I finally think I have foiled the squirrels!

I grabbed my husband's drill and drilled a tiny hole through the lip of every pot. I bought aluminum tags and wrote the name of each plant grown in each pot and began methodically threading the tags through each hole. Boy! Those holes are small! I think, not positive... that this may be the end of faded tags where you can't read the name of the plant as well as tags strewn all over the place in fall when the acorns and nuts start falling and the squirrels start doing their thang! It won't stop the squirrels from uprooting the plants at that time of year but the days of the mystery plant may be over.

I have 5 mystery plants out there where the little t tags are gone but no sense dwelling on them. I'll figure out what they are when they bloom and begin to send up pitchers.

Here's another shot of an aluminum tag looped into the lip of a pot-

Excellent excellens Lauren, LOL! Sorry for the pun. What a great and resourceful method of 'fix-it'. I often will place 2 labels in the pot. Both are written in waterproof ink but 1 is slid down the side of the pot out of sight in the event I mindlessly break a tag off by shuffling plants about....which happens rather often!

I don't have any squirrel problems. But I do get the stray opposum or raccoon rooting through my yard. 2 summers ago a raccoon destroyed my ENTIRE water lily collection as it proceeded to destroy my ENTIRE Koi collection. There was nothing left of either except a pile of shredded leaves and mud on the ground outside the pond..

The brighter side of this story is that the pond (400 gallon pre-form) now resides in my brother's yard and is once again repleat with water plants and Koi. Only this time he had the smarter sense than I did to buid a reinforced wire mesh canopy over the structure. Even keeps his curious cats out.

Stray cats do a lot of damage around here using everything as a cat litter box but the biggest problem critter for the ponds is the heron. They can wipe out a pond in no time flat. The raccoons are more content to root around in my composter but they do like to dip their food in the pond water so they mess up plants around the edge. I have a raccoon pond now that I toss rusty crayfish in for them to eat and that helps keep them out of the good ponds. The other thing that helped keep them out of the one pond was a fido fence, can we say zap! The line of live wire doesn't stop a heron though as they just fly in from above. They trashed a bunch of my aquatic Utrics last year, nasty little buggers but they are so cute. The opossum seems to be into everything but mostly garbage. He likes to get right in the garbage cans to have a field day. Other than that, it's the squirrels that are by far the most destructive to plants.

Regarding the tags, hopefully this will be the last year of the mystery plant. I tried the double stake method and when those squirrels get in the pots to bury goodies, they uproot everything.

Major pond destroyer around my place = ducks. They come, they poop, they root around in pot knocking them over and spilling content into pond, they get scared away by my dogs. Earlier this week I was seen running through the yard waving my son's airsoft rifle. Mama duck could not have cared less as she stayed one quack ahead of me. Finally, with a burst of middle -aged speed, I cornered her a she flew off, scolding me all the way. Used to have a bunch of racoons, but I think the dogs scared them off. They have a lot of choices around here and I think they got tired of being treed. The catfood wasn't worth it to them.
We also have a resident coyote, even though we're basically in town, and Mike said the dogs were barking in the middle of the night this week and he got up and checked. He's fairly certain he what they saw was a fox.
My koi and other fish have lots of places to hide and water that is almost 3 feet deep. Also, the sides of the pond drop straight down into the deep part, so I haven't had any trouble with land critters trying to get the fish. Just a kingfisher. So far.

Oh boy, our dogs started up at 4:30 this am and guess what? A racoon, about a 20 pounder sitting in the skimmer filter. It was huge. I had left the lid off the evening before because of a pump problem. I don't know how long he was in there, but the uv's were on and he was getting a good dose. I have a six foot privacy fence on all sides and four yappy dogs. This critter is bold and determined. He had bent and ripped a peanut feeder right off the tree with his weight. My potted rushes in the pond had been tossed from the one foot deep area to the bottom of the 3 1/2 ft part. Try to imagine a 60 yr old woman in her jammies running towards an overweight racoon with an unbrella. It was all I could find in a hurry! He ran, or should I say waddled, right past me toward the oak tree and up he went. I have no heart for a serious fight. I just wanted him out. And he was way bigger than my dogs. There was no harm to the koi or goldfish. They have sufficient deep water in which to retreat. BUT, last year I did lose two koi somehow. Found them mauled in the morning. I hope there isnt a repeat this year but it doesn't look good.

Does anyone know how I can catch gold fish in a pond easily? I have about three dozen that have to go. They will become fertilizer unfortunately, so their health won't be a concern. This pond is 15 by 20 and 3 1/2 ft deep and they are really hard to corner. Last fall we dropped the water level, climbed in and caught what we could until the koi were so stressed that we had to quit. I would like to avoid that scenario if at all possible.

We don't have 'coons here (yet), and the red squirrel migrated/immigrated about 10 yrs ago, and apparently the first coyotes crossed the ice at the Strait of Belle Isle from continental N. America a couple of yrs ago. Chicken wire has been used to protect bulbs from squirrels, and I read somewhere that squirrels don't touch blue/purple crocus....... so interplanting some of them helps. The red squirrel here is not a garden nuisance but he could mess up country cabins. We have belted kingfishers here in the country, and the foxes are rarely seen. The odd hawk or eagle is more likely to come looking for an easy lunch than a heron - a bird which is definitely off course to be found in Newfoundland. Rabbits became a problem about 5 yrs ago - winter foraging means shrubbery/trees take a hit. However, young rabbits often drown in their dens with the Spring thaw, and the population is naturally reduced, moreso than by the predations of domestic cats. I haven't spotted any feral cats lately. (Cruel owners abandon family cats in the country...... to go wild if they survive.) The only member of the deer family here is the moose. A moose will pass this way about once every ten days, browse wild stuff, but hasn't tasted the garden flora 'en passant'. I once planted flowers and veg 200-300 ft from house - the moose made a great meal of beet tops........ even gladioli.
I finally had to cage some young beech trees to prevent rabbit and moose damage. If the rabbits ever get too numerous again, I will probably borrow a couple of beagles......... Rabbit snares for me are not a good idea - I would likely catch the neighbours' cats.
Local ordinances may preclude shooting a major pest like a raccoon. Trapping, for release in the wild, is a possiblity.
Bill in SE Newfoundland zone 5a where the snow is very visible, but melting

Critters can be incredibly destructive. Makes you want to rip out your hair and scream from here to kingdom come!

snapple, your story beats mine! I love the whole image of you chasing said racoon with an umbrella!
I catch my fish at night because it's easier. I use a strong light and it distracts them while I creep up on them with the net at the other side. I had to catch some last night, babies left over from last year. I give them away on freecycle.