Does Neptune's Harvest attract pests or animals?

14 years ago

A few days ago, I gave some of my recent transplants a feeding with Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer. Last night I noticed that the new growth on a strawberry plant was gone, and the leaves were missing from some marigolds I'd grown from seed (the marigold leaves were elsewhere in the garden).

The little marigolds have actually been in the garden for a while, and the strawberries for about a week, so I would have expected any munching to have already happened if it was going to.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I'm wondering if some neighborhood animal, perhaps a cat, might have found the fishy smell to be too attractive to leave alone. If this could be it, do you have any suggestions other than to take greater care to avoid getting any on the plants themselves?

I'm in the city, where we have no rabbits or deer. We do have cats, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, and maybe the occasional woodchuck.

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Comments (9)

Kimmsr
14 years ago
It can, it might, sometimes. Plants sprayed with this material would be more apt to be more attractive to Raccoons, Skunks, Opossums, than Squirrels.
organicguy
14 years ago
Leira,
If you have "cats, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, and maybe the occasional woodchuck", I would be willing to bet there are some rabbits around too. I have seen them in the 5 boroughs of NYC! If they were eaten that fast, I would definitely suspect Me Bugs! Sprinkle a little blood meal around. They don't much care for the stuff!

Ron
The Garden Guy
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leira
Original Author
14 years ago
Well, Ron, in 20+ years in this city, I've never seen a rabbit nor heard of anyone else seeing one, though I've seen and heard people talk about all of the other things I've mentioned (but only once for the woodchuck, right there on my front walk, and it was quite a surprise). I also don't see the garden damage I'd expect if we had rabbits. So I have my doubts.

It looks like the nibbles from the other day haven't been repeated, though we've also had a fair bit of rain since that day. I'm still going with the theory that the fish fertilizer triggered it somehow.
Kimmsr
14 years ago
Rabbits would have caused damage long before the plants were sprayed with the fish fertilizer and rabbits would not be attracted to plants sprayed with a fish fertilizer which may well be somewhat offputting to them.
organicguy
14 years ago
Hey leira,
You could be right, but I have a lot of rabbits here and only occasionally do they nibble on my plants. They also do not always repeat and you rarely actually see them. They do their damage mostly at night.
I have never seen a city that does not have rabbits, especially if it harbors all the other wildlife you mentioned. Something is eating the plants, so unless you have another likely suspect, I would still consider the possibility of a rabbit or two.

Ron
The Garden Guy
http://www.TheGardenGuy.org A Free Site!
New May Article: Sucession Planting, plus ongoing
garden journal and interactive message boards.
paulns
14 years ago
If you have rabbits you are likely to find their scats near or around where they're nibbling. Rabbit scats look like fat tan/brown smarties. We have the odd wild hare and find their telltale droppings by plants they feed on.

I sometimes use a liquid organic fertilizer outdoors when I want to encourage a special seedling to grow. It's made from composted chicken manure, with tea tree oil and eucalyptus added to mask any odour. Great stuff, attracts no wildlife.
novice_2009
14 years ago
Liera, had trouble with rabbits nibbling.........light, cheap trellis around garden elimanated this problem. As they are herbivores, fishy smells wouldn't attract them.
charleslou23
13 years ago
so this neptune harvest fertilizer really work on strawberry plants??
Nitebeatband-com Houston
8 years ago
If I use Neptune's Harvest the raccoons will dig the plants out of the pots looking for "food".

They will also dig plants out of the ground.

It's good stuff, but not around raccoons.

Does Neptune's Harvest attract pests or animals?

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Kimmsr

organicguy

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leira
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Kimmsr

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Does Neptune's Harvest attract pests or animals?

Comments (9)

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leiraOriginal Author

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leira
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