topic Re: Wildlife! in Community Chat

Wildlife!

Biftu — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 21:54:25 GMT

Went on my patio today and noticed that the squirrels chewed up the cushions on my furniture. I'm sick about it. This year deer have eaten my hosta, pooped on my grass, the bunnies have eaten my tomatoes and peppers, and something chewed open a bag of mulch. What a waste of time and money. I'm ready for life in the city!

Re: Wildlife!

JoyFilled Warrior — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:11:17 GMT

@Biftu

Whoa! Sad to hear this! I can imagine $$$.

Re: Wildlife!

jackthebear — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:17:39 GMT

@Biftu wrote:

Went on my patio today and noticed that the squirrels chewed up the cushions on my furniture. I'm sick about it. This year deer have eaten my hosta, pooped on my grass, the bunnies have eaten my tomatoes and peppers, and something chewed open a bag of mulch. What a waste of time and money. I'm ready for life in the city!

i hear you

the deer have eaten all the flowering plants, so no one plants any and the bees have no where to go

our deck is barricaded against the critters

gardening no longer fun

Re: Wildlife!

SilleeMee — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:59:30 GMT

My friend, who lives in a neighborhood cat sanctuary, has had her vegetable garden ruined for three years in a row with cat poop. She finally had to build a cage around it to keep them out. But that took some time b/c she had to wait until the garden soil was safe enough to plant. Took years to get where she's at now with it.

Re: Wildlife!

Nightowlz — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 23:07:44 GMT

@Biftu

It is a lot work & waste of money on all the things the critters get into.

We are in the City the squirrels chewed up our lawn chair cushions to make their nests. We hardly got to use them before they tore them up.

Between the birds & rabbits they keep eating the runners on the grass in areas we are trying to get the grass to grow. I wondered why it was taking so long to fill in. I have been watching them eat the runners so I know this is what is happening. DH pinned some wire over the areas so it will still get sun & water. So far it's working the grass is spreading.

Now if I can get the squirrels to stop planting nuts in my flower pots? Upside down forks in the pots had been working. Not working this summer.

Re: Wildlife!

Nightowlz — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 23:11:47 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
My friend, who lives in a neighborhood cat sanctuary, has had her vegetable garden ruined for three years in a row with cat poop. She finally had to build a cage around it to keep them out. But that took some time b/c she had to wait until the garden soil was safe enough to plant. Took years to get where she's at now with it.

@SilleeMee

The neighbors cat always used the flower bed on our front porch. We finally put cement there to blend in with the rest of the porch. Nothing would grow in there after the cat used it over & over?

Re: Wildlife!

SilleeMee — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 23:20:30 GMT

Many years ago the squirrels ate part of my house. They chewed off the facsia board and part of the soffit board near one corner of my house. THEN that exposed the wood for the woodpeckers to have their way with it. I had a real mess and quite the bill to repair things.

Re: Wildlife!

Kachina624 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:19:59 GMT

Guess I'll quit complaining when the suffocatingly putrid smell of a skunk wakes me up at night.

Re: Wildlife!

gtx — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 03:55:03 GMT

@Kachina624 Hahaha! That is really bad, but funny.

Re: Wildlife!

Carmie — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 06:47:51 GMT

Our house is mostly made of brick, but the attached garage has vinyl siding on it.

Mice have chewed through the siding in two places. We have to replace it. They got into the house. We caught 14 of them, then two months later, we saw one more. Got him too. They were in my kitchen,LR and even went to the second floor....not sure why. There is no food up there.

Squirrels chewed into the house through the window surrounds. We could hear them in our walls, and they even got on our roof by climbing a tall tree and came down the chimney and got into our basement.

The bunnies and deer eat my garden and the deer eat my young trees and foundation plants. We have an opossum who lives under our deck and drives my dogs crazy.

Birds keep trying to get into my LR windows and often hang on to the window screens..

Stray/feral cats are everywhere. A few weeks ago I saw what looked like a coyote on the outdoor camera. I hope it wasn't.

I live in the suburbs. It's starting to look like a zoo.

@Biftu I feel your pain.

Re: Wildlife!

Biftu — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 11:36:08 GMT

@Carmie wrote:
Our house is mostly made of brick, but the attached garage has vinyl siding on it.

Mice have chewed through the siding in two places. We have to replace it. They got into the house. We caught 14 of them, then two months later, we saw one more. Got him too. They were in my kitchen,LR and even went to the second floor....not sure why. There is no food up there.

Squirrels chewed into the house through the window surrounds. We could hear them in our walls, and they even got on our roof by climbing a tall tree and came down the chimney and got into our basement.

The bunnies and deer eat my garden and the deer eat my young trees and foundation plants. We have an opossum who lives under our deck and drives my dogs crazy.

Birds keep trying to get into my LR windows and often hang on to the window screens..

Stray/feral cats are everywhere. A few weeks ago I saw what looked like a coyote on the outdoor camera. I hope it wasn't.

I live in the suburbs. It's starting to look like a zoo.

@Biftu I feel your pain.

@Carmie Oh my! My wildlife complaints don't begin to compare.

Re: Wildlife!

We rescue cats — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:36:27 GMT

We live in a rural area, about 20 acres so we too have plenty of critter life around, we were certified as a wildlife habitat many years ago when one had to submit photos and map renderings (as opposed to submitting form with a check! LOL!!) We have a love/hate relationship with the critters. I love the possums, they clean up the ticks and fleas from the yard. I even love antics of the raccoons and skunks-especially at this time of year when they bring the young ones. The fox will soon show up with their kits, always fun to watch. But they can all be bad neighbors. My poor sweet potato vines do not have a leaf left on them, and my patio planter is dug up every night and a peanut is planted where my heliotrope used to be!

A few years ago I planted 30 lavender plants that were planted with hostas-since deer do not like lavender this was done to keep them away from the hosta during the bloom time. It worked until this year. . . but at least the deer have only decimated 3 or 4 of the hostas (so far!). (I usually appreciate the deer taking the hostas down to the ground each fall...) Because we filled in the pool last spring we planted trees abd bushes to help support the wildlife, along with watering sacks to keep them happy. Someone chewed thru the bottom of one of the sacks.

The filling in of our pool and ponds created an arid environment in our yard so we have a dozen watering stations (which I fill each day) for the birds and critters.

Mother Nature is really pi$$ing me off.

Re: Wildlife!

Still Raining — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:43:47 GMT

I never knew what vengeance and hate were until squirrels got in my attic. Made me consider burning the house down and shooting them as they fled.