Ok, I just had the all-time strangest gardening experience I've ever had. I was planting a little rose in my back garden when I heard this crunching sound about three feet away. As it began to enter my consciousness, I saw one of my tall, pink liatris blooms swaying in sync with the crunching. As it began to droop lower and lower toward the ground, it also began to disappear into the ground. It was being eaten from underground! And I was watching and listening to it happen. I was so astounded (and I knew it was already too late to save it) that I just yelled at my husband to come quick. As he walked up the crunching stopped, and after we'd been perfectly still for a minute or so, it started again, with the bloom getting shorter and shorter as it disappeared into the ground. W. reached over and pulled it out, and of course it was totally free from the rest of the plant. He went and got some gopher bait and put it in the hole. The rest of the plant seems OK, but we'll see. The same thing happened to my biggest coneflower earlier this spring. I noticed that it was wilted, and when I looked at it it was just sitting on the ground with no roots at all. It was like the top of a carrot or radish that had been chopped off. Neither time has there been a mound or burrow visible, so obviously it's some critter that tunnels underground. I have no idea what this is. We've had some mounds in the front yard, but this appears to be totally different.
DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS IS?
Eva
Subterranian critter ?????
Armadillo? Mole?
Armadillos dig plants up inadvertently while digging for grubs, but they don't eat plants or tunnel underground and pull plants down into the ground. You most likely have a mole or gopher, neither of which we have here in our very rocky soil.
Sounds like a gopher to me.
moles dont eat plants. they eat earthworms and grubs. however, they can do a lot of damage to plants by tunnelling through the roots. i am having a heck of a time getting rid of them. they LOVE my loose soil in my raised beds. i put out repellent today, hopefully it will work.
tracie
Well, whatever it was, it was definitely eating my plant, and by the sound of it, had to be big enough to make a big crunch!
Pocket Gopher is my suggestion. I was working in my garden one day and saw something move (out of the corner of my eye)...one of my eggplants was wiggling side to side....then suddenly descended into the ground...a couple of inches at a time (the plant was only about 12" tall)...disappearing completely! That was the first day I began hunting gophers with a 20ga shotgun....requires patience, of course,.....but a fresh
opening is the best place to wait......usually no longer than 5 -10 minutes...the critter will come to close up the hole and becomes an easy target. Early mornings are best to find fresh openings or partially closed mounds...approach quietly....re-open a partially closed tunnel (next to the fresh mound of dirt that is pushed out as the gopher extends its tunnels )
I've also tried Juicy Fruit gum, Gopher poison, lit safety flares inserted into its tunnel and closed the tunnel, small amounts of gasoline poured into the tunnel and closed up,.....but the ol' 20ga is most reliable.
My Jack Russel Terrier hunts them by hearing their underground escapades and quicky digs down trying to intercept them before they retreat further back into their tunnel.
Because of our dogs,...poison is no longer an option,....gassing the gophers with fumes didn't seem to work (and is underground pollution) so I gave up on that some time ago, no conclusive evidence that the gum worked either. I've not tried the various traps available...perhaps they're the best approach....especially if the discharge of a shotgun would disturb any neighbors nearby.....fortunately, we
live in the country...so that is not a problem. Good luck on your attempts to control them!
This message was edited May 24, 2009 2:18 PM
WillisTxGarden
Gopher target shooting ..a new east texas sport!!!!.. may be we can get it into the olympics!!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
Im sorry ... I just couldnt help myself....lol... I just had this vision of you waiting at the gopher hole with gun in hand and a determined Im gonna get you sucka look on your face!!!..lol..
I live alone and dont get out... much, need I say more...
LOL....yep,...no place but Texas! Thinkin' about it,...I probably thought that way AND looked that way! :~)
Hmmmm....what I would need to do to prepare for any future Olympic event,...is design an ergonomic, eco-friendly...yet still efficient PGC. Of course,.....I'd probably need to acquire some corporate sponsorship...in order to "corner the market" on PGC's....and,...perhaps,...a celebrity endorsement (Jeff Foxworthy comes to mind...."You might be a redneck....") That's where my financial future would blossom! I mean,...think about it,.....it would become the latest rage...probably overnight! Gopher Plinking.....PULL!
Oh,....(you ask),.....but what is a PGC? Why,... it's a Pocket Gopher Catapult,...of course! (Designed to get the little booger up & downfield...without tearin' him up too bad)....I'm sure regulations would stipulate "a whole & intact gopher MUST be presented to the participant in every instance"...in order to curtail protests.
I need to get out more often,...I've WAY too much time on my hands :~)
BTW - the thought occurred to me....it's not too far of a reach, actually......after all,... someone invented a Prairie Dog Vacuum ...to extract PD's from their subterranean lairs (in order to more efficiently collect them to be sold as pets!)
This message was edited May 24, 2009 9:01 PM
And you'd probably have the animal rights activists picketing up and down your street, then the neighbors ..........
WillisTxGarden
I am laughing so I hard I can barely type!!!! I love it!!!!!!
it's making me think of elmer fudd-----
Good old Elmer! That's what I call my husband when he tries to shoot the stinkin' squirrels with an old (I'm talking antique) BB gun that you can see the BB roll out the end of the barrel! It shoots high and to the right....you can follow it with out really trying!
you'll have to get him elmer's hat! --has he hit a squirrel?
yeah, he has, gut they just turn around and "laugh" at him!!!!!!!!!
too funny!! bugs bunny always got the last laugh too!
Oh,...I'd take a hundred squirrels to avoid 1 gopher. Those tree rats are much easier to detect and eliminate....besides,...they're good to eat....(simmered like you do smothered steak....mixed with some dumplin's). I can't say I'd relish the situation when I'd be happy to eat an "underground rat"....however my little Jack Russell terror-ier LOVES them!
Teeth, hair, eyeballs.....the works...eats 'em completely....btw,...her name is Tara ( although I insist that the Massachusetts accent should be eliminated and her true name should be revealed )
lol!
maybe try the Rodenator;
http://www.rodenator.com/pests-controls-videos-rodenators
maybe you need to feed that poor tara!! just kidding! gotta love those jack russells with all their energy--do they ever stop!
Comparing their(Jack Russells) energy level to other dogs.......is like comparing a nuclear reactor to a 9volt battery.
All our dogs are "rescued".....we have 4 all together....a Golden x hound mix? ( I think he's possibly one of those "Yeller" dogs - wild dogs known to live in the south/southest...looks very muich like one)...a Sheltie mix, an Australian Shepherd and the Terrorator or (as Lucky_Texan suggested) Rodenator.
She willingly "takes on" the other three in chasing/wrestling matches...wearing them out She's very independent...like a cat!
i used to toss a tennis ball for my neices jack russell-i'd toss it as far as i could and he would run like the wind and bring it back--fun-only it went on and on and on--that dog never had enough--there he'd sit in front of you with that ball like "come on--please" and i'd be tired just from sitting and throwing! i always thought i could throw it all day long and he'd retrieve!!
we don't have dogs now but when we did we had the "rescued" dogs too--dogs my son would bring home that were lost and we couldn't find the owner--usually the poor dogs were not in the best shape and the vet said folks just let them go sometimes---and hope someone picks them up (like my son)--hard to believe