Had to cover tomato plants with large netting bags to keep out birds. This praying mantis took up residents inside one of the bags to eliminate any bugs that got in .
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This fat little garden vegetable and fruit thief, a groundhog, has decided to dig a burrow under my concrete sidewalk. Sorry about the bad picture. Had to take it through the window screen. He was literally standing and looking in the window on the porch bench where my dogs used to lie, until the last one sadly passed. By the time I could get to my phone, he had already turned and was walking down the bench. My dogs would never have tolerated this and he would have been in mortal danger, but now he just brazenly peers in the window as if asking for more to eat.
I have seen him every time I go outside running next to the back of the house or along the front porch.
I read online to put used cat litter in and around his burrow entrance and to pee in the area, so I recruited my husband to do the deed. Also sprayed peppermint oil spray around the entrance.
Well, the cat litter clumps have disappeared. Donāt know what he did with them and while I was mowing, I noticed a wheelbarrow load size pile of dirt dug out from under the concrete steps to the porch at the other end of the house. Later that day I saw a groundhog (hopefully the same one) coming up to the steps with a big red apple from my orchard in his mouth and go into the burrow.
I read further online and they say ammonia works if you pour it into their burrows to make them leave. Have to keep it up for a while.
My husband just had major surgery on his leg and canāt stand or walk, so the problem is up to me to eliminate. I guess I could try to shoot him but just donāt have the heart for it, although folks say they are good eating.
. I stupidly named him Hoggie so my soft heart has gotten a little attached to the fat fella. I suppose I can try to live trap him if all else fails. I am concerned the concrete may crack in areas where he has undermined it.I am beginning to feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack!
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What claws!
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They dig up my yardā¦ my garden beds, my rings of wood chips around fruit treesā¦ my landscape mulchā¦ killed about half of a newly planted raspberry bed a couple springs ago.
I do my best to make them all good armadillos !!!
TNHunter
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they, like skunks, like to eat worms and grubs? the skunks rid my lawn and plantings of junebug grubs regularly. they dig up little divets of lawn and sometimes dig near trees, but the damage is minimal. it also aerates the rest of the dawn, keeping it healthy. my neighbor across the street adores his perfect grass and hates when they go over there digging in his lawn. i see him out there putting every little piece back in the holes just about daily this time of year. surprised he hasnāt put out traps to relocate them. i bump into the skunks sometimes in early morning and before dark in the yard. theyāre so used to me they just give me a glance and move on.
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I donāt have personal experience with armadillos but they are burrowers. Likely to be as destructive as a groundhog
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ive never really heard much about them other than they can be a vector of disease. theyāre pretty cool looking.
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I like them around but then my yard/orchard is not pristineā¦.in fact very countrified. They donāt make nearly the mess that feral hogs doā¦.its a perspective kind of thing.
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Here the armadillos will do some serious damageā¦ in their search for worms and grubs.
Skunk digs a small holeā¦ like an inch wide and a couple inches deep. They rarely do damage to any if my borderless raised beds (covered with wood chips)ā¦ but armadillos are a different story.
In the spring months when the ground is soft they do a lot of digging in my yardā¦ much larger holes than skunk holesā¦ and they almost always pull a few rocks out tooā¦ which become a problem for mowing.
When the rain slows down the yard dirt can harden up significantlyā¦ making it much more difficult for them to dig holesā¦
But they quickly figure outā¦ I have all these borderless raised beds and fruit treesā¦ that are all covered with a nice layer of compost underneath and woodchips on top.
They plough thru them like a trencherā¦ making trails of tilled in wood chips (armadillo width) all thru my borderless raised beds and wood chip rings around my fruit trees.
When they dig too close to a raspberry cane they can take all roots off one sideā¦ the cane then falls over.
When summer/early fall gets hereā¦ the ground in my yard and fields ā¦ especially in drought years like this oneā¦ can get really hardā¦ so the armadillos focus mostly on my landscaping around the house which is mulchedā¦ making a mess of itā¦ and also all my borderless raised beds and fruit tree wood chip rings.
That wood chipped groundā¦ remains softerā¦ and since there is compost and wood chipsā¦ no doubt lots of worms and grubs.
We just had a couple days of nice slow rainā¦ so now they will start hitting the yard again. It is plenty soft now.
These critters are a royal pain for me.
There were none here when I was a kidā¦ they started showing up in the mid to late 90s best I rememberā¦ right behind the fire ants that moved in here then.
TNHunter
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Itās very surprising how far they have managed to increase their range. I know they are in NC also but luckily not in this area. I really like them a lot as critters, as I like raccoons, however if they were in my garden I would also have to āmake them goodā if I could haha.
They carry leprosy apparently, other than that and the damage I bet they do manage other pests quite well.
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I have a groundhog eating up the apple droppings from under the trees. As soon as I drive down the driveway it takes off. At times I see the groundhog up on its hind legs eating the apples. Good thing they cannot climb trees.
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Do they not damage the roots? I know a lot of people in California plant trees in hardware cloth to protect the roots, I canāt imagine having to plant with such precautions
I think they are more interested in the fruit than the roots, at this point of being in a drought. I have a lot of hawks, fox, coyotes that seem to keep their population down.
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I agree with you. I would hate to have to try and cover the roots with hardware cloth just to keep the groundhogs from getting to the roots. Too much work and worry.
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We are very welcome to shareā¦ā¦especially the fire antsā¦ā¦
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In fact they can climb trees .
I often see them eating the buds on elm trees early spring, at that time I guess elm buds are the tastiest thing around. And somehow they know it, and will climb elm trees to eat them.
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Sorry Mike, they do climb trees, @mamuang can confirm this!
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My groundhogs prefer climbing than digging.
One shimmied up my 6-7 ft Mammoth sunflower to get to the seeds.
Wish I had a camera handy.
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