one in it's belly last week. I love snakes, but if any more of my fish turn up missing heads will roll.

[morgansrgr8]

I like snakes too, they put a little control on my chipmunk population. But at the moment the chipmunks are bigger than the snakes I have seen. I see 2 northern water snakes swim pass me every nite in the creek. Shame they are still babies. Their parents live on the other side of the house that the chipmunks have taken over. See them every time I go out the back door. And they yell at me. The nerve, its my garden first. LOL A very large black snake lives on the other side of the road. My snakes keep him out of my yard. They dont play nice together.

[Mark Raw]

And there's me thinking I did well to trap a mouse.

[Bob Scott]

I'm thinking I need a quieter pellet gun for the cute little bunnies that SWARM my hostas.
Gunshots in the old neighborhood were pretty much ignored. This place is waaaay to quiet. Kinda spooky actually!

[jgh]

People seem to turn a blind eye to my pellet gun - but I've got to consider a .22 with subsonic loads for those dxxx woodchucks - pellets bounce right off them.

I'm feeling pretty smug about my pond design - a small rectangular pond right on top of the deck. With our old backs, we don't have to lean very far to feed and enjoy the fish and plants - can even sit next to it and have the surface about a foot below eye level. And it seems to have protected them from the casual bird and varmint fish eater. Haven't even seen sign of raccoons - and with the rocks and depth they'd have a hard time catching those 3rd year Walmart goldfish...

But don't ask me what the little suckers did to my pots of Katsuragawa Beni or the entire vegetable bed. One night - they cleared it like teenage boys at a pizza buffet...

[jerryshenk]

Has anybody ever used coffee grounds as a deterrent? I think it works...or at least helps. Last year, my wife planted a bunch of impatiens in a shady spot and they did great till one day about half of 'em were chewed off. I got some used coffee grounds from Starbucks and spread 'em around and didn't have any problems the rest of the year. I also re-applied a couple times. This year, she planted more impatiens and I went to Starbucks and got 3 5lb bags of the stuff and made a circle around them.

If you've never done this, you can just go to Starbucks and ask. Actually, you probably don't even need to ask as their is probably a bucket near the door or the cash register that they put the grounds in. If there isn't any there, you can just ask and they will normally just clean out their machines right there for you. Much of the grounds will be "plugs" from the expresso machines - if I have a lot (3 bags was a lot), I dump them into my wheelbarrow, let them dry a bit and break them up with a garden rake.

[morgansrgr8]

Now I know where to put my coffee grounds This morning I see where a chipmunk has dug up one of my seedlings. As for my veggy garden last year I didnt get a single squash or melon. The groundhog hid his hole in the middle of my garden under the horseradish leaves. Didnt find it until the end of the season. This year we have been doing groundhog patrol. Hope to at least keep them at bay. I know we have killed at least 3 but this morning hubby saw at least 4 more of them. They are reproducing faster than we can get rid of them. They are distroying the neighbors barn undermining the foundation. Somebody said gum will kill them but I dont see any evidence of that. I'm getting to be a pretty good shot. Anybody else have good luck with coffee grounds. I know it will help the ground at least.

[morgansrgr8]

Well I set a rat trap for the chipmunk yesterday. Before the day was over I checked it and it was covered in ants. This morning there was a large mouse in it. Now what can I use the ants wont carry away. grrrrrr

[kaylyred]

Chipmunks are the bane of my gardening existence. Every time I hear that "Chip! Chip! Chip!" sound out in the yard I go *twitch! twitch! twitch!*

I've had good luck with chipmunk traps. I use Happy Traps baited with birdseed, which seems to do the trick. I posted a link below for anyone interested.

Happy Traps link

[Chris_W]

I never really believed people when they said that chipmunks were eating their hostas. Well, I apologize for not believing you, if any of your are reading this. I have one that has developed a big appetite for hostas, and seems to take glee in their destruction. One day I was getting ready to dig a big clump of Paradise Backstage and put my pitchfork at the end of the row but decided to take a lunch break. When I came back the leaves were all cut down and there was a chipmunk hole next to it. I dug a different one, and later saw the little b&*%#$@ going back and eating the leaves it had left there. After a week that plant started to regrow and he ate the same one down again! This critter has to go, so thanks for the tip on bird seed. That sounds better than baiting with that Paradise Backstage he seems to love so much...

[ogrefcf]

I prefer the sub sonic .22 method

[jgh]

My friend uses a very effective chipmunk trap that we are too squeamish to use... but it works.

Five gallon pail, 2/3 full of water. Board at angle from the ground to the lip of the pail. a little birdseed on the ramp and some floating on the surface of the water. Come back a few hours later and fish them out... often more than one... and rebait. We couldn't stand watching and listening to them drown - but it works and can really bring down a population fast.

It doesn't sound too humane, but I'm not sure getting eaten by a cat or eagle is particularly gentle... drowning might not be so bad...

[Bob Scott]

When I did natural earth work with terriers I never had a critter problem in the yard. With my two GSDs their hearts are in it the right place but they're like a bull in a china shop so letting them loose in the hosta gardens would be a disaster.
There are some good, high velocity (12-1500 fps) pellet rifles out there with silencers. That will be my next step.
I don't have a chuck problem here and I've seen 22 shorts bounce off them but I think one of these could do the trick with just a bit of good shooting.

[Linda P]

I would be too squeamish to do the pail trap, too. I always thougth chipmunks were cute little critters, but I
guess I should count myself lucky that I don't have any.

[morgansrgr8]

I started using a live trap baited with peanutbutter yesterday. Within an hour I had one and this morning two more. So with 3 down its working pretty good. Tho I do have to be tough to lower them into the creek to drown. I dont want to get bit. They seem to love the peanutbutter.

[kaylyred]

I prefer the sub sonic .22 method

I'm pretty sure, living within the city limits, that would get me arrested...or at least fined.

I've never been able to kill my trapped chipmunks--I don't have the heart for it. (Although sometimes my two greyhounds and shiba inu take up the task. Unfortunately, the chipmunks know that the hounds and the shiba never get outside of the fenced yard, and there are plenty of hostas in the front.) When we trap a chipper, we take it and release it about a mile from our house in grassy area by the river.

I've never had them eat an entire hosta down, but they do nibble and dig their damn holes all over the place. They've also eaten buds off my toad lilies. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The chipmunk actually scaled the stalk, which bent down with his weight, and was gleefully munching off all the buds. I had no flowers that year. Hopefully it was just one clever chipmunk. I haven't had it happen since.

[morgansrgr8]

This morning the chipmunks declared war. And war is what they will get. This chipmunk will let me get so close it makes me crazy. This is what he did this morning to one of my mini's. There isnt much left of this tiny thing.

[rockNhostas]

Oh those naughty little things!

I have a chipmunk that is filling it's cheeks with sunflower seeds from the bird feeder and planting them in my mulch. I have clumps of sunflower sprouts all over the place. At least he's leaving my plants alone....for now anyway.

We have a lot of hawks here, so hopefully nature will take care of the problem...

[jgh]

I was working on a section of deck once and I must have disturbed a chipmunk because he kept coming up and "shouting" at me. This went on for a half an hour... he'd disappear, then come a little closer and a little closer - noisy and aggressive - until he kind of creeped me out. I eventually, instinctively, popped him on the head with the hammer in my hand. That also creeped me out. Anybody else remember the Beatles and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer?"