Garden Pests
 

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I have a family of toads in mine... great for eating all the slugs and the cat like to watch them....

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We've got a family of field mice nesting in the rockery at the back of the garden. They climb the wall of the garage to get to the fatballs we put up for the birds. As long as they're at the back of the garden I don't mind, but if they venture any further forward I'll be buying one of those plug-in repellers to keep them out of the house.

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mice...... no way get the traps down and the plugs ins... I use the plug in thingys and they seem to work ( well I have never seen any mice around or in my house) they seem to keep the spiders out to:

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I have squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons (the same one every year, she is missing and ear, and always comes along with her young ... one pest I would miss), moskies, one time a coyote, lots of skunk (harmless is you don't scare them), gulls ... a friend of mine had a deer in his swimming pool last year. However, we don' yet have bears (apart from what we tell gullible foreigners). Oh, and the Canada Goose I had a few months ago.

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I hope you find something to sort it out . and good luck

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Weve had hedgehogs but i shouldnt mension them because they dont seem like pests. Had mice that are bad , because of the field behind us we get alot , however we just put posiondown.

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Just been out on my deck, sharing my morning toast with the squirrels and the sparrows. Maybe they are not pests. And the momma raccoon that comes by with her little ones, her neither. It's neat to live in a city which still has a large urban wildlife population. Altho' the moskies can take a hike.

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Don't have raccoons or moskies i' Darren but we do have flying rats and garden gnomes who pinch the strawberries.

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We've got garden pests here that pinch half yer garden! :mad::D

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Willows Lane has always been on a downwards slope:D

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At least it keeps the flood waters flowing. :p

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Hire LLY as a garden guard he seems to have it down to a tee. :D

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This is what they complained of in order of size(ish)
Aphids - Yes (lady bugs control them well)
Spiders - Yes and greatly encouraged
Fire Ants - Nope, too far north
Grasshoppers - Yup (guineas and chickens control them well)
Mole Crickets -Yup (guineas and chickens control them well)
Slugs and Snails -Yup (guineas and chickens control them well)
Japanese Beetles (eat anything in their path apparently) - Yup, these things are a terrible menace. I have four large traps for them and empty ~300 from each every other day! Plus guineas and chickens follow me around each evening and eat those that I shake out of the trees.
Voles and Moles - Yes (plus field mice and pocket gophers)(Dogs and cats control them)
Packrats - ?
Gophers - Yup (we call them woodchucks or groundhogs)(Dogs and Ruger 22 control them well!)
Squirrels - Yes (my "herd" is fattening up on my grapes and fruit trees)(Ruge 22 culls them well)
Chipmunks - Yes but not a problem
Possum - Yes but not a problem
Skunks - Yes but not a problem (unless dogs get into 'em:eek:)
Raccoon -- Yes but not a problem
Groundhog -See above
Rabbits -- Yes but not a problem
Armadillo - Nope
Fox - Yes (lost many a guinea to these sly ones)
Deer - Yes but not a problem
Moose - Nah
and finally...- Yes but not a problem

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...ts-bbear-1.jpg

If they find any Black snakes, they are to be encouraged as they eat copperhead snakes which are extremely venomous (This is very true and I encourage the black rat snakes and corn snakes. Much to the famlies' chagrin!

Do YOU have any unusual pests in your garden (apart from family members:D)

In addition to the above, I've been out from ~ 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. picking a very damaging beetle (maybe Asiatic brown beetles) off my sunflowers, peppers, eggplants, sweet potatoes and mint. Drop/pick about 100 into a coffee can and feed them to the frogs and turtles in the morning.

Birds are also a blessing and a curse. I lost all my cherries and many blueberries and blackberries to them. However, I believe they eat more bad guys then the harm they may do.

Hey, WAKE UP! I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SHARE WITH YOU GUYS!!
:D:p:D:D:p:p:p

Brian

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Hey Spuggie, is this LLY identifying me? Is so, quite clever how you tried to take the York out of LancYorkYankee! If not then never mind!

Brian (LYY)

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Forgot to mention porcupines, groundhogs, foxes (careful, they often carry rabies) and a wolf once, altho' he seemed quite the disdainful gentlemen, and guests who come over to drink my booze and eat my food. The bats are here by invitation; I put up a bat house.

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Nothing very exotic but we get hundreds of snails. Move a plant pot and there'll be a snail nursery underneath it. They eat everything they can get their jaws round. We rarely saw them until about 10 years ago because the thrushes ate them but I haven't seen a thrush round here for years. I would love to have a hedgehog in the garden as they eat slugs and snails and don't harm plants.

Very occasionally a fox will investigate the garden but it's rare since dustbins were replaced by wheelie-bins.

A few years ago we had rats. A neighbour kept rabbits in her garden and never removed the muckings-out, just let it all drop under the cage, so the rats came. A rat took up residence in my garage and chewed everything in sight, including my wellies, within a few days. I had to get Pest Control to deal with it. They dealt with the neighbour too!

I get frogs in my mini greenhouse and toads under the stones in the rockery. I also saw either a newt or a lizard under there too, last Summer. It shot away so fast I couldn't tell which it was but I think it was a lizard.

Wood pigeons are constant visitors, plus blackbirds and robins. Various other birds are around, this area is full of trees, and I get the odd woodpecker. Herons perch on a greenhouse behind my garden as it's next to a fish pond but the only large birds I've had were 2 ducks that waddled round my lawn all one morning then went and sat in a puddle on the road. I don't mind the birds until the soft fruit is ripe. The little b*ggers love my raspberries.

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Decided Lancashire Lad Yankee sounded better besides not a fan of white rose brigade. ;)

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A gradely response:D

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Forgot to mention the dreaded squash bugs, squash vine borers, cucumber beetles, and flea beetles. We too have many bats and toads which are raised and encouraged. Up to last year we had loads of lizards and skinks but none seen this year. That concerns me as some envirmental snafu has got to them.

Just remembered this Black Rat snake story from last year. Went out to do my nightly check on things. Looked into my pen with baby chicks (5) and guineas (~20). Noticed a very large and bloated snake (~4 feet long) in the pen. It had got in but was too engorged to get back out. Hence she decided to hang around and continue dining.

Had no choice but to kill it. So, there I am in my boxers, snake by the tail in one hand, flashlight in the other. Had to keep a hold of both and get my knife. Finally got off the head and conducted research to see how much (who) she had eaten. She had 2 (3 week old) chicks and 5 baby guineas. It was pretty nasty and really shocking that it would eat all those in one setting!


There learned ya something else eh?

Brian

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So its a new hobby then forensic examination of raiders to se what they have pinched? Or are you going to be a vivesectionist???

:eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D:D:p:p:p:p

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Aye, my animal scientist background keeps me interested in these types of discoveries. Plus, I really hated to destroy said snake so wanted to make the best of it. I knew as cringing as the whole episode was, I wanted to have my facts right. Hence the numbers and size eaten.

Also the critter may have been closer to 5/6 feet (now wait, this is not just a growing fish story, hear me out:rolleyes:). My only measurement was the fact I had it by the tail (~6-12 inches) and was trying to hold it above my shoulders and away from my body.

All the while this "Spawn of Satan" (I said I like that they eat the bad snakes and rodents, NOT that I like snakes!!!!!)(plus reliving this story is creaping me out), is wriggling around trying to get away and/or bite me ankles. Seeing as I'm 6 ft tall and the snakes head . . . . oh whatever . . . what was the question . . .did I answer it sometime ago?

I gotta get some coffee.... Is this not pure babble or is there anything of interest here?

Cheers anyhoo!

Brian

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Coffee sounds interesting ... I could use a cup myself:)

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I have this genuine anti-elephant knopkerry that was given to me by a Zulu warrior. He claimed that as long as I had it in my house I would never be plagued by marauding elephants. And you know what? He has been dead right all these years. Not a single elephant has wandered through my garden.

Pity really ‘cos it could trample on the slugs and snails that have grown fat on my seedlings. My attempt at creating a “Remembrance” garden with a large “V” of red poppies and meadow flowers elsewhere has so far produced just one yellow flower and a nice dainty pink one.

Still it is early days yet, although four weeks of rain haven’t helped and I may yet get a colourful display with bees a-buzzing, butterflies a-fluttering and boids a-choipping above. I haven’t seen it for a few weeks now but a grey squirrel seems to think that it owns mine and neighbours gardens. At least having battled the slugs and snails and won, I think, my Lupins, Hollyhocks and Foxgloves now have a chance.

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I think the problem is that your squirrel is lonely ... he needs friends ... now I just happen to have 30 or 40 of the little devils that would just love a vacation over the pond ... and for the night time, a family of raccoons ... just say the word and they are yours:D

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No thanks Eric. The North American grey squirrel has duffed up our red squirrels almost to the point of extinction.

The racoons would be an interesting addition though.

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At least you wouldn't be bothered by stray cats ... racoons are fiesty little buggers and no garbage bin in the neighbourhood would be left standing. Skunk, now, are really sweet natured, but there is a minor drawback with these little cuties:D:D:D

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Eric, I'd be more than happy to bring the coffee if you'd supply the fishing! I do take a left turn at Niagra Falls. Or, heaven forbid, is going throughg Detroit a quicker route?

Brian

Oh, I forgot the eh?

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Kingston is almost directly North of Culpeper, maybe a little to the east. Just goes to prove that you damn yanks don't know any geography other than your own.:DEH!