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Organic Gardening

are ground squirrels eating my seedlings?

Cold Creek Orchard

8 years ago

I manage a small orchard in Southern California and we have recently expanded to growing some veggies. I start my seeds in my green house and then transplant the seedlings into my raised beds. So I planted a bunch of radishes and kohlrabi in a couple of my beds and the next day all of the leaves had been eaten off. All of them. It did not look like insect damage (but I may be wrong). If it was caterpillars or or something, it had to have been a horde of them to eat the leaves of over a hundred plants. Would ground squirrels do this? What else could it be?

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Comments (3)

kimmq
8 years ago
Rabbits, ground hogs/woodchucks, deer, slugs/snails, cutworms, and possibly squirrels. If those plants were eaten overnight that would pretty much leave out the squirrels since they are not nocturnal.

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Cold Creek Orchard
Original Author
8 years ago
We don't have rabbits or deer. We do have gophers, but I did not think they would go for the leaves only, more the roots. Also, I forgot, whatever it is got all my carrot tops a couple weeks ago as well. Didn't touch the beats or turnips. So if it was insects (we have not seen any animal prints) what should I do? I was using diatomaceous earth but as that gets wet when I water. I have also sprayed the seedlings with neem oil, which was kind of helping. Any other suggestions? I wanted to put hay down in my beds around the veggies but I wasn't sure if that would just encourage more insects...
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I'm having problems with cucumber seedlings this year too. None of the transplants I've put out, just Middle Eastern cucumbers germinating in hills. They aren't cut to the ground. Mine are the leaves being picked off and in most cases, disappearing? My garden is fenced with 1/2" wire mesh, so I can't see it being rabbits. Squirrels or birds I think. Perhaps I'll follow your lead and put chickenwire cages around the hills and see if it solves the problem.
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An update. Zucchini, carrot, lettuce, parsnip, climbing bean and French bean seedlings all being skeletonized. Out again tonight at 2300hrs with a fresh Pyrethrum spray mixture. The zucchini leaves you could hardly see for the earwigs. All the other plants, occasional earwigs until you gave a puff of spray - then you could see swarms of them. Maybe they do some good but this is the killing season!! Remember, a quick visual inspection at night may not reveal the true extent of infestation. In some places the garden edge boards are two or more high. Every join, gap etc when sprayed showed thousands of earwigs. I do not like spraying and I will try the cooking oil/fish sauce in ground traps - if there is anything left.
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The thought of killing those cute little, playful creatures is very disturbing to me. They really are fun to watch frolicking around the yard and jumping around. My cat loves to watch them. She's an indoor cat, so she is no threat to the squirels. But looking at her, she'd love the chance to chase them In most forums, the idea of killing squirrels is frowned upon. I've had lots of squirel damage, but they've never crossed "the line". In this particular thread, the question of squirels destroying a crop comes up. I certainly encourage everyone to act as they deem best. But for wilson1963 I really have to wonder and I hope you don't mind me asking, what kind of recipes do they have for squirels? Not a lot of meat there. The only way I could think of cooking them is on the barbecue. Not that I'd like to do that. But let me say, when it comes to cooking chicken thighs, the part they sell for real cheap. No one does that better than me. It's really scary how good they turn out.
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Something is eatting all of my seedlings
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Comments (2)
Yikes, can't we suggest something besides rotenone? Organic or not, it's so toxic. mistifire, another common possibility would be earwigs, which are known to cause significant damage to seedlings( especially) in locations that are conducive to their over-population. Earwigs like moist conditions, preferably rich in organic matter. The best time to look for them is in the evening....they take cover in the daytime. You can find out if earwigs have set up housekeeping in your garden by placing a folded, soaked newspaper on the top of the soil in your garden area. Lift it up during the day to see if it's become a hiding spot. Flea beetles are active little critters, and should be relatively easy to observe by brushing your hands along your plants.
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kimmq
8 years ago
Gophers, like woodchucks/ground hogs, are herbivores, vegetarians, and will eat any vegetation they can. Most of the insect larva, caterpillars, that would eat those plants would be on the plants when you looked and w2ouild not be able to devour them overnight.

kimmq is kimmsr

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