Squirrels don't dig at night.
I came out one morning early to find a raccoon digging in my garden. Just
holes. Lucky me. He was not digging up my plants. I would have done more
than chase him away.

The local skunk has been caught in my squirrel trap at least four times and
he doesn't dig up my plants either. He just likes peanut butter!

I vote raccoons.

--
Dana
www3.sympatico.ca/lostmermaid
wrote in message
. ..
On 2005-07-06, wrote:
....our everlasting thanks.

(Sorry about that but I really wanted to get your attention)

Something is rooting around in our mulch and digging in our beds and,
in the process, uprooting new plantings and those with shallow roots
and we *really* want to stop it.

Here are the clues/observations:

It happens at night. If we leave before it gets light, we return home
and notice plants laying on their sides. Sometimes, the mulch/dirt is
just pulled away from one side of the roots. Sometimes, as in the case

Are you sure it is happening at night? You did not enter enough
information. You leave in the dark and when you return the plants are
uprooted. Did you check the plants when you left and are sure they are
still in the ground? You say they are uprooted when you return but do
you return before light or after? If you left and returned in the dark
then something did uproot them at night. If you left in the dark, but
did not check on the plants and returned when it was light then you
don't know if the uprooting happened in the light or dark.

If you left and returned in the dark then it is a possum, raccoon, or
some other night creature. If you left in the dark but did not check
and returned in the light then it is squirrels or a neighbors dog.

Or one of your friends playing a practical joke.

of a couple of nice Selaginella we planted this season, it's not even
noticeable that it's now sitting *on* the ground rather than with its
roots in a hole *in* the ground until you get down and check.

Whatever is doing this isn't interested in the plants. The roots and
leaves aren't touched. The plants are just the collateral damage of a
hunt for something in the mulch / dirt.

It's not deers. We live in a wooded lot in North Carolina and we have
had more experience with deers than we want to remember. We've had
deers pull a "deer resistant" plant out of its hole only to remember,
"Hey! I don't like this!" and drop it back on the ground. But there's
always a sign they've tasted it. And one of the beds -- with a lot of
hostas in it -- is completely enclosed with a deer netting that is
secured to posts and staked into the ground. On a couple of occasions
when a branch has fallen on the netting and ripped it from the post and
deer have been able to get a head in, they've munched nearby leaves but
not done this kind of disruption to the mulch.

And the mulch *is* disrupted -- it looks like something is rooting
around in it for something. It's something in the mulch. This has
nothing to do with the plant -- it's happened with hostas, a rosemary
plant, summer snapdragons, etc., etc., etc. Only the established
plants are safe.

Since this looking for something in the mulch is happening at night, I
assume whatever it is has a powerful sense of smell that it relies on.
So, after replanting a couple of plants and cursing this critter, I
thought, "I got something for your powerful sense of smell!" I bought
the cheapest big tin of ground black pepper I could find and sprinkled
a mess of it around the edges of some of the most frequently uprooted
plants -- can black pepper hurt plants? -- and along the edge of that
bed with the netting.

So, any thoughts? More importantly, any suggestions on deterring it?


No ground pepper cannot hurt plants, but red pepper would be better.

Let us know if you do find out.

Thanks.



--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.