Ernie O'Byrne and his authorities are indeed right about the Townsend's mole eating bulbs. They eat plenty of tulips and crocuses here. My preferred mode of attack, other than the dogs (which catch them often at night), is the Giant Destroyer, which is a stinking smoke flare that you light and shove down their runs. I don't know whether it kills them or just offends them, but they do depart for a while. The very name of the device is satisfying, too. Of course, the territorial animals soon come back, their population always replaced by new ones from the forests and fields. You could probably get rid of them in an urban setting, however. In a catalog I see a battery-operated rat trap which is supposed to electrocute the rats. I wonder if it would work for squirrels? Can a few batteries really electrocute a small animal? It's $70, but I may invest in one just to see. I noticed a squirrel streaking across the field the other day and suspect it may be what's after my crocuses, though they're far enough from trees that I didn't expect squirrels to approach them. (The local squirrel species, the Douglas squirrel, named for David Douglas of plant-hunting fame, is smaller than the European and eastern American species.) So far my desperation maneuver of putting dishes of sunflower seeds in the bulb frame has forestalled any more digging of crocuses, but it's not a really good idea. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA