pepper plants cut off at stem

[digitS']

NwMtGardener Heather, do you have marmots? No, I'm not suggesting that they are what pulls up your plants but, I have had marmots in the garden. Twenty pound ground hogs, Super . . . they ain't cute :/.

Ground squirrels will eat anything and everything and I think I'm correct when I say it doesn't matter if they are the little ground squirrels or ground hogs or marmots - no plant is safe.

Tree squirrels are mischievous. I know Wifezilla will say really nasty things about them but I'm still wondering if it is the Fox Tree Squirrel that, I believe, can be a garden pest.

The Eastern Grey Squirrels just don't cause me much trouble in the garden and they've had their chance for years. But, they are mischievous in tearing up things for their nests, eating banana peels out of the compost bucket and, sometimes, pooping on the deck. Pulling plants out of pots sounds like them.

If they cause too much trouble, I think Easterners should come get their squirrels! We have our own Western Grey Squirrels & Pine Squirrels which don't come down into our communities and cause us problems. (I guess ).

Steve
owner of The Marmot Memorial Planter

 

[thistlebloom]

Speaking of pests...I have been randomly finding plants torn out of their pots inside my greenhouse... it's certainly open in a few areas, so it could be anything... but what we have the most of is squirrels. Do you think they would pull whole plants out of pots? I haven't seen too much actually EATEN yet though...I've been able to just collect the plant and pot and put them back together.

I used to have trouble like that with my containers on the patio. Turns out it was skunks hunting bugs.

 

[journey11]

I remember the year that I washed canning jars,got everything ready, then went to the garden to get the cabbage -only to find that all of it had the hearts eaten out!.
We found a ground hog hole near by.. apparently momma was out training her babies how to harvest! I was one day too late. Lost a whole row.

I would fill my canning jars with my tears! How disappointing.

SuperChemicalGirl - I hear ya, my hope of eliminating them is fading daily. We got the big one first, thank goodness and one of the little ones, but the remaining two are very vigilant. I told DH to mix it up a little, go out the front door instead and creep alongside the garage. Maybe they'll not be looking the other direction! They are so paranoid. Even when I'm just doing dishes and looking out the window, I watch them pop their heads up and panic over nothing. When I was a kid, I used to think my grandpa's methods of getting the groundhogs were rather inhumane, but now I understand his frustration!


Steve, is a ground squirrel the same thing as a chipmunk? That's what I was thinking it might be. I didn't know what a marmot was, had to google it. I guess we don't have those here. They look a lot like a groundhog though, only skinnier!

 

[digitS']

Journey, a ground squirrel is much like a prairie dog.

Chipmunks are cute critters but I know they can be a real problem in the garden for some people. They never cause me any trouble when I was out in the trees where they lived, however.

Yep, groundhogs are marmots, too.

Steve

 

[vfem]

When I find a bunch of plants torn out of the ground its usually the cat needing to potty, a chicken finding a REALLY big and deep worm or my dog trying to find a nice cool shady place.

Kills me I'm feeding and keeping the animals that are destroying my food source!!!!!!!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

my chipmunks are excavators on 4 tiny little legs! i just wish they would help me get the hole dug for my pond! heheh

on the subject of catching the elusive ground hogs in the New England region! last summer i had to deal with Moma GH and her 3 little brats, oh and dad too! my neighbor was able to 'plink' dad and send him home to die a horrible death in my other neighbor's brush pile! eeeewww. i happened to come home one afternoon to catch Moma GH off-guard in the garden. she rushed for the exit out of the partially fenced garden and got her head stuck in the fence instead! i came up behind her and took her out with a garden hoe! ouch! i was not too thrilled to catch her since i lost a lot of my plants-lettuce mostly to her, the leaves off my habaneros to her kids. grrrr! i had just bought the trap a day before and didn't have it set yet so this was my motivation to get rid of the remaining 3 'kids'.

caught 2 'kids' in the trap a few days after getting moma in the garden. i just baited it with some of the remaining plants i noticed they seem to be munching on, along with the white clover that grows rampant in the yard that i saw moma enjoying the year before when she was leaving my garden alone! i set it along the paths i noticed they seem to be using in the yard and BAM! i got them! the last 'kid' i didn't see the rest of the summer. but this year i have noticed size-able holes magically appearing in or around the garden areas. grrrrrrrrrrr!!! the neighbors are both on watch for them and i will be ready to shoot the giant rodent on sight this year!

 

[digitS']

I'm not sure Journey, does this critter look skinny?

Marmota caligata outweighs any other squirrel in North America.

I think what they do is eat everything and when they can no longer crawl up out of the burrow, they decide to hibernate. They aren't around by late summer.

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Hah, that's a great marmot picture!! My husband called him the Buddha marmot...

Anyway, I live in town, no marmots in the garden...but we definitely have them out in the mountains. And honestly I haven't seen ground squirrels or chipmunks around. I sure *hope* it's not a skunk, we have 3 dogs!!! You would think the dogs would dissuade the squirrels from coming in their yard...I found one a year or two ago that the actually managed to catch...well, what was left...

I need one of those "critter cams" in there!

 

[so lucky]

for Cutworms: When you transplant your pepper and tomato plants into the garden, plant a little stick in the soil right next to the plant, on two sides. The cutworm can't cut the plant off because the sticks protect it. You can use any kind of sticks, match sticks, skewers, twigs, etc. You can remove the sticks later after the plant gets a little older and tougher.

 

[wifezilla]

I just had a squirrel uproot a buttercup squash plant and leave it laying on its side. I caught it before it dried out fortunately. I replanted it, then stole my son's wire mesh trashcan and put that over the plant and then put a big rock on top of the can. That should slow the evil little beasties down.

As for what variety of squirrel, this is a picture I took of one of the evil little @#*&@^@#*(@#