|
Post by Tucson Grower on Sept 4, 2022 8:27:55 GMT -6
This is about garden pests of the 4-legged varieties.
Well, we've lived at our present location since November of 1999 (23 years), in all that time our garden has only been bothered, once or twice by various species of rabbits - which did very little damage.
Our acre is surrounded by an 8' high chain-link fence, which has a 16' wide gate, that swings out. Our mistake was to leave the gate open, which we have for nearly the entire 23 years. Three years ago, during the winter, for the first time, we were visited by a squadron (group) of javelinas, much larger than usual, about 20 animals. Usually their squadrons are 1/2 of that, or smaller. At the time, I was concerned that they might visit us more frequently.
Long story, short, two nights ago we were visited by a squadron of three adults, which basically destroyed every edible plant I had growing. They did not eat them, but simply dug up and/or trampled everything except the sweet potatoes, which they ate every trace of. It's like there hadn't even been any sweet potatoes. I was planning to close the gate before sunset, to hopefully keep them from getting in, again. But they returned before dark, which is very unusual and when I tried to chase them out, they hid in a small area of native vegetation (mostly various cacti), which is our front yard. I left the gate open, hoping they might leave by morning. I plan to close the gate, and keep it closed, from now on. But it's too late for this season, I'm afraid. Though I have a few more okra seedlings I will plant out to see how they do. I do still have a large pot of Bok Choy seedlings and 6 - 8 sunflower seedlings out of 34 that were growing. And one of my 6 squash vines might recover. (Update: The squash won't recover - they uprooted it and crushed its stem in their 2nd visit. I noticed, there are one each of Sea Island Red and AfricanX surviving, for now. I closed the gate.)
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 4, 2022 12:38:12 GMT -6
Oh, Tucson Grower, I am so sorry to hear that, though I will admit that I had to look up what a javelina was so that I could really understand your story. I’m glad that you don’t have to go to any great lengths to exclude them. Closing a gate is much easier than having to build the fence from scratch.
We have feral (European) hogs in this area. Thankfully I have never seen one on our property. In fact, I’ve never seen one at all. My husband has, but I haven’t. I’m pretty content to keep it that way. My aunt in East Texas has trouble with them in her yard and flower beds. She grows plants but doesn’t do a lot of vegetable gardening. Another aunt of mine, also in more eastern Texas, does garden and some years ago built a hog trap with her son or neighbors or both. I think they caught three that were causing problems and ate them.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 5, 2022 16:22:39 GMT -6
Tucson Grower, I know just how you feel. I lost count of how many times I had to replant this Spring because of deer getting into my garden.
I finally did get up a fence good enough to deter them for the most part, but then the grasshoppers came. There's nothing that I know of that can defeat an infestation of grasshoppers. They've plagued me all season, but my garden is so big that I'll still have a decent harvest, just not what I was looking forward to having for the amount of work I put into it.
George came by today, and the two of us picked him a 5-gallon bucket of okra to take back home with him. George gave me a really nice jar of honey in trade. Way, way, worth a bucket of okra!
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Sept 5, 2022 19:19:35 GMT -6
Mercy, Tucson Grower, that's heart breaking news you reported. So sorry hear that. To my knowledge, there are not any javelinas near me. The damage you report sounds just like wild hog damage, I haven't seen evidence of any here on my place, but there are reports of wild hogs in my county. I have an uncle about 30 miles south of me that was plagued with the things. It took a massive neighborhood effort to get them under control, but they trapped and shot them to eventually get rid of them. But it took years to do. Like heavyhitterokra , I've got deer problems, but not to the severity that he has. Although, regardless of the size of garden a person has, if all the plants you have are destroyed, it's still a total loss. Best of luck in controlling your unwanted critters. For myself, deer control is a make or break proposition. If I can't build something to keep them out, I may as well go fishing instead of gardening...
|
|
|
Post by Tucson Grower on Sept 6, 2022 21:28:16 GMT -6
Javelina, behave very much like Suidae - Pigs/Hogs, and they even look very much like them, from either side, but if you were to see them from either end, or from the top or looking up from the bottom, you would immediately notice that they are much too thin to be pigs. Instead I'm told they belong to the family: Tayassuidae - and are a type of Peccary. But pigs and javelina; though related, are not the same, though they are similarly annoying.
I belatedly noticed that, besides eating the Ipomea (sweet potatoes), they ate, what's said to be their favorite food - prickly pear fruit, they ate every single ripe one, and there were many, still on the plants and having dropped onto the ground. Shutting the gate has, so far, prevented a third return visit.
I did manage to replant 2 Sea Island Red, okra; and I have one more AfricanX that has just germinated - I'll plant it out as soon as it grows its first set of true leaves. Fortunately my Pak Choy and a few other salad greens were growing in large pots and remain intact. I'll be planting lettuce in a few days in similar manner. Meanwhile there are literally clouds of flea beetles flying around the wild amaranth weeds. I've got to put out lots of the sticky yellow traps, before the beetles eliminate my salad greens crops.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 7, 2022 14:09:53 GMT -6
Those flea beetles are almost as annoying as the deer and the javelina. I had an infestation of those this year that killed all of my egg plants. Best of luck with the yellow sticky traps. I never even thought of doing that.
|
|
|
Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 26, 2023 2:49:08 GMT -6
I got me another lesson from a squadron (this one 4-6 animals) of javelina. I had gotten lazy and left the gate open, since I didn't think I had anything they would be interested in. I was awoken at 1:30 am by what sounder like a horde of looters tossing around the contents of my porch.
I was mistaken, it was a squadron of javelina. They ate the tops off my bok choy, lettuce and daikon radishes, tossed my tray of 20 potted strawberry plants and generally tossed around everything that was on my porch. I managed to chase them back out of the yard and shut the gate. I'll need to sort everything out once daylight returns. I did notice my bag of pea/bean inoculant is missing. At least the one surviving purple bok choy escaped their notice. I discovered they don't seem to care for lettuce that is in seed production mode. All those were untouched, even when they're right next to those that had their leaves eaten off. Most damaged plants should recover, in time. One purple daikon had its top bitten clean off - I get to find out if it's able to regenerate leaves from the severed root top.
Another interesting discovery, at least two of the animals were 5 or 6 times wider in girth than any I'd seen before. They would easily rival a hog, except they're way too short, perhaps more like a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
By Alvesgaspar - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 4.0
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Jan 26, 2023 6:37:34 GMT -6
Oh my! That would be so hard. I know it wouldn't recover what's lost, but are you in a situation where you might try shooting them? I have a pecan tree which produces native pecans. I never get more than a dozen though, because of the squirrels, but we've eaten a number of squirrels. Jokingly, I call that tree my "squirrel tree."
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jan 26, 2023 7:35:46 GMT -6
Oh man, not good!
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Jan 26, 2023 8:27:21 GMT -6
I see they are somewhat protected in Arizona except under certain conditions. My first thought was to get a dog, shoot the random javelin occasionally and feed them to the dog. But they’re protected as big game animals. I guess that makes sense in Arizona where food might be scarce for them.
Domestic dogs make up for the lack of hogs and deer here, occasionally killing off part of my rabbit herd and probably some chickens in the future. I have permission to shoot them, but these are clean docile domestic dogs. They’re just being dogs and have stupid owners that let them out when animal control is off duty. I can never bring myself to harm them. In fact, when I show up to the hutch, they’re like “Oh. Hey! How ya doing?”
Like you, closing the gate is a deterrent. But for the time being, we would be required to open and close the gate 3 times a day and well, we just don’t have that discipline. In my case, there are holes in the fence that would work well for them if they were hungry and determined. Those holes constantly nag me.
So I wonder if your fence line is secure. What a headache. I’m sorry you’re having to deal with the destruction after so much tedious work raising your plants.
Are your exotic flowers safe?
|
|
|
Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 26, 2023 9:10:33 GMT -6
Fortunately, my fence, aside from the gate is completely intact, and secure. Almost all of my flowers are still inside, except some California poppy and Coreopsis, and neither has germinated, yet. Apparently javelina are delicious and per animal, much more meat than a squirrel. I have thought about eating them. I once watched an exotic foods show where they did.
If I closed the gate, before they could leave, bagging them wouldn't be too hard. But I'd definitely need to prep for that - and most likely need the appropriate license and permit. Even then, a squadron of 6 or more animals, would be difficult to deal with. I'm sure the permit would only be for one animal, some squadrons can be 20 or more.
Once it warms up I'll need to put my strawberry plants back in their pots, wash the slobber and snot off of what's left of my leafy greens and try harder to keep my gate closed. If I had kept the gate shut, this likely wouldn't have happened. In a week or two the greens should have recovered enough to again be harvestable.
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 26, 2023 9:22:48 GMT -6
I’m sorry that happened again, @tucson Grower.
Is the gate across your driveway so that you have to open and close if if you leave the property? How hard is it to maneuver since it’s so large?
|
|
|
Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 26, 2023 10:02:55 GMT -6
The gate is between the street and my dirt driveway. The entrance is recessed so the gate can be opened towards the street. The gate (about 18 feet wide), was originally hung from an 8 inch diameter post, which had been set 18 inches deep in a concrete pier. It had recently rotted away, inside the concrete. I cleaned the rotten wood from the concrete, then, using concrete and concrete bond, set a steel post anchor into the top of the concrete pier (which is basically at ground level). I added intrinsic purple concrete dye to the top of the pier and then affixed a ten foot tall, 4x6 post to the anchor, attached the gate support cable near the top of the new gatepost, mounted the two hinge pins appropriately, then rehung the gate, and connected the support cable so the gate glides less than an inch from the ground. It is fairly easy to open and shut the gate, though it will be even easier once I affix an offset handle, to allow easier movement for the gatekeeper, while moving the gate - my feet keep catching against the bottom edge of the gate.
|
|
|
Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 26, 2023 17:14:48 GMT -6
Sure enough, I found the package that used to contain the pea/bean inoculant. It had been torn open and eaten. Looks like I'll need to get me some more of that, oh well. At least I already managed to inoculate the peas I already have growing, and the javelina didn't touch those. I also washed the slobber and snot from the partially masticated remains of my vegetable plants. Now I just need to wait 'til they grow out again, so I have more to harvest.
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 27, 2023 9:11:38 GMT -6
I’m always impressed, Tucson Grower, by your descriptions of the repairs and upgrades you do on your place. It sounds like you have a great gate with a plan to make it even better. Now you’ll just have to be disciplined about keeping it shut.
I’m glad there’s some hope that your vegetables can grow out again despite the trauma of the chewing.
|
|