As if we brug growers don't have enough to worry about with caterpillars, sun and slugs. The #@$^% squirrels have decided that it's time to start burying nuts. In my brug pots. Have an idiot neighbor who puts out trays of peanuts for them.
I've had it!
Liz, wait until you have a rodent eat clean through a 5 ft tall seedling before it has a chance to bloom for its first time. Thats a pain in and of itself. Worthy of sitting on the back porch with some buck shot for sure....
This message was edited Saturday, Sep 1st 1:08 PM
I read of something you can put on the top of the soil to discourage them. Something sharp, does anyone know??
p.s. I feel my squirrels :(
Liz: Move up to the island. We don't have any squirrels here. We have lots of racoons but they haven't touched the brugs yet. Guess I should say that quietly. Doesn't the dog chase them away. My dog spends half her day barking at the eagles that live in the tree above my deck and [deleted] all over the brugs.
brugcrazy, my squirrels bark at my cat and dogs!! head down, 20 or so feet up on the oaks... i was having a bad hair day, had my son kill one with the 22, they didn't come close for about a month, gonna set them up their own feeder, they empty my bird's feeder in a day. and yes, they dig, dig!!! aggravating things bother my cuttings sometimes.
Hey Arlene,
We sure have those aggavating critters over here too! Randy couldn't figure out what was breaking the pitchers off of his new Nepenthes until...he saw a squirrel dangeling from the end of the leaf, merrily swinging all around, hanging on right where the pitcher is attached LOL. He moved that plant real fast!
Robin
They were using my brugs as a jungle gym to get at the bird feeder last year.Broke most of the branches off and I had NO blooms last year,there is a good side ,I had a lot of cuttings to trade !!!I had heard on a news story to place pricker bush or rose clippings in and around what you don't want shunks and squirrels digging.They said it only takes a few pokes with the thorns on the bottom of their pads (feet) and they will start to avoid it!!I wonder if it will work on my peacocks and swans??HMmmmmm
I have had luck keeping them away with blood meal sprinkled on the surface of the soil. Just didn't get to them in time. Brugcrazy will tell you that her dog goes after the blood meal. But my 13 year old stone deaf Bearded Collie hasn't figured this one out.
okay, this brings up a question about blood meal. I have read that most of it comes from overseas, and due to hoof and mouth, this isn't good. Does anyone know of a brand that is manufactured in the US?
Don't know about the states - ours is local - Alberta - big ranch - cattle country. Surely you must have some coming out of your big cattle processing centres.
all I know how to find is what's on the shelves at the nursery. Don't really know if it's true and a factor.
The sqirrels don't really like Red Cyenne Pepper - you can get a big container of it at Sams for about $4. Mix the pepper, thick, down just under the soil surface where they dig, then it won't wash away. The Birds don't mind the pepper, you can buy birdseed with pepper mixed in but I prefer to mix my own, it's cheaper.
I will have to do somthing about them tree rats too they dug in my seedlings of dr seuss and now I have 9 left out of 20+
irish, you have great self control, especially considering your name, or you would be telling us what you already did... (kelley/howard/worley/robbins, a nature red head, like my grandma's kelley side)
I have a "Have-A-Heart" trap that works well when I remember to bait it. It's a cage that traps them so you can haul them off or drown them or whatever suits your fancy. Between my neighbor & I we caught 15 this year and hauled them off a few miles down the road and let them out in the woods. Sometimes I get a possum or racoon, but I don't need them either. Walter Reeves says tho that it is kinder just to kill them on the spot because if they are taken out of their immediate environment, they will be disoriented and starve to death because they don't know where their food supply is. I find this hard to beleive but he's the expert not me. I have another neighbor that just drops his cage in a bucket of water and walks away, be it chipmonks or squirrels. I hate them but just can't quite bring myself to this.
EYEW!!
I do make a good atemp to keep my temper under control.I am thinking about a haveahart trap and take them for a ride to the other side of tampa bay when I go to work let see if they can swim across the bay to get home but I am to cheep to buy one the golden reteiver loves a/c to much to stay out side all day...lol