We have an evil bunny. D*** Bunny (as my DD calls him for eating the Tulips) will not be tricked into going into a live trap. He wreaked havoc on my veggie bed last year. Did I mention I planted out some of my lettuce today? Hope evil creature bunny does not eat it.

Slugs. I hate them. They have destroyed my cucumber seedlings. I'm just going to direct sow in the holes now. Three weeks of getting ahead ruined. I hope the tomatoes produce long enough to get a salad. I guess I'll be buying lettuce since mine will have bolted by then.

Egg shells don't scare your slugs? If not, how about, I know it's odd, but how about chunks of broken glass around your food seedlings?
Bunnies, I don't know too much about, don't have too many in NYC.
But down in the countryside at my mother's she would put around hair clippings and dried blood -but you all must know all the anti-bunny notions.

anewgarden, I have 3 dogs that shed like crazy, 2 Pugs and a Landseer Newfoundland, I emptied my vacuum canister and spread it around my garden, D*** Bunny could have given a rats.

Last year my delicious WS cucumber seedlings were disappearing. On the surface it didn't appear they were being pulled or dug up. Turns out they were being pulled DOWN. There was a gopher run down the length of the cucumber row. I didn't notice it because I had hilled the row. Castor beans in the hole did the trick.

Diatomaceous earth works well for slugs also as well as for several other bugs.

My apologies to all you who are troubled by rabbits!
I spent the day tilling my mother's vegetable garden in rural Pennsylvania.

(My hands are full of splinters and blisters! She is old and forgetful, left her shovels out in the rain and snow)
NOW I remember why it is all fenced in!! Not just deer,but those dastardly rabbits. Of course the hair and dried blood don't really work! Sorry!

Token, check out Sluggo or Escargo - very safe iron phosphate slub bait that WORKS.

The deer have already munched down most of the tulips, which I don't mind because they are a bizarre hodge podge of whatever is leftover from the previous owner's planting, and I don't like tulips all that much anyway. They nibble here and there occasionally through the season, but don't cause much damage. I have sprayed the Hosta 'Royal Standard' with Deer Off, because that is one of their favorites.

The Rabbits are only a problem out in the "meadow gardens" - 200-250 feet out back behind the house. They don't come close to the house so far. I also have a cat who thinks dining on baby rabbits is a delicacy (not meant to offend anyone who thinks baby bunnies are cute).

I am think of using milorganite out in the meadow gardens this year. The smell is supposedly offensive to critters - and humans too - but no one would be smelling it out there.

Well let me tell y'all about my son.... naw just kidding. He's a good creature most of the time.

Token, iron phosphate works very well and is used by organic gardeners. It is very safe to use around pets and kids!

Anew, NEVER EVER use broken glass! Yes, it does work for slugs, but it can also cause infection when it causes scrapes or cuts you when you go digging up a plant or just working in the garden! I'm of the mindset, first do no harm! Broken glass can be a nightmare for birds and other wildlife. Never use broken glass no matter how much you crush it!!

I swear by the iron phosphate too. And it breaks down into fertilizer.

Broken glass is VERY DANGEROUS and the smaller you crush it, the more easily it can be INHALED, by you, animals, etc. I can't agree thoroughly enough with Nancy Drew's warning. A friend's dog ripped open 2 paws on broken glass and it was horrible. She had to dig up the dirt and send it all to a landfill because then she had to worry about the cats. Please please do not use broken glass for ANYthing!

Kris

I have problems with bunnies too. THey love Tulips, but
leave my lettuce alone. Love baby petunias and Gazinia's!

I made a little box to put over my most prized Tulips.
Once they flower, they don't seem interested. Just in
the baby leaves.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulip Screen

I have evil mice outside. None inside thank goodness.

They got in a jig and ate my lettuce in the container. Also dug a hole through the hanging basket and bag I had WS'ed in. (dug out many of my nicely sprouted seedlings in the basket.) I repaired the hole in in grass/coconut looking outside then I added more dirt and hung it up with the bag around. Some of the seedlings survived but not all so I added more seeds.

I was so upset!!!

I am looking into mouse repellent and other things for outside. I plan to try a little bit of everything.

I saw the thing yesterday when moving my jugs!
I just wish my back was better and I would go outside and fill all the mouse holes and remove the compose pile.

The bunnies are staying away for now though.
Karen

I am pretty lucky with the critters... I think I have scared the cat away from the raised bed "litter box" and the bunnies have enough broad leafed weeds in the yard they don't care about my lettuce :)

Question tho -- the birds like to use my trellis as a pooping station... do I consider this fertilizer? Or a bad thing? LOL!

Leisa

Meow. Nuff said.

I've got enough troubles picking out the broken glass shards embedded all over the side yard from the previous owners' mishap. (When the 3-season porch collapsed under the weight of a Spring snowstorm, after they took the storm windows out early. Ugh.) I would definintely not add more glass into the soil.

Bakemom, nothing like a good mouser. :)

I agree on the iron phosphate for slugs. I found it 75%off at homedepo and bought all they had.

For the mousie in the hanging basket, Id suggest a mousetrap, Ive caught 11 plus 5=15mousies in trpas.

Over on the hosta forum, they recommend 10 parts water,to one part Ammonia,in a spray bottle,for slugs,
Spray the ground all around,even if you do not see any slugs,ist is suppose to kill their eggs and all.
I have never used it,so i can not say it really works,but those who have used it,swear by it.
cAROL

I promise I won't ever use broken glass! Promise!

Egg shells work fine against my slugs.
The only critter problem I have is squirrels. Nothing works on them. So far anyway. I just try to keeps rocks close to my seedlings until they are big.

Iron phosphate has done wonders in my veggie beds!

Terrene, I wish my bunnies were as shy as yours. Yesterday evening, we had one peeping in at us through the French doors in the back.

I believe it's the mommy stalking us because my DH was mowing on Easter Sunday and disturbed the nest, we think. There were two little bunnies with their eyes not even open running around. He stopped mowing (looks pretty funny with one patch of foot-tall grass in the yard; good thing the neighbors already think we are crazy) but found one of the babies dead the next day. The other disappeared and we are choosing to believe that it will live to eat my lettuce (sigh...)

Such a love-hate relationship with the little buggers. I'm putting up rabbit fencing around my edibles garden this weekend.

Of course, I'm even madder at the deer. We live in former either cornfield or cow pasture, no trees to speak of. We have only seen deer twice in 2 1/2 years here, and then at a distance, but deer almost completely girdled two of our young peach trees. I tried to patch 'em up but I have my doubts that they will make it. My relationship with deer is more hate-hate than love-hate, especially since a young buck ran right into the side of my car in the fall.

Deb

I am pretty lucky with the rabbits. The yard is fenced in, but we have afew hawks and falcons that like to survey the land and the neighborhood cats seems to do a good job at rabbit and possum control.

Rabbits are cute and all, but when you read about the havoce they cause in a garden, they are evil!

Now don't get me started on those squirrels!

I think maybe I should put a rabbit fence around the veggie bed. It's around 20 bucks for wire at lowes, plus the cost of 4 posts. What kind of posts can I use that is cheap?

Rabbits are repelled by a product called Shake Away, and also don't care for plants sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Deanna

He's baaaaack.Our resident ground hog. He looks like a chubby puppy, but he is evil - just ruins my hubby's veggie patch every year. Take one nibble out of every tomato, ruining them. He's tried have a heart traps (he won't go in), bubble gum (don't ask), even trying to trap him in his den with a poison smoke bomb (he just ran out a tunnel we didn't know about I guess)

Hubby has given up, says he is not doing veggies this year; we have local stands where we can buy them fresh and cheap in summer. My fear.....the "pup" will now go for my flowers!!!!!

Anyone know if ground hogs eat flowers? anyone ever had any luck getting rid of them?

nan-6161 - have you visited the Integrated Pest Management forum? There are lots of tips over there.

I do know you have to put the hav-a-hart trap right in the track where the ground hog will always travel (like under a part of a fence, a path out of its burrow, etc.) They will not just wander over to a trap in the middle of somewhere no matter what kind of bait you use.) Try the IPM forum. Helpful folks.
Kris

nan-6161: We used to have a lot of groundhogs, but the population has fallen off. I think the deer ate them. They certainly eat everything else.

Bunnies and squirrels. The bunnies eat my cool weather crops (mowed down my sugar snap peas!), and the squirrels pull my tomatoes off, take a few bites, and throw them on the ground. I'm in the process of building some fencing for the bunnies, but the squirrels are a losing battle.

I have used chicken wire fencing, cut and layed flat over newly planted and also germinated beds of lettuce, ect to deture Cats Squirrels and other critters from digging and walking around in beds. they don't like the sensation of getting caught in the wire mesh. Even works in the tulip bed. Probably wouldn't deture the deer though. jim

PLEASE DO NOT USE CAYENNE PEPPER OR ANYTHING LIKE IT!

The powder is so fine that it can easily get into the eyes of animals, especially cats, with a slight breeze, they will try to get the powder out and can't and because they can't soothe the pain, eventually they will scratch their eyeballs out!

Use another method! This may seem like a cheap and easy way out. Sometimes cheap and easy isn't also the best! How would you feel if you let your cat (or another beloved family pet out) and it came back without an eye!?

Again, use another deterrent! Aluminum pie pans or fences may look tacky and be inconvenient, but do not cripple an animal for acting on its own instinct.

Aww, I wike the cute wittle wabbits

I just can't eat a whole one by myself!
-B

Thanks greengardener. That sounded like a great solution...never thought about the side effects. This is our first year a really massive vegetable gardening so I'll need safe ideas to deter the critters. Sounds like I'd better spend time on the IPM forum. Hey, if I find anymore forums, I won't have time to garden

I woke up about half an hour ago dreaming about the miserable groundhogs going all over the yards and I was running all around trying to see what they were eating.

Not by coincidence I watched them running all over the place foraging yesterday afternoon.

Gardening...nightmares about evil creatures eating plants/blooms instead some hunky star. What's life come to? LOL

Once I was awake I went down the driveway to get the newspaper only to see the one and ONLY Tulip the woman across the street got to bloom in front of her mailbox in 2 years is conspicuously GONE...I told her to spray every day with RopelsAll. Crossing the street is a deer thoroughfare and that's why I only put a few Daffs & grape hyacinth for bulbs there cause it can't be protected. The rest of plants in that bed are relatively deer/rabbit resistant with lots of destructive experience last year to work from.

The rabbits snipped off the only 2 leaves to emerge from a Corydalis Blackberry Wine I thought I had lost last year. The joy of seeing it had survived quickly tempered by missing leaves and tiny little bare stems.

I won't identify the "integrated pest management" I'd like to have...another year of going out every morning to see what the evil creatures have eaten in spite of fencing, sprays and pellets.

I've got diomataceous earth for slugs but can't put it down in the Butterfly Garden because Monarch cats stray from the Milkweed looking for place to "hang it up" until they emerge.

I think I'll play my laptop recording of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" to calm down...LOL.

Im not fighting the creatures on the tulips. I bought two bags of 25 pink bulbs on clearance two years ago, underestimating the threat. If they eat them they eat them, I wont be wasting $$$$ on more, in spite of how much I love them. Im focusing on the toxic spring flowers like daffs, hyacinth, winter aconite and others. REALLY studing the toxic plants and avoiding the critter candies. Didnt stop them from trashing the cohosh seedling tho.

Not only are tulips VERY tasty for many critters but they are short-lived anyway (except the old heirloom varieties). Most of mine are just clumps of leaves and don't even flower. The deer can have them!

Yesterday I went out to check the WS containers, opened the one with Melampodium and Lavatera, and the sprouts were gone!! Look at the evil creature that was hanging out in my container! He was summarily SMUSHED, and a I spread a bit of Escar-go around the containers.
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Here is a GOOD critter, found him hopping around the Vinca last night. He is the biggest, fattest toad I've ever found in the yard. Eat the slugs, toadie!
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I plant tulips for my father...when we were young he always had them for my mother. He likes to see them as he pulls up to the house. That's the only time he sees the house front garden except to mow the lawn...LOL. He doesn't want to know about anything but his Roses, bearded Iris and now the Heavenly Blue MG.

terrene, those are the big suckers that are all over especially in the butterfly garden. People didn't believe me when I said they were that big. Yuck...but I got over the "yuck" factor rather quickly and left one excutioner's stick/rock combo in the area around swamp milkweed and lobelias.

Containers not on deck are up on dollies I got in Walmart last year to move around big containers.

The only place I've seen a toad around here is in the garage the other night. I thought it was a leaf until I tried to sweep and it hopped under a car. I'm going to make some little toad houses for all the beds this year. They have instructions "for kids" that are just the ticket.

Grrr!!! Misery loves company and it looks like I have lots of company here. I just found the four tulips that had buds beheaded with the buds/petals just left lying there. I guess it's time to get out the liquid fence and spray the lilies or I won't have any of those either.

Pat

The evil bunny rabbit nibbled the leaves of my broccoli and lettuce! Bad, bad bunny!

Something was digging in my garden last night... but no poopies this time! :)

It did bury some of my baby chard, but hopefully it will survive.

The robins were going nuts the other dayin the herb garden. they were tossing the leaf mulch all over the place and gobblings tons of evil bugs. I found some bright red cutworm kinda thing afterwards which is what I think they were eating.

last year I had this moth that looks like a red wasp flying around the volunteer punkin plants and I hope that isnt its babies. No punkins this year tho, sticking to herbs.

Evil critters in my yard vary from year to year and month to month.

Deer have eaten my lillies just before bloom, eaten the top HALF of 5 foot tomato plants... just about everything. I have rabbits, too, that I'd like to be rid of.

A couple of years ago I was overrun by voles who dug up almost every seedling the night the it was planted. Chipmunks helped them. I used cayenne by the pounds that year. I had no pets at the time. If someone else's pet came to spread his germs by pooping in my tomato bed... he had no business in my yard. That's the bottom line. A cat can encounter all kinds of things, like a pit bull who isn't fond of cats.

People use all kinds of poisons in their yards, letting pets run free exposes them to all kinds of things. I have had dogs most of my life but they were kept in my fenced yard. When my dog was stupid enough to eat an entire rose bush, complete with thorns, that was his problem.

If you want to keep your pets safe, keep them home.

Karen