Critters in my bed!!

Something is tearing up my Gomphrenas! It's not eating them, just slicing stalks off. I found some the other day in one part of the yard, then found that IT had done it to my big plant across the yard. Tonight I saw that it had chopped off a lot of the branches on the big plant. :( WHAT could/would do that?? I also noticed that a large peach is totally gone from a hanging bird feeder. (I put fruit there for the butterflies) This is happening at night. I couldn't think of anything else to do tonight so I stuck a package of plastic forks in the ground around the plant. Hopefully I won't find something inpaled on the forks tomorrow!

A while back I had something that kept sitting in the middle of one of my Mexican Feather grasses. It would just be flat and I'd try to fluff it up but the next night it would be squished. It finally got so ugly because it was dead in the middle that I just pulled it up and replanted a new one. No idea what that was either. I swore it was a huge toad I have but can't prove it. lol

This is a pic of the sliced ends. I guess something could have eaten part of the stems, but it's not shredded at all.

How odd. Those stalks look to me to be too large to have been chomped by insects of some kind. Cutworms will sometimes chomp plants down, but they are usually much smaller and chomped at the soil line. Keep us updated if you find out what is doing this.

time for a hidden camera! might even win you money on AFV!

I didn't think it looked like an insect either. I've never seen any animals tho, but something large enough to carry off a peach was here. I looked out a few times last night with a flashlight but didn't see anything. I guess I am going to have to put out the camera. I just couldn't figure out how to do it and keep it from getting wet. I'll have to rig up some sort of box tonight, unless I find something on my forks this morning. lol

Deer - Racoons, Possum or rabbits - any of these could carry off a peach and smash your grass.

Of those choices, it would have to be either rabbits or possum. I've never seen either tho. The odd thing tho, is that they aren't just smashing the Gomphrena, they are cutting it up. I can't tell if they are eating it because the parts are always laying on the ground, but they are going around the yard to all the same plants. Strange!

I think this is my Gomphrena Gobbler. It's sibling is waiting for a ride in the cage next.

I was just about to say a rodent of some kind.
Glad you got one. Good luck on the other. What was the bait?
sidney

I don't think they are very smart, so I am sure the other one will crawl in soon. lol I just threw in some of their favorite Gomphrena and some watermelon. It was cute tho, and happy that I let it out in a field. The housing construction by me is running them over here I guess.

...and 30 minutes later, another trip to a field.

What the heck is it?? It looks like a huge rat - Is it a Nuetrea?

LOL...it's not really huge. This one was larger, probably about 5-6 inches long, plus the tail. I don't really know if it's a rat or a mouse. I'm not sure what the difference is, at least when they are small. Either or, I can't bring myself to catch them in traps. I just have to let them go and let someone else do that.

Oh, you must have one of the smaller traps- we have one that is about 2' long and 12" square that we catch squirrels in all the time. I'm told that if you don't haul them off at least 5 mi away, they will find their way back.
Last spring/summer we carried off 44 of the "Tree Rats" - they had been getting in our attic every winter. Haven't had so many this year- we have a couple of neighboring cats that seem to take care of them. Don't know why we still have hordes of chipmunks tho. Glad you solved your mystery tho. Maybe you need to get a cat!

Yeah, that's about the size of this cage. I didn't take it off very far, but it will run into other houses before mine. If it keeps happening I guess I will have to drive further, since I still can't bring myself to kill it.

I have 2 indoor cats and one stray outside that I see sometimes. I think the cat would do more damage tho than the rats.

Six inches PLUS tail is a Rat!!!
They are more prolific than rabbits!
Please don't hesitate to eliminate these possible rabid/plague carrying varmits.We sure won't tell Pita in this case.
sidney

Hmmm...guess that 3rd one I carried off was a baby rat too. Ugh...I don't want to kill them!! Maybe I will tell the neighbors behind me (where the "thing" came from under the fence) and maybe they'll set out some traps.

Kill, Kill, Kill - these are horrible critters. http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/wildlife/g1106.htm Yes- you owe it to your self and neighbors to tell them.

I just found this thread and I think I'll be getting a humane trap to see what is digging holes in my beds.

Question--If I find rats or mice, will the humane society kill them?

thanks,

Maureen

I'm still catching and releasing them. They just keep plowing up the fields next to me for new housing so it's a never ending cycle for a while. I can't bring myself to do the traps yet. I caught one in the live trap yesterday and didn't get to take it off until this afternoon, so I even took it some canteloupe for breakfast. It seemed to enjoy it.

ROFL Konkrete--sounds like something I would do....I can't use kill traps and never a glue trap--way to cruel.

I will likely end up getting a humane trap to see what I've got and taking them away to be released. I figure if I take them across the missouri river they won't get back to my yard too soon.

If they are chipmonks, I wonder thought if there is something I can put down the holes to make them go away.

Maureen

Oh no, those glue traps are horrible! What do you do? just throw it and the mouse away?! Geez, talk about guilt!

Chipmonks? That's funny (well, not to you) because as far as I know we don't have them. We have armadillos tho, which can dig up a storm!

I have something larger than the field rats too. It was able to push aside a folded blanket thingy that was sitting on top of my bucket of tools etc. and dig out a bag of bread I was feeding the birds. I forgot it was in there and know it was towards the bottom. No rat can do that! I guess it was either a racoon or a possum. I set out a large live trap, but ended up just feeding the small rats and not being able to catch them since they weren't big enough to make it shut.