rosiered,

First, I would try to catch the culprits "in the act" by watching out one or more of your windows from time to time. That will at least give you the identity of the evildoers. Are you the only person in your neighborhood with flowers? What do your neighbors think is doing this?

MM

I do not see my neighboors very often and i have not seen any of them gardening outside so i doubt this is happening to anyone else. I see a rabbit all the time on my property so i am sure it is that animal doing this. I sprayed some deterrant yesterday but like i said earlier it made it worse and now i have no flowers!
do moth balls work?

Rabbits....chipmunks don't eat plants, woodchucks would eat it all in one sitting and cat's don't eat plants!
Rabbits, sprinkle blood meal around, that'll keep them away.
Linda C

Linda is right on both counts. Rabbits they are and dried blood works well. I have also had luck with a spray called Invisible Fence--it's mostly hot pepper.

Hello rosiered,
I know how frustrating it can be to plant and then the minute you see a bloom it disappears immediately! We have a lot of rabbits in our area. They especially love my tiger lilies. The best product we have found is called Liquid Fence. We buy it at Menards (home improvement store like Home Depot, Lowes) It is the most sickening smelling stuff but you spray it straight on and around the plants. Make sure the neighbors aren't down wind and your windows are shut for a good 30 minutes after, but hey whatever works right?!

Please don't use mothballs. They are exceedingly toxic and a hazard to humans, pets, and wildlife.

I, too, have heard that dried blood works. So does a fertilizer called Milorganite.

I sprayed with Liquid Fence yesterday morning after finding half my buds and a goodly amount of foliage gone. From hoof marks it was the Bambi crowd this time although I saw a groundhog eating the Cosmos at the top of the driveway the day before. He/she must have sniffed the Chocolate Eupatorium because I found little Cosmos seedling fronds on the Eupatorium foliage.

I changed after I came in from spraying the Liquid Fence but kept smelling something strange. Then I realized it was the Liquid Fence on my hands even after I washed them. The nozzle was plugged so I had taken the top off to wash it out and my hands smelled like Liquid Fence. Used some dish detergent to get the smell off.

The Liquid Fence and all the other sprays/powders seem to work sometimes but none seem to work consistently most of the time for a given nibbler/decimator of the mammalian kind!

That experience doesn't stop me from continuing to spray whatever strikes my fancy on a given day. I have a collection of sprays.

Spent 5 hours fencing in the Butterfly Garden yesterday. Yes, 5 hours is excessive but I'm not a handy type of gal and it must have been a sight to see me struggling with the fencing to get it hooked onto the stakes. And, yes, I do know the groundhogs can and will burrow underneath the fence.

I just HAVE to try everything and anything to get these darn plants to survive long enough to bloom...LOL.

I don't like the idea of catching a "who's who" of animals to get the 3 resident groundhogs. How in the heck to you let a skunk out of the Havaheart cage after you've tried to catch a groundhog? LOL How do you transport the trap if you try to relocate Pepe LePieu?

Onward Garden Soldiers...marching out to critter war!

newbie_in_nj,

You aren't the first person to be concerned about catching a skunk in a Havahart trap. Havahart traps will release if they are rolled over upside-down. You could do that remotely in several ways. One way would be to tie a cord to the top of the trap and lay it out at a "safe" distance.

Although I have and use several Havahart traps, I've never caught a skunk in a Havahart trap, so I haven't had to deal with that. Skunks are insectivores, so I guess they don't like the baits I have been using (with peanut butter being at the top of the list).

MM

Peanut Butter is what we use on mouse traps when they invade the garage especially during the winter when they're looking for a warm place to nest.

Mice seem like a faint memory of the good old days when they were the only critters that caused me heartburn.

I know it isn't an annual but the deer ate every leaf off a Hydrangea that I've babied for 8 months back from a bare stick. I kept it in the garage for the winter and only started putting "Gertrude" out for some daylight about 6 weeks ago and out all night, little hussy, about 3 weeks ago. Correction...they didn't eat the 4 leaves that had some sort of brown spots on them.

Something is getting over/under the fencing I just put around the Butterfly Garden but there aren't any hoof marks so it's either rabbits or groundhogs. I don't see any burrows under the fence and it's pretty tight to the ground with overhang. I'm going to get some garden pins and see if that helps. I know it won't but it's at least an effort.

How high can rabbits reach? Some buds that were almost 2' high were clipped off.

From what I'm reading here it seems like it must have been a rabbit since leaves and buds were "clipped" and groundhogs are said to eat wholesale and indiscriminately.

Whatever it is they don't seem keen on Cleome or blue Queen Victoria Salvia which they've never touched...not even the ones I have at the mailbox where any critter can step right up from the street or driveway including the deer that sample there every night. What astounds me is there is Curly Parsley and Fennel for Swallowtails in fenced butterfly garden and they don't touch it! Wouldn't you think they would go for those greens first? Guess the expensive "salad bar" is more to their liking.

I better get another bag of Bloodmeal and try that all over the butterfly garden. The Butterflies better hurry up or there's not going to be much left for them in the way of nectar. Not having done this before I have no way of knowing what plants will bud and bloom again and what's been finished off for the season.

I have Zinnias in pots all over and they don't touch them. The Zinnias in the newly fenced butterfly garden are right there at the buffet so they clip them.

Maybe the fence is like a neon sign flashing "Mel's Diner" once I come in for the night.