Varmints

[Johnny Palmseed]

So I think the squirrels have been feasting on my seed(ling)s lately. A couple weeks ago I noticed a pot looked like it had been rummaged through and then something tore up all of my Buccaneer seedlings from last year. Then it tore up my new pot of D. Album seedlings that I just got from Nature Girl. Along with some KO seedlings that finally popped after about 6 months. Luckily there were still about 20 D. Album that I was able to save and they are now doing fine in a more protected area. The KO were chewed right off the seed. I knew my Buccaneer had a bunch of seeds that were starting to turn red but I was busy and didn’t harvest any. Well I wasn’t paying attention and one day I see it had been stripped of every seed except for one. Initially, I thought they had fallen and I just needed to gather them up like every year. Nope. It was a complete heist. Nothing on the ground. With the potted seeds, I thought perhaps it was a mouse or a rat but I was unable to catch anything in the trap. Weirdly enough, the bait wasn’t touched so I gave up on it. I’m pretty sure it was squirrels because of the Buccaneer. I don’t think a rat would take all the seeds to eat somewhere else. This has never happened before and unfortunately now I have no Sargentii seeds to offer this year. The messed up thing is that these will probably be germinating all around the area but will never grow up because they are in the grass or in someone else’s yard who will just pull them out or spray them. 🐿️🤬

[Harry’s Palms]

Bummer, I had a Wodyetia seedling chewed off and I was so upset. The harmony chewed through the stem and left the remnants of the plant laying there! Harru

[happypalms]

Rats are a major pest in my greenhouse and garden. I trap the little buggers and take them for a drive! They get clever too you have  to move your traps around and constantly change your baits.  

[Looking Glass]

Squirrels, Rats, even Possums and Racoons are always checking the pots and bromeliads and sometimes destroying stuff here.  

If you find lizard legs and half chewed up bodies around, it’s rats. 

Blue jays hammer peanuts into the bromeliad centers all the time.  Mocking birds pluck seeds off of trees all the time.  

Raccoons do the most damage in a single night, but rats are insidious and very, very smart and cautious.  You have to rotate trap types and baits, and still big old adults are hard to catch.  Juveniles and youngsters mostly make mistakes getting trapped.  Squirrels are pretty dumb and bold and easy to catch.  Mice are the super-dumb dums.  

If you have a Wi-Fi security camera, detach it and bait it and you’ll see who stops by.   At least possums clean up the dead.   
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Looking Glass]

One of the most annoying things here is when blue jays hammer peanuts into bromeliad centers….

First they pick a bromeliad with a center hole that a shelled peanut will not quite fit into.   They they fly off an get a shelled peanut.   They hammer it in, like a woodpecker, wedging it deep in the hole.  Often they will then go get a stone about the same size, and put that on top next, and hammer that in place, creating a secure locker to store their peanut that they will never come back for.  It then ferments in the water in there if you don’t notice, rotting out your prized bromeliad.   They always pick a super nice tubular bromeliad in a pot (especially hohenbergia or billbergia) to do this number on.  I have to go around with long pickups and needle nose pliers to try to fish them out before the inevitable happens.  

 

[Zeeth]

I have the biggest problem with Raccoons. They dig out seedlings to eat the seeds, they eat all my fruit, they dig holes in my yard looking for grubs, and there was one with rabies a few years ago that was stumbling around my yard and Animal control wouldn't come check unless it had already bitten someone. Trapping them works for a while but they usually start becoming an issue again about 6 months after trapping. Squirrels are also an issue, but only with my orchids and air plants. I've had good luck protecting my epiphyte tree by just making sure the branches aren't touching any other structures to close off their access point and wrapping the lower trunk with spikes. 

[Jdash]

Had squirrels do the same over here earlier this year and when removed the pots of seeds away, they started tearing up my seedlings, chewing every 2 strap seedling in half. had to move everything and secure it with chicken wire. hoping the dogs will keep them away from the middle of the backyard.

[Johnny Palmseed]

11 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

One of the most annoying things here is when blue jays hammer peanuts into bromeliad centers….

First they pick a bromeliad with a center hole that a shelled peanut will not quite fit into.   They they fly off an get a shelled peanut.   They hammer it in, like a woodpecker, wedging it deep in the hole.  Often they will then go get a stone about the same size, and put that on top next, and hammer that in place, creating a secure locker to store their peanut that they will never come back for.  It then ferments in the water in there if you don’t notice, rotting out your prized bromeliad.   They always pick a super nice tubular bromeliad in a pot (especially hohenbergia or billbergia) to do this number on.  I have to go around with long pickups and needle nose pliers to try to fish them out before the inevitable happens.  

 

WOW that’s crazy! I assume you actually witnessed this occurring. I will have to look at my bromeliads to see if I have anything like that because I know there are blue jays around.

[Looking Glass]

50 minutes ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

WOW that’s crazy! I assume you actually witnessed this occurring. I will have to look at my bromeliads to see if I have anything like that because I know there are blue jays around.

Yes.  It’s very weird.   They also stick them in various other tight spaces around the house… between the gutter and wall, in crooks in trees and in palm boots.  I was working outside one day, and one flew up and tried to hammer a peanut into one of those plastic clam rat traps that I tied to that gutter bend up there.  He then got his foot caught in the trap.   

Luckily it’s a plastic trap without much tension, so the foot was actually ok.  I freed him within seconds and checked him out and let him go.  I watched him get caught, trying to put a peanut into the trap!   
 

[Fusca]

Murphy's Law of rodents:  if you have a dozen Sabal seedlings, a dozen Roystonea seedlings and one Chrysalidocarpus hybrid seedling - the varmint will find and attack the Chrysalidocarpus.  😖

[Darold Petty]

Looking Glass,   That looks like a really nice Hyophorbe in the background ! 

[happypalms]

19 hours ago, Fusca said:

Murphy's Law of rodents:  if you have a dozen Sabal seedlings, a dozen Roystonea seedlings and one Chrysalidocarpus hybrid seedling - the varmint will find and attack the Chrysalidocarpus.  😖

Rats have exspensive taste you gotta give em that. Champagne taste on a beer budget pretty clever.