Danged &%$#@+(^$ Critters!

[JRinPA]

The woods are cut back too far now for coons at my garden spots. I'd definitely do the solar electric for a more country garden. I had never read about them before this summer. It sounds like for squirrels with electric you might need a ground wire run underneath. I almost pulled the trigger on a 12v generator for $60. I have ground rod but I'd probably just use rebar with pvc dropped over it as insulation. That has to be kept well mowed to prevent tall grass shorting it and running down the battery.

I considered thrift shop socks as well but I'd probably ask the lady to point out the stuff that hasn't moved rather than claim some nice ones. I wear 15s so it is hard to find good socks that are big enough. It seems like I never throw socks away, and maybe that is why. I wear military boots daily for years now and I'm just trying to keep my thinner smart wools from falling apart. I have dozens I need to darn. I hate the feeling of cotton gym socks in boots. Those were the first volunteers. Those grey cotton ones are also the ones that seemed to stay damp for a day after that 1/8" of rain. So remember - only the best socks for your corn!

[worth1]

Now I'm waiting for someone to report seeing raccoons running around with socks on.
Maybe even using a sock for a hat.

[slugworth]

Saw a black squirrel the other day.
Will wonders never cease.
A grey squirrel had a tomato in it's mouth from the neighbor plants.

[Julianna]

Walked around the block the other day with my son. His teacher (grumble grumble grumble) sent him home with an oak moth caterpillar. I don't have any oaks. I am trying to explain to him that it will die and that they can only eat certain things so off we go. The whole neighborhood is now riddled with gophers and ground squirrels. It is insane. My yard looks great compared with the rest. Every foot or so holes are in the ground.

[worth1]

Walked around the block the other day with my son. His teacher (grumble grumble grumble) sent him home with an oak moth caterpillar. I don't have any oaks. I am trying to explain to him that it will die and that they can only eat certain things so off we go. The whole neighborhood is now riddled with gophers and ground squirrels. It is insane. My yard looks great compared with the rest. Every foot or so holes are in the ground.

I remember the ground squirrels in California on the beach.
One entertained a young couple while the other group stole their fried chicken behind their backs and ran off into their holes in the dirt banks behind them.
They looked around and saw all these squirrels with fried chicken in their mouths running off.
That's the gods honest truth not a wild story.

[Julianna]

Walked around the block the other day with my son. His teacher (grumble grumble grumble) sent him home with an oak moth caterpillar. I don't have any oaks. I am trying to explain to him that it will die and that they can only eat certain things so off we go. The whole neighborhood is now riddled with gophers and ground squirrels. It is insane. My yard looks great compared with the rest. Every foot or so holes are in the ground.

I remember the ground squirrels in California on the beach.
One entertained a young couple while the other group stole their fried chicken behind their backs and ran off into their holes in the dirt banks behind them.
They looked around and saw all these squirrels with fried chicken in their mouths running off.
That's the gods honest truth not a wild story.

I believe it. I see them.work the tourists all the time

[JRinPA]

Yep that sounds like the ground squirrels we saw on the south side of the grand canyon. They were about the fattest squirrels I've ever seen.

[JRinPA]

I was looking at my brother's last corn block the other day and almost touched a wheelbug by accident.

01.JPG

Luckily he was otherwise engaged...

03.JPG

3a.jpg

After he was done with the fly, he tried to scare me off!

4a.jpg

There are more on the way...the adults are a lot harder to see than the nymphs.

1a.jpg

I know it is good to have predators but I would not want to get stuck by that mouth! Maybe I start wearing gloves again this month, like planting time...

[worth1]

I had one crawling around on my head the other day.
Luckily I don't freak out with such things.

[GoDawgs]

@JRinPA , great pics! Yep, it's wheelbug time. I haven't seen any yet but it won't be long.

You know, one thing I havn't seen yet are the spiny orb weavers. They're those small ones that look like little crabs with black dots on a white back. They're usually out and about by now, making webs I need to sweep out of my way in the morning when I walk under oak branches on the way to the garden.

[GoDawgs]

It's MY fault! I planted those brassicas two days ago and forgot to cover them. "I'll do it this evening" and then I got off into something else and forgot all about it. Pickles poked her head in the door sometime during this morning's early walk to bear the bad news that the deer had gotten into the recent transplants. AND the okra that WAS covered!

Two days ago....



And now in that left bed, of the the four broccolis in front only one looks half decent. The 4 kale plants in the back are untouched.



The right bed was hit hard. Three of the four cauliflower plants on the left side are now 2" stubs. Only two cabbages at the top on the right were munched to 2", the rest untouched.



Both beds now have netting over them.

The recovered okra plants which were starting to bloom are now skeletonized harder than they were before. They had netting over them which hung just 2/3 of the way to the ground on both sides (about a 12" gap) because I had to use taller hoops over them. The deer nosed up under the netting to munch! They've never done that before. Two hoof prints in the bed were real small so maybe it was a little who was the culprit.



A day late and a dollar short and it's my own damned fault.

[GoDawgs]

Also this morning, on her walk Pickles spied a fresh pile of scat near the watermelon patch. No fur in it but there were seeds of wild persimmons, presumably from the two trees that are dropping fruit right now down in the back near the woods.



There are no dogs close by but coyotes do eat fruit when they find it. In the past we have had coyotes bust up ripe melons and tote them off. So just to be safe, while I finished up with brassica and field pea protection Pickles deployed tomato cages over the remaining six ripening melons, tying the cages to stakes. That has worked before. It feels like an invasion around here!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday we also rigged up some protection around the field pea bed. They're starting to vine up through the netting and that will be a mess so off came the netting. Field peas are a favorite deer munch.

Right now there are a lot of empty tomato cages sitting around waiting for next spring. Time to put them to use along with some rolled up trellis fencing. First I used two to prevent entry between the sweet potato trellis and field pea bed and put up a bed end trellis to protect that part.



Then I laid six tomato cages down, tied them together in one long tube and secured it the other walkway, counting on deer not wanting to step through them. The cage tube is far enough back do the deer can't lean over it and munch. One more cage standing up filled the gap between bed-end trellis and cage tube.



The far end of the bed and walkway entrances were likewise shut off with another bed-end trellis and more standing cages. This morning all was still secure.

I don't think the munched cauliflower stubs will make it. Fortunately I have four more that will be ready to plant out next Monday, with four more little 2" plants still under the lights. I might start one more set of four this afternoon; four weeks from seeding to transplanting. It'll be a bit late to set them out but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[MissS]

It's time to deploy your tent and spend the night out with a shotgun.

These are working pretty well for me. Plus it's great entertainment to watch those deer get their butts moving away from the food.

[JRinPA]

Yellow jackets are back! It is a bumper crop pear year so lots of sugar for them around here. I just took off the AG19s that have been on the 30 ft bed. One over the brussels sprouts keeping them bug free, and more over the sweet potatoes. When I got that off, I noticed a lot of lost/wandering yellow jackets and eventually they found their scent markers and showed me their hole again. It is the same place - I sort of figured.
Aug 11 - seemed to kill them all
Sept 14 - back in force
I had been seeing an increase of them at the hummingbird feeder hung outside a kitchen window. It is rather too entertaining to blast them with the bug-a-salt there. As of yesterday we still have at least one hummingbird...seems late to be seeing them yet.

I watched, from a distance, to see where they were entering and exiting, and at nighttime, I went and dumped some 20% vinegar down both holes, and never saw them again. But I do keep an eye out for them, after that incident!

How many gallons did you use?

I'm wondering how that 20% vinegar would work here...the exit hole is sort of on the vertical between two logs but I don't know which direction from there. Maybe I'll hit them with the spray again and then vinegar mix.

[Tormahto]

Saw a black squirrel the other day.
Will wonders never cease.
A grey squirrel had a tomato in it's mouth from the neighbor plants.

I've got black squirrels by the hundreds, here.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3461

Most are still in the western part of town, I'm in the east, separated by the river. I wish there were more black than grey, as the greys seem to do a lot more mooching and thieving. Also, the greys are bolder, and dumber. They will get 3/4 of the way across a busy road, get scared, and then turn around and run back.

[pepperhead212]

Yellow jackets are back! It is a bumper crop pear year so lots of sugar for them around here. I just took off the AG19s that have been on the 30 ft bed. One over the brussels sprouts keeping them bug free, and more over the sweet potatoes. When I got that off, I noticed a lot of lost/wandering yellow jackets and eventually they found their scent markers and showed me their hole again. It is the same place - I sort of figured.
Aug 11 - seemed to kill them all
Sept 14 - back in force
I had been seeing an increase of them at the hummingbird feeder hung outside a kitchen window. It is rather too entertaining to blast them with the bug-a-salt there. As of yesterday we still have at least one hummingbird...seems late to be seeing them yet.

I watched, from a distance, to see where they were entering and exiting, and at nighttime, I went and dumped some 20% vinegar down both holes, and never saw them again. But I do keep an eye out for them, after that incident!

How many gallons did you use?

I'm wondering how that 20% vinegar would work here...the exit hole is sort of on the vertical between two logs but I don't know which direction from there. Maybe I'll hit them with the spray again and then vinegar mix.

Sorry to hear about that. I only used about 1 qt in each of 2 closeby holes. Not sure what I would do with a log, however.

[JRinPA]

This time I tore out the dirt "caulking" instead of just spraying the hole through the caulking. There was about 8" wide of comb on the ceiling of the chamber immediately behind the hole. The spray made short work of them. There certainly were not as many as a month back.

I just hope the scenario doesn't repeat next year - the 20 and 30 x 4' log beds have 116 feet of perimeter to be exploited.

[GoDawgs]

Check out the kale in this pic. They are the large four plants in the front bed, far left.



Yesterday morning I found all four plants mowed down to 2". Three had one leaf left and one had no leaves. Several of the netting clips at that end of the bed had been popped off and of course the deer stuck their noses up under the loose netting and had a great meal.

When I replaced the clips I noticed that they were a bit loose from use and easy to come off so I replaced them with some I had that are harder to put on and take off, making sure the netting was tight at the bottom. **heavy sigh** I started four more plants last night.

I'm pretty sure it's the doe with two little ones. One's real small but has lost its spots. The other young'un is larger but still small. That's the only reason I haven't invited the neighbor to come get rid of the doe. The start of hunting season is almost here so maybe with all the coming ruckus in the woods they will move on.

[MissS]

@GoDawgs You had better have some pretty secure clips because it's rutting time and soon that doe will be pregnant with twins and each of those little ones will be pregnant with one each. They multiply fast.