I'm livid!

A member on here kindly sent me some seeds a while back. Amongst them were several species that are sown in the autumn for spring germination. They were sown a few weeks ago and have been sat in my coldframe (lid up) for a few weeks now. This morning three of the pots have been emptied. It has to be squirrels as the pots were sat in a mushroom container (unless they can "fall over" by jumping 7cm out of the container!).

This is war! Air rifle is cleaned, pointy pellets on my shopping list. I would like to use a trap but there are rumours of red squirrels being seen.

 

Mice do that to us here. I have to cover any pots wanting frosting with chicken wire and shade netting to keep them safe.

 

I have to set traps in polytunnels, coldframes and greenhouse to stop mice from making their homes in there and digging up seeds.

 

Forget the guns,get yourself a cat instead.Since we got ours they keep the mice population down that likes to visit our garden during the night to eat the bird seed I put out.Not very nice though when you are asleep and the little furry darlings bring up their kill to the bedroom and sit and eat it so you don't take it off of them.Crunching bones not very good though

 

Chicken wire fitted now. If it was squirrel (and the evidence points to it) they were probably checking for nuts?

Got two. Sage is twenty and her best years are behind her as far as hunting goes. Salem is ten and has worked out that

• squirrels are hard work
• there is more meat on a chicken!

This is how sage prefers to spend her time now..................

 

Nothing worse than having a squirrel check your nuts!

 

Whilst I was away last week, mice found a new way to ruin my stuff. They collected all the seed heads from over 100 French marigolds growing in a polytunnel (under my toms) that I was going to save seed from and used them to build a nest in the tunnel. I don't fancy trying to salvage them. I've just put some food out for the Red Kite watching from a nearby tree.

P.S. They've turned 2 kneeling pads into mouse mats.

 

Over the years I had built up a "stock" of about a dozen Gloriosa superba tubers. I'm pretty sure that it was the meeces that found these in the shed a couple of winters ago and munched through the lot!

 

Awww, she's a cutie! (And clearly *very* wise!)

 

'Any rabbits that manage to get through the rabbit fencing and cats get the air rifle treatment.'
You've just lost a friend, Shiney

 

I present the defence................

I suspect a typo there and it should be rats! Shiney has cats.

 

I'm aiming at squirrel free now!

No badgers or deer but we do see the odd fox here. And Salem has at least sorted out the pigeons!

Dead cute when she starts slapping you around the face at 4am for some fuss!!!

 

Oooooo I hope so. I know cats can be a pain in the garden, especially when they're not your own, but a water pistol is just as effective as a deterrent, without injuring (possibly) someone's beloved pet!