Went out to my garden today, to find about 50% of my sweet potato plants eaten down to just the leaf stems and vines.
There’s a small hole in the netting, which I repaired, and based on the size of the path where the vines are trampled down, I’m guessing a rabbit or possibly a groundhog.
About half the patch has only minor damage, see below, I feel like this area will be fine, as long as I can prevent further damage.
Other half looks like this. Now, the vines are growing extremely vigorously at the moment, so I wonder if they may recover. I just hope they don’t zap too much energy out of the developing roots to destroy my harvest.
Yeah. I just saw the little son of a bitch. He was actually right behind the garden, and ran away as I walked into the garden. He appeared to be right by his little door, discovering I had closed it up. With a much thicker-grade material.
Once he eats sweet potatoes, he will crave sweet potatoes. The only way I’ve found to stop it is to trap and kill or shoot to kill. An electric fence can slow down the damage but can still be overcome if they really want in.
Would I be a horrible person if I got a Havahart trap, and released the groundhog in the backyard of one of those crunchy hippie types who talks about how sweet and wonderful all the wildlife is?
I have always wanted to try groundhog. I also find them extremely cute, so i havent popped one yet, but should they get into the garden that could change
I have to admit that a groundhog is cute esp. when it stands on two hind legs. Mine is so big I am not sure if it will fit in a Havaheart trap. By the same token, I hate squirrels.
We have one of those traps out right now, and are going to relocate the woodchuck to state land. I wouldn’t mind shooting it but one thing you don’t want to do in Connecticut is to have a neighbor call the police reporting shots fired.
I believe that the instinctive disgust at rats is evolutionary hardwired into most humans DNA; those who didn’t have this gene have been mostly wiped out by centuries of black plague epidemics. However, people who consider rats cute appear to be an increasingly common phenomenon nowadays, perhaps a result of phenotypic plasticity due to the lack of plague-driven ecological pressure for the last century.
It is very likely illegal to relocate them. Carbon dioxide gas (from the brew supply house) and a tight cardboard box just large enough to hold the trap works quickly and quietly. I set the trap in a plastic garbage bag and slide that into the box, then put the hose in the bag and open the valve, holding the bag loosely closed.
Here, it’s legal to relocate them as long as you relocate them to state land. The state’s web site says that relocating to state land is one thing you can do, though it’s discouraged. They say that euthanizing humanely or releasing on the same property you captured them on are the preferred things to do. To me, humanely euthanizing this animal would be a .22 to the head but then I can’t do that. I have drowned baby bunnies in the past. I guess I could do that to a woodchuck. Either that, or risk getting in trouble for animal cruelty. I’m not sure where the lines are drawn with these people.
.