Me vs. Squirrel(?)
Whatever dug up my beetroot seedlings and knocked over my tomato containers last week, came back for a second go yesterday. After very carefully replanting, repotting and cleaning up the absolute mess this creature created, I’m now faced with playing plant hospital with all my poor traumatised plants once again.
I had no idea that I would have to be dealing with fending off wildlife, being a good 10 metres off ground level…but now I have to figure out a good strategy for protecting my seedlings so they don’t get dug up again. I think I’m going to go and get some mesh for the container boxes and try and figure out suitable positions for the little pots so they can’t get knocked over again.
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This entry is about Nic's
London, NW6, United Kingdom
Buzz buzz buzz!
Listen in on the Grapevine
Janietta wrote:
It could be birds.
Pigeons are clumsy and crows are big. We have American versions of both, and they love to do things like take one bite out of a tomato, sit on top of seedlings (or yank them out by the roots), and generally make a mess of things.
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Dee wrote:
I would say its birds or even a neighbours cat
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Linda Mae wrote:
Oh not again! Mine haven’t been back thus far. The mesh does work until the seedlings are established you need to anchor it down at the sides or they will push it off the top of the pot. I can normally tell if it’s squirrels rather than birds because they really dig down into the pot. Someone around here leaves nuts out for them all year and so I find those which they’ve been trying to bury.
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Nath wrote:
We’re not sure exactly what it is yet as I’ve seen squirrels, crows and magpies on the back terrace. My guess is a squirrel as whatever it is does do a lot of digging and flicking dirt all over our terrace.
I’ve been considering leaving nuts on the terrace to divert it’s attention but I think that would either encourage it (and possible more) or as, Linda Mae said, it would just dig more to bury them.
Maybe we should but out a tray of seeds and hope that it becomes useful and does the planting for us :)
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Nax wrote:
I put mesh at ground level which seems to be keep the diggers away from my new beans, but I’m having to individually snip openings for each seedling or the mesh bends it over. Tedious, but better I guess than losing all the plants. I keep waiting for some stupid squirrel to decide to walk across it and get tangled.
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Trisha wrote:
I use a wire mesh (very small mesh – plastic coated chicken wire) which, once cut to the size of your pots and trays can be used again and again or make a wire mesh cloche to reuse… If it’s birds doing the damage then you could try scaring them, windchimes, streamers, kites, etc all work quite well at keeping off birds.
Posted on 09 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete
Cmagnus wrote:
I just bought a bobble-headed-owl. I don’t know if it will work on my chipmunks, but it’s fun to have either way.
Posted on 11 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago) | delete