Home & Garden Garden Vent
- Thread starter Ladybug09
- Start date
yes, they'll come right up and snatch and small dog or cat with the owner standing next to it.
Coyotes will do a very efficient job keeping down the population of gophers and rabbits, probably even squirrels. Does your new neighborhood have foxes? Often they live where the coyotes are. Foxes are even more efficient predators. Problem with poison is that it will work its way through the food chain. It will ultimately poison the owls, hawks and foxes that eat the poisoned rabbits, mice, etc. A neighbor used to live trap rabbits that found their way into her garden and set them free in a park. Seems like the rabbit abundance in my garden cycles through the seasons. Some years there's an over-population that is nibbling down my hosta, the next year I'm cleaning up rabbit remains left by coyotes and there isn't a rabbit to be seen. Over the years I've planted a preponderance of bushes and plants that the rabbits won't eat. Unfortunately they do love rose bushes and even a multi-layer chicken wire fence won't keep them away from those.
don't know if there are foxes around but where there is open space there are coyotes......I think the squirrels are probably doing most of the damage. There are lots of holes in the ground. could be made by squirrels or gophers. The poison DH wants to use is like a blood thinner. Apparently this wouldn't harm other animals that would possibly eat the dead squirrels. and they would be in a trap. This is disgusting to think about but these things are very destructive and if we want any plants at all we have to do something.
The anti-coagulation poisons cause a slow death. The professional pest controllers here use them for rats. Have seen the effects on a rat which cat caught, basically this poor thing was bleeding out into his flesh, it looked like his innards were dissolving - it was horrific. Don't get me wrong, I think rats are vermin but this was something else to see.
oh.....
oh.....IDK what we're going to do. some people trap them and then drown them. some relocate them but you have to take them far away or they will just make their way back. living in a house with just dirt and weeds isn't appealing. One guy we talked to says he adopts a litter of feral kittens I think but if you got them young like that they'd be easy prey for coyotes, hawks, etc.
Do you shoot? If you have the time & patience, my friend's husband shoots them with an air rifle - although I guess that's not for the faint hearted either.
Maybe you could find out what plants they don't eat and use those? Perhaps you could see how your neighbours cope and get some inspiration from there?
Maybe you could find out what plants they don't eat and use those? Perhaps you could see how your neighbours cope and get some inspiration from there?
seems like the gophers are a big part of the problem and you never see them.....they're mostly underground
Neighbors aren't much help. The neighbors who were in the adjacent property (who have since moved) basically told us forget about having any plants. We do have a Crown of Thorns plant in a pot that's covered in red flowers. The stems are thorny and I don't think they can eat that so we'll get more of those.
I don't think it's all doom and gloom, dirt and weeds. We have a pretty lush yard in spite of a heavy population of rabbits. In fact I have five large flower gardens and I don't think any of them have suffered. Occasionally I get some tulips mowed down. One year I had an entire hosta border decimated, but it was a drought year and the rabbits were going after the moisture in the hosta stems. Otherwise, except for a little nibbling occasionally, they pretty much leave the hosta alone. They love lilies, but I have an entire garden of lilies and hosta and in spite of the garden harboring at least one rabbit nest each season they never touch anything in that garden. They chomped down a young arbor vitae border over the course of a few seasons, but then I discovered techny arborvitae which rabbits hate. The techny I've planted over the years is a gorgeous improvement on that scrawny arbor vitea from garden stores and rabbits never touch it.
There are so many, many plants that rabbits won't touch. Peonies, irises, glads, dahlia, phlox, geraniums, begonia, Indian paintbrush. If you do a native planting you'll find a lot of the native wildflowers are rabbit-proof. And then there are flowering bushes rabbits won't touch: lilac, Athena, hibiscus, honeysuckle. Most evergreens like juniper, cedar, tamarack, Japanese yew are safe. Rabbits are very specific in their tastes.
In our yard they chew down the spirea bushes in the winter, but only certain species of spirea attract their interest. And only young bushes in certain places. When the spirea grow to a certain size they won't touch them. And they won't touch the spirea that are surrounded by rocks.
Although they like cultivated rose bushes they won't touch wild or native roses, so we have some of those and the rabbits never touch them. Those are lovely and require little care and no pruning.
So I would let them be. See what if any rabbit damage you get over the years and then plant accordingly. If you plant a vegetable garden you may want to consider a raised bed with chicken-wire fencing. But again, the rabbits will only go after certain things like green beans.
If you plant a raised bed with rock borders they will usually stay out. They hate raised beds.
As for feeding a feral family of cats...A neighbor was feeding a feral tribe and a coyote family set up camp practically at her front door. The cats were easy pickings. Between all the coyotes in her front yard and the cats in the back yard...well, the neighbors had a fit and complained to the city.
For gophers...organic castor oil granules will convince them to dig elsewhere. I've had good luck with the castor oil granules and so have our neighbors. And squirrels never cause any trouble. I can't see the point of poisoning them.
thanks for all that info. the squirrels at our place are ground squirrels, not tree squirrels and it seems they do like to chew on plants. DH planted a bunch of yucca plants along the fence line. they chewed on some and some were actually destroyed.
I have no experience with ground squirrels. Chipmunks, prairie dogs, but not the sort of squirrels you have. According to Wikipedia they do eat other small rodents--mice, voles, moles. So maybe they do have their advantages. They must be pretty aggressive eaters if they're chewing on yucca plants?
yes, them and the gophers.....we have lots of holes on the property
Someone DH knows had a huge barrel cactus that was very prickly. They couldn't eat the top but they sucked the roots out from underground - killed it. This guy (who believe it or not used to do rabbit rescue) traps the rodents and drowns them
