Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Sounds like an idea for a movie......

Oh wait. I think it's been done.

Wino,

No luck with the blood meal. It's a powerful nitrogen fertilizer, so I wasn't able to sprinkle on very much. I don't think the squirrels even noticed it.

Dave, where did you get those squirrel traps?

Fitzie, are you sure those are crows and not grackles? The grackles have been moving up from Mexico as the climate warms, and they cluster like you describe. Regular crows, AFAIK, don't like to hang about in large groups.

Fuzzy,

I got it on e-Bay for the cheapest (about $37) when I got it, but you know how that changes. They are available many places, with extremely variable prices. I got the ultra, because it uses D batteries, instead of AA, so I figured that it would zap a lot more before needing replacements.

3 zaps so far, but I don't see any more, even with all that time I was in the garden the last two days (garlic and shallot planting time).

Fuzzy, the birds I refer to are always called crows. I looked up Grackles and I think the crows are much larger birds. I read an article that stated that crows band together in the fall and winter in groups up to 1 million. I don't think there are that many here. Here they always band together in the same general area of town (which happens to be a very wealthy neighborhood) stay for a couple of weeks, and then move on.
fitzie

Every family we have here from Italy are enchanted by squirrels...they can spend hours watching them. It's quite funny to see. My sister in law says she can always tell the Italians in Central Park because they are watching the squirrels. We have lots, they leave the garden and plants alone but we do back onto a good food source for them so maybe that's why. The groundhogs however will strip my garden clean overnight. We've trapped them in the past and brought them far away to release. Rabbits can be an issue with my parsely and basil, but the cats this year seem to have kept them away.

My family gets all in a tizzy about the squirrels too. I have seen a couple black ones but they are far and few between. The only thing we see with regularity are small rodent sized slugs. They can do an amazing amount of damage without the benefit of sweet little eyes.

Mary

Mary,

I don't know if you can get this in Switzerland, but here we have a non-toxic slug & snail killer called Sluggo. It's made from pressed yeast and chelated iron, so it's harmless for pets, people and plants, but kills slugs & snails who can't digest iron. SF is overrun with escargo snails, and I use Sluggo to keep them under control.

Jean,

Yeah, I did something similar when in Canada last time. There was a groundhog wandering around the University and a bunch of us watched it for like 20min. The Canadians were "what? it's a groundhog."

I will have to look for that. I keep my herbs up high now and plant other plants that slugs don't like. I am not a big gardener but do like to have a mint leaf or 2 on hand.

Mary

PS no one has been charmed by our slugs but my mom once mistook one for dog poop and that is charming in its own special way.

We drown them in pans of l/o beer.......

My slugs just use the beer to wash down my greenery.

Mary