garden critters

[Chuck52]

Jim,

I don't know if the bon-bons would take out a coon or not, but they sure seem to work on squirrels. I catch coons in Have-a-heart type traps and then have no heart. Since I feed an outdoor cat the local coons know all about cat food and really like it. I've caught more than 30 in the last three years, mainly using dry cat food as bait. I must have thinned the herd a bit because my Red Haven peaches are still on the tree and are already sweet, if hard. Last year they were all gone by this stage. I guess squirrels may get my peaches and apples, too, though I had broken peach tree limbs so I suspect coons mainly. The squirrels do get the walnuts, so now they get bon-bons. At least one bon-bon from my last batch is gone so I'm hoping there's a squirrel with bad indigestion right now.

Chuck

 

[3RRL]

Well, we are having a time with our new garden.
Our corn is tassling so we don't know what to expect from the raccoons yet. The ground squirrels, tree squirrels and rabbits are having a go at everything. The gophers have had their share too. Last night we found all but two of our large eggplants completely eaten from the inside ... leaving only a purple shell. Our orchard is still young and growing so we have no fruit stories to tell (yet).

What cracks me up the most is that my wife used to say "Oh, those cute little furry critters..."
Now she has her own 20 ga shotgun by her side in the kitchen. When she sees something in the garden, she grabs it and takes a shot at it. She also has .17HMR in the barn for the same reason. I swear, she is crazier than I am about getting those critters now!

Personally, I find the war between them and us very entertaining.
Sometimes we get one of them and sometimes they get the veggies (usually more than we get). But it sure is an interesting situation. I never over POed because our garden is a fun thing and we are not solely trying to live off it. (Of course you couldn't tell my wife that now.) I can see a different story if that were the case.

 

[rcrcomputing]

You guys make me laugh.. Are the bon-bons safe for dogs etc.. ?

 

[Chuck52]

RC,

If your dogs like peanut butter, they would probably at least try the bon-bons. My cat was after the bowl of stuff I was going to roll into bon-bons while I was trying to get my mud boots on....rain, rain all the time. Anyway, put the bon-bons up in trees, or on top of fence posts and such. The dogs won't get them there, though I guess a climbing cat might. I think a single bon-bon probably wouldn't stop up a cat even if it ate the whole thing. I've found some that looked like maybe birds had pecked on them some, but the bird population seems pretty good around here after two rounds of them. I try to get the bon-bons where I think the tree rats will find them easily, like on a branch of a tree there's a squirrel nest in, but I bet they can find them by smell. They really do seem to work....the squirrel I saw a few days ago was the first since April or May, and I haven't seen him since I put out the last batch.

Chuck