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critters eating lilies

16 years ago

used to have beautiful lily beds, which have been destroyed

by critters eating growing tips as they come out of soil

in spring. i suspect chipmunks or squirrels. wonder if anyone has come up with a liquid or

other material that can be added to soil to make plants have unpalatable odor/taste. have used bayer grub treatment on irises for iris borers -- it works. it also

works on miniature caterpillers that destroy hardy

hibuscus leaves. don't know if it would work on animals

rather than insects. it would have to be something that

the plant takes up into it's leaves -- spray-ons haven't

worked for me in past.

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Comments (4)

hld6
16 years ago
It may be slugs. They munch the tips off as they first come up out of the ground, and pretty speedily too! Make a perimeter of slug bait around your bed - or around each lily - and that should solve the problem. (If, it's slugs.)

-Helen
duluthinbloomz4
16 years ago
My experience has been that it's rabbits that get the emerging growth tips on lilies. I've used Liquid fence - since deer are my biggest problem - with success. Have also read on these forums that the smellier the better cheap carpet deodorizer is also good as a deterrent - especially on and around some of the annuals rabbits like to chew. To be on the safe side, though, after cutting back my lily foliage in the fall, I leave an inch or two of stem above the soil so I know where to look first thing in the spring and use chicken wire cages to protect the clumps I admire most and would be most upset at losing to critters. I know that caging things would ruin a garden for some, but losing your lilies for a whole season ruins things too. And as far as I'm concerned, the chicken wire just blends into the background, hardly notice it.
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I just noticed too that the last pic has the same little triangle shaped "tooth" marks at the top as the bottom left tomato in the "bitten" picture, almost like something did it all with one "bite" .... or "bill". The bite marks are probably 1.5 inches wide or so. Whatever it is also ate an entire blueberry bush to the ground and also om nom nom'd all my squash seedlings. Time to set up a camera!
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Loretta NJ Z6
16 years ago
Curios,
I live in NJ too and was trying to establish lilies in the garden this year. However, I am having the same experience as you. Not slugs, could be rabbits too but chipmunks were caught in the act already by my husband. Plus they are digging holes around the bulbs and taking them out. I suspect its a joint effort with the squirrels as they seem to do similar damage.
There is a cinnamon spray I tried last fall for my camellias. It seemed to deter them - can't say for sure yet.
Here is my recent Brent and Becky order:
duluthinbloomz4
16 years ago
Yes, that bulb damage does look like chipmonks - they're looking for water which is why they go for the more succulent things - hens & chicks, sedums, moss roses, bulbs etc. Truth be told, I leave a clear plastic tray of water on my patio along the run for my two resident chipmonks. Since doing that for a couple of seasons now, they have a ready source of water and don't dig. Might not be a universally popular idea, but it's worked for me.

I have a lot of spruce trees and the squirrels seem to go for the cones rather than anything in my gardens - and they also have my neighbor's bird feeder to raid.

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