Last year followers will recall around this time of year (perhaps slightly earlier) something ate our garden. The tulips were eaten or the bulbs pulled out and the raspberry canes were stripped from the ground up to about one metre.
This year, at the end of March, we noticed something was scratching away the grass leaving holes and unsightly bare patches. Then the tulips started to disappear again. However, Mr Mac had taken no chances with his raspberry canes and they were well protected with mesh. The last straw was when the brand new strawberries were eaten.
This is the grass in the back garden which has been scratched away leaving big holes.
Tulip bulbs pulled out of the bed
The primulas were pulled out of the pot but were not eaten.
Two huge holes were dug among the lilies but again, these were not eaten.
Frustrated, I consulted the font of all knowledge – Google – with a search of “what eats tulips?” The answer………….chipmunks! “How cute”, I thought, my sole experience of chipmunks being the animated kind that have wild, wacky adventures of the non-destructive kind. The only problem is we don’t have chipmunks in the UK!
However, neighbours had been suffering similar problems and after blaming the deer, squirrels, pheasants and pigeons, a badger was spotted leaving our drive early one morning. So Mr Mac promptly went to the agricultural supplies and bought a mile of mesh to attach to the stob and wire fence which surrounds our garden. Our garden is now badger proof – hopefully – we just need to remember to shut the gate at night! Apparently they can dig under fences and climb walls.
The attraction? According to the Badger Trust, “Badgers digging for insect larvae in lawns can cause significant damage. Some lawns are more likely to support a significant insect larvae burden than others, and this is often determined by the condition of the lawn. Lawns in good condition, particularly if they are well drained and free of moss, are less likely to suffer.”
The condition of our lawn has been causing us concern for some time and as it is currently 80% moss / 20% grass, it must be badger paradise!
We left a booby-trapped pot of old tulip bulbs from last year to see if they were still being eaten but it looks like we have solved the problem as there has been no further damage since the mesh was added to the boundary fence.
The booby-trap!
But then…….
I was positive the other evening when I shut the greenhouse for the night I had three sunflowers which had germinated but the next morning there were only two. Then when I opened up a couple of mornings later, all the zinnia seedlings had been eaten leaving only stalks. Now something is in the greenhouse eating the seedlings…….likely culprits are either mice or earwigs so I am keeping everything covered just to be sure.
What is left of the zinnia seedlings
To add insult to injury, yesterday when wondering around the garden I came across not just one but TWO slugs. They were promptly dispatched. These battles may have been won but I fear the war is going to be a long one!
gardeningforlawyers 
Part of the price of living in a more rural area is that you’ve got a lot more enemies when you fight the Rodent Wars, and some of them are a lot bigger. In the urban area where we live, our worst adversary is the skunk, who doesn’t eat plants but who stinks up the garden. Then come rabbits, mice, voles … it is more of a guerilla war, whereas you seem to face regular pitched battles.
We are lucky that our cats keep down the rabbit, mice and mole population so we don’t suffer too much damage from them. We have even had a couple of squirrels and weasels left as “gifts” on the back doorstep.
I was telling my boss about the badger problem last week and he showed me a photo on his phone of a badger walking across his garden in broad daylight the previous weekend. One of our office juniors looked at it and asked, “Is that a skunk?” Walt Disney and Pixar have a lot to answer for!