Hungry Varmints

Carol 83

Carol 83

Flower Girl
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I noticed this morning that the squirrel's had one of my jades for breakfast. It's just a jade, so not a big deal but it still ticked me off. I've had them knock over, dig in my pots, etc. but never just eat my trees. They are normally inside by now, but temps have been such that they are still outside. I know many here have suffered much more severe damage from varmints @M. Frary (hope you and your wife are OK), so feel free to post about it here. hungry.jpg
 
Walked out one morning over the summer and EVERY SINGLE LAST LEAF WAS GONE off my little elm sapling.
There on the edge of the edge pot was a fat, fuzzy, green caterpillar with blue knobs on it's back, looking very tired from its meal.
 
Carol 83 said:
I noticed this morning that the squirrel's had one of my jades for breakfast. It's just a jade, so not a big deal but it still ticked me off. I've had them knock over, dig in my pots, etc. but never just eat my trees. They are normally inside by now, but temps have been such that they are still outside. I know many here have suffered much more severe damage from varmints @M. Frary (hope you and your wife are OK), so feel free to post about it here. View attachment 403207
Click to expand...

:mad:

I live in a neighborhood with .5 acre lots, so neighbors are pretty close.

My neighbor across the street has captured, spray painted the tails of, and relocated 52 squirrels this summer. Guess how many visit his yard? The same number that visited before he started catching them.

It's futile, but hilarious, and my kids like checking out the squirrels with the cool hair...
 
ShadyStump said:
Walked out one morning over the summer and EVERY SINGLE LAST LEAF WAS GONE off my little elm sapling.
There on the edge of the edge pot was a fat, fuzzy, green caterpillar with blue knobs on it's back, looking very tired from its meal.
Click to expand...
Lol my tiny elm sapling has been beset with troubles this summer. First, my husband ignored the tub it was in so it and several other things got no water for a few days. It lost all leaves but leafed out again once I started watering it again. Then a deer took off the top, again leaving no leaves. It put out two new buds and leafed out again. The little guy has accompanied me on all of my little trips since the no-watering incident, so it was with me at my daughter's house in early September. Her cat nibbled on the leaves. It responded to that by adding more leaves. Tough little thing!
 
I relocate about 25 or 30 critters a year. If you just take them a couple miles away they will displace another one and that one indexes over one territory and bumps another to the next territory, ad infinitum and another one gets bumped into your area. I move them across two rivers, and they stay moved. I live in a sub of homes on canals with only one land bridge so access for critters is limited, I just have to keep deporting strays and newborns. The sub is about 60 years old and the big trees are all Silver Maples which are coming down a couple a year, and very few are left, so very few squirrel hotels. Possum & Raccoons are OK because they eat mice, but groundhogs, muskrats and squirrels gotta go. Oh, and rabbits are on my shitlist, too. They don't need trees they just eat what's in front of them. And screw. Eat, screw, eat, screw, eat, screw.
 
Flowerhouse said:
Lol my tiny elm sapling has been beset with troubles this summer. First, my husband ignored the tub it was in so it and several other things got no water for a few days. It lost all leaves but leafed out again once I started watering it again. Then a deer took off the top, again leaving no leaves. It put out two new buds and leafed out again. The little guy has accompanied me on all of my little trips since the no-watering incident, so it was with me at my daughter's house in early September. Her cat nibbled on the leaves. It responded to that by adding more leaves. Tough little thing!
Click to expand...
That's the best thing about elms: they take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!
I've come to just accept whatever damage gets done. Bonsai, to me, is about a tree with a story. I'm cool with that story being real in stead of imitation.
 
ShadyStump said:
Walked out one morning over the summer and EVERY SINGLE LAST LEAF WAS GONE off my little elm sapling.
There on the edge of the edge pot was a fat, fuzzy, green caterpillar with blue knobs on it's back, looking very tired from its meal.
Click to expand...
😧
...bet ya didn't eat THAT!
 
Carol 83 said:
I noticed this morning that the squirrel's had one of my jades for breakfast. It's just a jade, so not a big deal but it still ticked me off. I've had them knock over, dig in my pots, etc. but never just eat my trees. They are normally inside by now, but temps have been such that they are still outside. I know many here have suffered much more severe damage from varmints @M. Frary (hope you and your wife are OK), so feel free to post about it here. View attachment 403207
Click to expand...
Oh no, I hate that. This was a few year ago.
IMG_20180327_155027883.jpg

IMG_20180327_155027883.jpg

  • Media owner namnhi
  • Date added
  • Comments 1
Savaged
 
Rabbits in winter are the major culprits around here. Esoecially the younger ones. Once they get a taste for something it’s their go to meal in times of famine. Last year one decided azaleas were it’s thing and chowed down on a number of ours.

Squirrels aren’t as much of a bonsai issue, but they sure do tear up the yard in search of bulbs around here. Drive my better half to distraction after planting time.

I do have a “this ain’t no s—t squirrel story” though.

One year my better half and I live trapped and relocated nine squirrels in the back yard in the space of six weeks. Darn squirrel explosion! I relocated each across the River about 8 miles away. As I was taking the last squirrel over the river bridge for another drop off, the traffic was very slow in both directions. I was looking at the oncoming traffic, waiting to move and I swear I saw a guy coming the other way with a squirrel in the exact type of live trap I had in the back of his SUV! He was taking a squirrel my way! After that I stopped relocating squirrels.

Good luck!
DSD sends
 
Deep Sea Diver said:
Rabbits in winter are the major culprits around here. Esoecially the younger ones. Once they get a taste for something it’s their go to meal in times of famine. Last year one decided azaleas were it’s thing and chowed down on a number of ours.

Squirrels aren’t as much of a bonsai issue, but they sure do tear up the yard in search of bulbs around here. Drive my better half to distraction after planting time.

I do have a “this ain’t no s—t squirrel story” though.

One year my better half and I live trapped and relocated nine squirrels in the back yard in the space of six weeks. Darn squirrel explosion! I relocated each across the River about 8 miles away. As I was taking the last squirrel over the river bridge for another drop off, the traffic was very slow in both directions. I was looking at the oncoming traffic, waiting to move and I swear I saw a guy coming the other way with a squirrel in the exact type of live trap I had in the back of his SUV! He was taking a squirrel my way! After that I stopped relocating squirrels.

Good luck!
DSD sends
Click to expand...
He probably saw you, followed you home, and was delivering silent retribution. I, on the other hand, am very careful about being observed and paranoid about getting away clean. I would make a good criminal. :)
 
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