Someone girdled my sunflower!!!!!

[TheWaterbug]

I was looking at my beautiful volunteer sunflower:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/GirdledSunflower.jpg[/img]

and I thought, "Hey, the base looks kinda weird!"

Uh oh:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/GirdledSunflowerCloseUp.jpg[/img]

There was no gopher hole or pile within 10 feet, so I don't think it was a gopher. There's no tree within 15 feet, so I don't think it was a squirrel.

What kind of varmints will girdle a plant?

[jal_ut]

There was no gopher hole or pile within 10 feet, so I don't think it was a gopher. There's no tree within 15 feet, so I don't think it was a squirrel.

What kind of varmints will girdle a plant?

Gophers, and squirrels. You need to tell your conscience to go hide and take care of the problem if you want a harvest.

[TheWaterbug]

Gophers, and squirrels. You need to tell your conscience to go hide and take care of the problem if you want a harvest.

I know, I know. I just received one of these [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBMFDO/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01]from Amazon[/url]:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/BlackBox.jpg[/img]

I just practiced setting it; it seems extremely violent. I'm going to deploy it tomorrow

[cynthia_h]

There was no gopher hole or pile within 10 feet, so I don't think it was a gopher. There's no tree within 15 feet, so I don't think it was a squirrel.

What kind of varmints will girdle a plant?

Gophers, and squirrels. You need to tell your conscience to go hide and take care of the problem if you want a harvest.

Trees aren't necessary to have a population of squirrels: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_ground_squirrel]California ground squirrel[/url]

Agree with jal_ut: If you want to grow food for yourself and not just for local wildlife, you're going to need to deal with said local wildlife, either via effective barrier methods/barricades or lethal means.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[HannahGrace]

That's kinda what my sunflowers have been looking like too only mine are almost completely broken over. I wondered if there were bugs or something but I think it had to do with the groundhogs that came over from my neighbor's yard. My brothers helped get rid of 4 of the groundhogs this last week. As far as we can tell there are only 2 young ones left and they haven't shown up since the daddy was gotten rid of. So hopefully now my garden will grow better.

[Ohio Tiller]

That looks like a young rabbit to me. I have to guard my sunflowers from them with chicken wire or they get them every time.

[TheWaterbug]

Gophers, and squirrels. You need to tell your conscience to go hide and take care of the problem if you want a harvest.

I know, I know. I just received one of these [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBMFDO/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01]from Amazon[/url].

I just practiced setting it; it seems extremely violent. I'm going to deploy it tomorrow

I put this off over and over again, and then this weekend the gopher(s) murdered another sunflower.

So I set the trap last night around 7:00 PM, and this morning at 6:00 AM the trap had sprung.

I've slain my first gopher

Looking back over my 42 years on this planet, I think this is the first time I've ever deliberately killed anything other than a bug or fish. It's a new experience for me; I suppose I just have to get used to it. I did reset the trap.

I do feel better about my plants, especially since I'm going to be putting in 25-30 pumpkin plants over the next 2 weeks.

[applestar]

I feel safer that you are on this planet.

When I was taking Biology class in college, Most of the class consisted of pre-med majors. My lab partner was bitten by her mouse when she didn't hold it correctly and she smashed it onto the slate lab table. I did not feel safe that she intended to be a doctor someday.

[TheWaterbug]

I think this is the first time I've ever deliberately killed anything other than a bug or fish.

I ate the fish, in case anyone was wondering.

I did not eat the bugs.

[TheWaterbug]

I put this off over and over again, and then this weekend the gopher(s) murdered another sunflower.

Here's the doomed sunflower:

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/ChompedSunflower.jpg[/img]

The gopher knocked it over last week, but it was still in the soil, so it was surviving. Then over the weekend he just chomped it in half.

I don't care so much about my sunflowers, as they're volunteers and in the wrong place anyway, but I was really afraid the gophers were going to get to my potatoes and sweet potatoes. Sandhill Preservation (who _finally_ confirmed my order after more than a month!) declares that "there isn't a crop in our garden more pursued than the sweet potatoes."

So I really had no choice, or so I keep telling myself.

[TheWaterbug]

I've slain my first gopher

I got another one this evening.

I set the trap last evening, and this evening the gopher had defeated it by pushing soil into it. So I dug out the tunnel a bit better and reset it. While I was doing other stuff in the garden, he came back and it got him. It couldn't have been set for more than 30 minutes, and the body was still limp and warm. Ewwwww.

There was another freshly dug tunnel/mound about 15' away, so I reset the trap and put it in there. It may have been the same gopher at both sites; I'll find out tomorrow.

[cynthia_h]

This may not make you feel any better, but--the gopher is not suffering, s/he is experiencing a quick, it seems almost instantaneous, death. This is my philosophy even for such creatures as snails and slugs--I don't want them to suffer, I just want them NOT TO EAT MY PLANTS and not to destroy all of my work.

Which is why I don't make them drown, or writhe in agony with salt, or any of that kind of thing. I kill them outright, myself, instantaneously via shoe, trowel, or other suitable, 100% effective means. I become very frustrated with myself if I fail to administer a quick death.

This may seem weird to many, but justice (in my view) does not include prolonging the agony of the destroyer of one's work.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[TheWaterbug]

I caught a third one yesterday. There must be a big colony living under my garden. They're probably in war council right now, plotting my demise.

Yes, I do take some small comfort in the trap being as humane as possible. I don't try to convince myself that it's painless, but I'm sure it's reasonably quick.

I still try not to look at them too much when I empty the trap.

And I reset it into another promising tunnel last night. We'll see what happens in about an hour . . . .

[cwayland]

Waterbug,

I totally sympathize. Like, you my killing has been limited to bugs. It would pain me to have to kill small animals. I would probably chicken out and get my husband to do it. But....if they are as destructive as I have heard groundhogs can be, and you have as many as it seems you have, you had two choices. Grow food for the groundhogs or kill the groundhogs and grow food for yourself. Hopefully you got them all and the word gets out among the remaining groundhog social network and they stay away from your property.

I am so happy I live in suburbia and hopefully don't have to contend with these (I hope I did not just jinx myself )

BTW, love your posts. They always make me laugh.

[rainbowgardener]

"I am so happy I live in suburbia and hopefully don't have to contend with these "

Woodchucks, raccoons, opossums, and many other creatures coexist with us quite happily in suburbia and even on the edge of inner cities. My church is only four miles from down town on the edge of the inner city, but it is on 5 acres, about 3 of which are wooded. Not only does it have woodchucks, raccoons, squirrels, and other small creatures, there are regularly deer there and recently a coyote was spotted.

I live just about 5 blocks from the church on 1/3 of an acre of inner suburbia. I haven't seen deer or coyote in my yard, but I have all the other critters named. In fact as near as I can tell, I have worse problems with raccoons and such than some of our members who live out in the country with fields. I think the critters like the fact that our old suburbia is so heavily wooded with so many big old trees.

[cwayland]

I have had to contend with deer and rabbits. So far, no groundhogs in 10 years. I know this can change at any moment. We used to have a opossum that lived in the forsythia but it never did noticeable damage to the garden. The squirrels used to be bad but they have gone elsewhere for some reason.

[TheWaterbug]

Reviving last year's thread about "my" gophers, I was out examining my garden this morning, and I could hear one chomping the roots of my Brussels sprouts. As I listened I could see the top of the plant "shivering" as he chewed and scraped.

I also see large mounds of loose earth between the plants in the broccoli and cauliflower rows adjacent.

So this could be why my Brussels sprout plants were so short this year; the gopher(s) may have been eating the roots the whole time. The other two Brassicae didn't get impacted, but that may be because they're against the wall and the Brussels sprouts are nearer the rest of the garden, e.g. the Brussels sprouts are the first line of defense.

As with last year, I've been putting it off for far too long. I think the trap is going to come out this week.

[imafan26]

I'm glad I don't have gophers or mongoose. I do have mice, I bait them when I see one. I haven't seen one for awhile and I'm glad I don't have to deal with any bodies, at least for the moment.

[rainbowgardener]

Last year for some reason no groundhog was in evidence and a lot of things survived that usually don't. This year she is around all the time already. AND we have rabbits, that I hadn't seen before. And of course the usual crew of squirrels, raccoons, possum (I agree the possum doesn't really seem to do much damage in the garden that I can tell, but I think it will get in compost pile if given opportunity). I am putting hot caps on everything, just to keep it from being eaten.

Another nice thing about my bed in the front lawn. With cars whizzing by all the time, the critters don't come out there!

[LA47]

Careful RBG! You may jinks yourself. They don't like the vibrations made by the moving cars BUT we've seen many rock chucks and squrrels on the road and critters will go where ever there is food if they are hungry or the young and stupid.

[UtahJarhead]

I understand your reluctance to kill the animals. The animals themselves are very voracious eaters when it comes to your crops as you've obviously discovered. Like someone else already said, yes you are killing them, but it is a very very humane death for them.

You may want to consider a 'honeypot'. Honey attracts some animals, such as Pooh Bears. The term is also used in the IT Industry as a computer designed to attract the criminal element of the internet for study and things like that... make it an easy target.

I don't know if this is even feasible, but perhaps grow a few small plants that are the gophers' favorite foods and grow them specifically as a sacrificial lamb, aka.. HONEYPOT! Get their favorite foods as bait for your honeypot and trap the [golly gee willickers] out of them.

[sepeters]

If you know anyone with a dachshund the dog would happily dispatch any varmints on your property. My mini doxie has been known to kill gophers, moles, ground squirrels, and mice. He's cute as a button, loves to cuddle, even likes cats. But if there's a burrowing critter around he will sniff it out, dig it up and (9x/10) kill it. He never eats them, just kills 'em and leaves them on the patio. Then barks for treats. He once brought a live mole into my brother's house and all of us women and the children went into hysterics. He got in trouble and has never done it since, but anytime I take him somewhere there's a burrower he is instantly on the scent.

[TheWaterbug]

As with last year, I've been putting it off for far too long. I think the trap is going to come out this week.

Grrr. They ate a row of soybeans and 1.5 rows of snap peas last week, so the trap came out on Thursday.

I caught 3 within 24 hours, and then a 4th on Friday. Two large and two small ones. No catches and no new dirt mounds over the weekend, so either I got the whole family or the rest moved next door.

The second one I caught was kinda gross; he actually bit the trigger wire when he set it off, and so he ended up clenching down on it as he expired. I opened the trap, but I couldn't shake him out because was still clenching the wire.

I had to manhandle his dead body, pry open his mouth, and pull him off the wire

I was terrified he was going to wake up and start struggling, like they do in the movies.

[cynthia_h]

As with last year, I've been putting it off for far too long. I think the trap is going to come out this week.

Grrr. They ate a row of soybeans and 1.5 rows of snap peas last week, so the trap came out on Thursday.

I caught 3 within 24 hours, and then a 4th on Friday. Two large and two small ones. No catches and no new dirt mounds over the weekend, so either I got the whole family or the rest moved next door.

The second one I caught was kinda gross; he actually bit the trigger wire when he set it off, and so he ended up clenching down on it as he expired. I opened the trap, but I couldn't shake him out because was still clenching the wire.

I had to manhandle his dead body, pry open his mouth, and pull him off the wire

Congratulations on the successful defense of your food supply. [grim satisfaction on your account] Do you plan to keep the trap in place, in case other gophers try to move into this now-vacant niche?

I hope you were wearing nitrile (lab) gloves as a safety precaution. Not that a dead animal can bite you, but it could have fleas or other parasites looking for their next host: you. The gloves will inhibit said parasites from claiming you as their next source of food. And, should there be a reflexive movement, the glove will help protect your fingers, esp. true if there's a "gross" situation going on.

Now comes the *really* graphic question: how did you dispose of the bodies? Hot compost pile? Into plastic bags, thence into the garbage? Raw-fed neighbor dog who enjoys eating "whole-prey model" unusual herbivores?

We've kill-trapped a couple of rats in the yard and put them into plastic bags and thence into the garbage, but that's because the compost runs too cold to break them down. And I wouldn't offer these rats even to a snake. These rats are just vile, filthy roof-rat types.

Cynthia H.

[TheWaterbug]

I wasn't wearing any gloves, but I did wash my hands immediately afterwards.

I just tossed the carcasses into the corner of the yard. The people who walk their dogs on the trail usually keep a pretty good handle on them, and this was in the far corner of yard, 50' from the trail.

My neighbors dogs are always fenced in, and they have their own gophers to dig after anyway

The gophers broke down pretty quickly anyway. We have lots of birds of prey around, as well as the ever-present peafowl. By the Saturday two of the bodies were completely gone, and the first large one was hollowed out and completely full of bugs. Circle of life.

The traps (I bought another one, anticipating a prolonged battle) are still deployed, but I think the tunnels they're in are pretty old. If/when I see a fresh mound I'll move them.