I don't usually comment on these items as it gets me called nasty names. More than 20 years ago I had a large native eastern (US) wildflower garden in an urban setting, but adjacent to the "world's largest in-city park" - Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Not too much trouble with rabbits except when I tried to establish a planting of nut bushes and the rabbits kept eating them down to the ground before they could be established. I finally shot and ate the rabbits. Later, I planted lots of Crocus in a "non-native" section of the garden (which I could observe through an upstairs window). The next spring I noticed some of that bed being scuffed up. Then the scuffs became holes and crocus began being spread about on the surface. I looked out that second floor window one day in time to see an eastern chipmunk digging and eating crocus bulbs. Taking the law into my own hands, and as I was pointing almost directly down at the ground, I used a .22 cal. rifle to dispatch the chipmunk. In its cheek pouches there were over a dozen small crocus bulbs. The garden was surrounded by a stone wall (much of it laid up dry), and it was a chipmunk sex camp, because there seemed to be an endless parade of chipmunks. I finally wound up trapping or shooting more than two dozen of the little darlings. So long as I was willing to do that each year both spring and fall, I had crocus. If I quit for a year, the crocus would rapidly begin to disappear. For us gardening is mostly a pastime. For some animals the contents of our gardens are a convenient source of food, and life. shp On 4/22/2010 1:35 PM, Adam Fikso wrote: > Rabbits ate off nearly all the azalea buds I had (nearly 200 flowers by > estimate). No other animal is likely as a possibiity in our area---nor > birds, except, possibly a pair of cardinals.No woodchucks any more, and the > buds were too high. No deer close by. > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jane McGary"<janemcgary@earthlink.net> > To: "Pacific Bulb Society"<pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 11:20 AM > Subject: [pbs] Catching the frit eater > > >> For the past two years my bulb collection has been ravaged by an >> animal that crops off the flowering stems of Fritillaria, >> Ornithogalum, Calochortus, and a few other genera, resulting in a >> loss of seed crops, not to mention extreme anger and frustration on >> the part of the gardener. I didn't know what was doing it. I >> suspected rabbits, which have invaded the frames and eaten the >> foliage of Crocus; but it seemed to me that rabbits would also eat >> the frit foliage, and this animal was ignoring nonflowering plants. I >> knew it wasn't mice, because the stems were bitten off higher than a >> mouse could reach when the stems extended above the netting with >> which I was trying to protect them. It wasn't deer, because it was >> happening when the frame lights were lowered. Gophers are rare here, >> and there was no sign of their excavations, nor were bulbs being dug >> up. I considered the mountain beaver (Oplodonta), a genus and indeed >> family endemic to the Pacific Northwest and present in my woods, but >> it's a big animal (about the size of a groundhog) that would have >> trampled plants as well as eating them. >> >> Finally, yesterday evening, I spotted it: a chipmunk. I immediately >> baited and placed a live trap near where I had seen it exit the >> frame, and this morning it was there in the cage. Today it's going on >> a very long ride, and it won't have fun doing it, because I'm >> combining the chipmunk relocation with my collie's vet appointment, >> and Winnie the collie gets to stare at the little devil for a few miles. >> >> I had begin to suspect chipmunks after noticing one biting the >> emerging foliage off a potted Japanese maple near the house. Possibly >> they are attracted to plant material that's unusually sweet in >> spring, and the nectar-rich liliaceous flowers and their succulent >> stems would qualify. Interestingly, they did not take some of the >> California Fritillaria species (section Liliorrhiza) or species in >> the Imperiales section (F. imperialis, F. eduardii, etc.); perhaps >> these contain some compound that is offensive to predators. Nor have >> they taken many tulips in the frame, though deer bite off the stems >> of those in the garden. >> >> I'm told that chipmunks are not common in urban areas, but if you're >> seeing this kind of damage to flowering stems, watch for them. They >> are easy to trap in squirrel-size Havahart live traps baited with >> sunflower seeds (I stick the seeds to the trigger platform with >> honey). Because they're a native mammal I hesitate to kill them; I >> will have no such reservations once I move nearer the city and have >> to protect my bulbs from the introduced eastern gray squirrel, or >> worse yet from rats. >> >> Jane McGary >> Northwestern Oregon, USA >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/