Somebody ate my rhizomes! Help!

Okay. I have never, ever heard of this and this is the first year I have had this problem, but the past couple of days I have gone outside to find several iris plants dug up with partially eaten rhizomes!
Whatever ate them is messy and has left little white chunks of chewed rhizome lying around. I put the plants back in and said a litle prayer for them.

I have never had trouble with anything eating my iris before! Not even insects or slugs. And I am nervous because I have a big order coming in from Schreiners and I don't want to lose any of those! 18 different blues, pink lady friends and wearing rubies. I had recently put in some new beds and those are the ones they are getting.

Lately I have found lots of dug up and partially eaten tulips and asiatic lilies as well. Whatever it is digs up the plant and them eats the bulb, leaving the plant on its side to die. I hate whatever is doing this! I lost some primo stargazers and pink japanese double lilies! They are not touching the siberian or dutch iris. Yet.

I have rabbits (with babies, natch!), red squirrels, grey squirrels, sknunks, red fox and oodles of chipmunks. An occasional groudnhog (but no sightings this year). A bumper crop of chipmunks, actually. They have made burrows in my composting mound. I suspect them more than the squirrels, which I have always had.

So what is doing this? Who the heck eats irises? And what can I do to pit the kabosh on it, short of a mass killing?

Thanks

Are you sure they're not Groundhogs? Take a rake and smooth out the ground in the beds, leaving a fine pallet for foot prints. You might not be able to tell exactly what critter is doing the damage, but the size of the foot prints will tell a lot. Everyone says that Iris are poisonous, so with a little luck, maybe the creature will die before your new order arrives. ^_^ Otherwise, use a critter camera and know for sure what's doing your beautiful flowers damage.

Ha! Now that is a thought. Suicidal critters! There is an irony in that which I appreciate.
Whatever it is, it ate quite a bit of yellow iris specifically.

I had also read that nobody much eats iris because they are toxic. But I know deer will eat the plant part. We also have deer, but the devastation is not deer-like. Whatever it is also moves bulbs-- so I will find a tulip bulb lying on top of a bed where I never planted tulips.

What is a critter cam?

Obviously, iris borers love them, and this year I would guess that the slugs are partying hearty on mine.

I've heard the rhizomes are unpalatable, their chemicals cause a caustic reaction, a burning in the mouth, same in the digestive tract.

so some toxic reaction, yes, but probably not death. probably just makes the animal wish it was dead.

Hi all. My skunks dug up my dahlias but didn't touch the iris. Damien the Spawn of Satan TreeRat constantly digs up new iris plantings and throws them about but doesn't eat the rhizomes. Damien does dig up and eat the bulbs off everything else though so maybe you have a dumb squirrel that doesn't know the rhizomes are toxic?

Sounds like skumks or groundhogs to me. Watching for footprints to ID sounds like a good idea.

YOU KNOW A BUSHY TAILED RAT WELL ENOUGH TO NAME IT? LOL

((((you must not have that many....)))

Squirrels did alot of digging & chewing of my newly planted iris last year. A dear friend had this happen to hers as well. I thought they (the rhizome) were poision. Evidently not!

Somebody suggested an alternate food sourcce-- like putting out peanuts or seeds. I guess it is worth a try if they didn't learn their lesson.

I have mean squirrels, but I do like the little chipmunks.

We resorted to live traps. We have caught 5 of the destructive little rascals.

Putting out an alternate food source won't work. They will just take everything they can get and store it, or bury it and forget where it is. We always have little bunches of Sunflowers coming up all over the yard. They bury/plant them and they sprout.

Rubia, your Chipmunks are cuter than ours. The stripes barely show up on these little guys. As you can see he's well fed!

Bonjon I have been at war with Damien the Spawn of Satan for 8 years. He is a black squirrel that apparently can have a 40 year life span EEK! The native red squirrels (about the size of chipmunks) are content to eat the droppings from the bird feeder but Damien LIVES to trash my garden. I can see him through the window tight now, lurking in the spruce tree, chortling evilly and planning his next assault....

Hey Mom our 'chipmunks don't have a tail like that.

Gosh that is a chubby chipmunk. Mine are not so big yet. I kind of like them-- there is one that is a baby and he is really curious. If I leave the porch door open, he will come into the house and do a lap around the dining room table and run back out. He is not afraid of me at all-- he has even run over my foot. I don't know how many kinds of chipmunks there are. Maybe there are different kinds.

I have seen those black squirrels before, I did not know they lived so long. Wow. You are going to have to put up with Damian for a long time.

Maybe live traps are the answer. I guess if you bait them with a slice of apple smeared in peanut butter and sprinkled with cheerios, they are pretty irresistable.





This message was edited Jul 7, 2010 9:53 AM

Here is a picture of the baby. I guess you cannot edit a picture into a previous post.

OK I'm corrected--definite ground squirrel type.

dahlianut, (I'm just now learning how to do dahlias, by not having lifted mine for 3 years...)

ours are all grey. Raleigh is "City of Oaks" - enough said about the squirrel population if I say, if we see them cross the streets, we aim the car at 'em? on Dec. 31st...we drop a giant copper acorn downtown....I think it only encourages those varmints to do that...

we got one of those Yankee Clipper bird feeders and had a blast watching them try at it. We always know if it's lost its battery charge when we see them back again at it.

They have dug up and slung around my newly planted irises. once an iris is well rooted, they can't get it out of our red clay soil =unbaked brick. But otherwise they don't do that much damage here, as our crossbred (mostly golden retriever) dog goes after them with passion.

Lucky you to have a puppy bonjon! The Crazy Ole Cat chases Damien but being 15 he is pretty slow.

IrisMA, I'm not sure if chimpunks and ground squirrels are different or not. I thought the groundsquirrels don't have the stripes but are otherwise the same, with a bigger tail. But I bet there are lots of different similar varmints. We also have gophers, but there are more prairiedog like and they stuff their cheeks. Around here we call the little stripey guys chimpunks. Their tail is not very bushy.

Dhalianut, I would try to trap Damien if I were you. I guess that if you transport them about 6 miles away from your property you will be Damien free! My parents lost all their trees awhile back in a tornado and the homeless squirrels chewed their way into their attic. My dad trapped 8 of them out and took them about 6 miles out, down by the river. They didn't come back.

And here is a picture of a gigantor groundhog in my neighbor's yard. I guess those are just glorified squirrels. I haven't caught him in my yard yet this year, but one of my neighbors reported two in his garden. I guess they are also a possibility.

Alberta ground squirrels are very friendly ^_^

edit: oops the link didn't work. Trying again
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=f5d38ca4-3033-4bd2-ba8c-07a2564d56ae

This message was edited Jul 7, 2010 12:25 PM

Squirrels belong to the family of of rodents called Sciuridae. It includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, woodchuck, marmot, flying squirrel, and prairie dogs. The chipmunk is a lot smaller than a squirrel, and has stripes.

Oh, I just looked chipmunks up in wikipedia-- it is interesting. There are three main types with 24 subtypes, some very specific geographically (like the California chipmunk or the Hopi chipmunk.) I think I have a couple different kinds around here. Wikipedia says some people call chipmunks ground squirrels, but that ground squirrels are really in the marmot family.

How interesting!

That photo is hilarious! They are real characters for sure.

we adopted a stray barncat from a craigslist listing, advertised to be a "good mouser". she has gotten accustomed to eating rabbit, I think, of late. But, she has yet to bring us a fluffy tailed rat. However, I have seen her go about 50' up a loblolly pine - she's just not willing to let go of the tree once she gets up there, like the rats do....

Hi bonjon! I went to school in Chapel Hill, so I know the area.

I miss how beautiful and lush it is! I miss the dogwoods, the magnolias and the loblolly pines!

A cat is a good idea too:-) But then the chipmunks will go away too. I guess there is always a price.

You might try putting a rock over the top of the rhizome when you plant to detour the little critters and make it more difficult for them to dig them up.

You could try hoop tunnels of chicken wire over new planted irises, unless the destroyers are coming from the ground.

Excellent suggestions, both! I will try bricks until I can get some chicken wire. But I will do the chicken wire once I get my big order.

This is a picture of one of the more hyper of my squirrels. For some reason he attacked my front door. Maybe he knew I was on the other side (but it has a reflective kind of film on it.) At any rate, he (or she) is a force to be reckoned with.

Oh my goodness - He looks like he has an appetite! I think he is begging for a hand out!

More tulips, please-- with an extra side of iris!

Seriously, this guy is super destructive. He just decimated my butterfly weed. Ripped it apart. And he breaks the branches off my shrubs. I think something is wrong with him.

That is a common gray squirrel. We have both the gray and fox (red) squirrels. There is a town east of Salem, Olney, which has a population of white (probably albino) squirrels. Feed your troublemaker sunflower seeds or just ears of dried corn. He will leave your plants alone.

I think I would be inclined to try to find him a new home...I'd be looking for a trap. Feeding him might keep him coming back for more goodies. My mom had a little baby squirrel that was following her around for awhile. She said he was cute, but she was a little nervous about him getting too close to her. She feeds the alley cats and I think he realized that she was the kind sole that was leaving food out. Animals are so smart. You need one of these - then you won't have the problem with the critters!

This is my nemesis that digs acorns from my beds. She has three younguns and they manage to keep the bird feeders empty.

Caught him red-pawed!

It is a squirrel. I came out this morning to find him at the basse of a tree, eating two of my new iris plants from a swap. Of course he ran up the tree when he saw me.

I am going to put a trap out for him tomorrow night. Doesn't he ever learn??

Humm, does that prove that Iris are NOT poisonous?

grrrrrrrrrrrr

Oh, it is more than grrr! I did the universal dance of wrath. My neighbors must think I am nuts.

well, nuts would be appropriate bait for the squirrel, rubia!

in your trap, use peanut butter - attracks squirrels like flies to honey, especially if you mix it up with a teaspoon or two of sunflower seeds!

with all our bushy tails raiders, we bought this feeder and love it! Watch the youtube video! for the first four weeks it was insanely fun to watch them try everything possible. They learned. Now, it's as though they know to try it once a month or so. Because when the battery needs an overnight recharging, they can attack it and do. We recharge it about every two to three months, and watch them put on a "show" again for a day, and they again leave it alone. It also will toss of larger mourning doves and pigeons. But 3 cardinals and a chickadee won't trigger it. Red cockaded woodpeckers have to hang under it and streach up, but somehow they manage that contortion.

http://www.seedcake.com/yankee-flipper?gclid=CKyk28fJ5qICFQS2sgodCSkbxA