Help I am being over run by these pests. I planted spring bulbs and the little buggars ate them. I have mounds in my flower beds from where they burrowed. I have spotted one back in March and I know they are under there, but I do not know what to do. I want the humane way of dealing with this. I have googled this topic and have found people just wanting to sale me stuff.
RhondaM
"RhondaM" wrote in news:5ygce.1462$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com:
first, you need to know your enemy. moles don't eat bulbs & rarely nibble plants. they eat grubs mostly, & worms. to get rid of moles, you need to get rid of the grubs. personally, i just ignore the moles, & step on any tunnels that stick up too far out of the lawn. groundhogs don't, IME, eat bulbs either, but they'll decimate a veggie garden & leave huge holes in the pasture into which the livestock can step & break a leg. a .22 works well on them, or a neighborhood fox (as long as you don't also have chickens. *my* neighborhood fox is a goner as soon as i see him next). whatever you do, do NOT trap it & release it somewhere else. no one else wants your problem. don't know about prarie dogs. we don't have those here. lee
Plant your bulbs in a wire cage. Squirrels are notorious for digging up and eating tulip bulbs. I plant daffodils--no animal seems to like to eat these. Groundhogs can climb fences (I've seen them do it!), but they steer clear of the electric fence around the veggetable garden. Moles eat grubs.
in my yard, 2 years ago, the little buggers ate over 300 lily bulbs which were my pride and joy.
ok. here are a couple of things to try, they worked at MY house and by golly, i gotta tell you, new hamster has to have been built atop boulders (left by the last glacial age), sand, ant hills, and moles, voles, chipmunk holes, and hornet/yellowjacket nests. (sigh)
first, i planted daffodils and Crown Imperial (Frittalaria(sp?) circling around the plants i wanted to keep, like my campanulas and coreopsis. the crown imperials are a bit pricey at apx. $5 a pop, but after 2 years, they DO naturalise; the daffies start naturalising right away. the critters also don't like helleborus; if you live in the north, you hafta get the "lenten rose," if you live in the south, you can get either the "lenten rose" or the "xmas" helleborus. if you live in new england or upstate new york area, you can also get wild hellebore.
next, if you can get your hands on some thin tin sheet metal OR leftover scraps of house siding (not the vinyl, the metallic or pvc stuff), you can build a little box which MUST BE at least 5 to 6 inches deep into the soil. it doesn't matter, really, how high it is above the root level, but it MUST BE 5 to 6 inches deep.
between these two methods or a little of both, you should be able to stop them in their tracks without harming them.
the other treatment is to spray a mixture of castor bean oil and water (i add a tsp. of very fine chilli powder) and either spray the exit holes or pour straight castor bean oil down the holes. i've been doing all of these and my population of critters has dropped A LOT (yehhhhh!!!)
try it....who knows, your critters may respond to the treatment too!! good luck.
Hey thanks. I will do that. The daffodil thing sounds like a winner. I have been going outside and stomping down the mounds. That has helped a little they seem to have gone elsewhere. I will try what you suggested. RhondaM
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