cactus hoarding creature?

SouthernThunder · #1 12/09/06, 01:39 PM

Well this is a new one for me. I live in North Eastern Oklahoma near Mounds. I have an old chevy 4x4 setting back in the woods. I never drive it because it gets 5mpg and has a 12" lift and is used just for pulling out the other trucks when they get stuck. It also has a massive hole in the floor board. About 1 square foot..

Well anyway it has been setting out there for about a year without being driven and I opened it up today and found dead cactus fragments scattered all over it. They range from 8" to 2" in length. Some are still green and some have obviously dried out. They are under the seat, under the dash, behind the seat, wrapped up in an old jacket, pretty much everywhere. Something had to bring them in there but what? or why? Does this sound like something a rodent might be capable of doing? Im really stumped here.

Fonzie · #2 12/09/06, 02:02 PM

Were the doors to your vehicle unlocked? Are they Prickly Pear cactus parts inside your truck and are they de-spined? If so it was probably left by a person.

-Da Fonz

bare · #3 12/09/06, 02:42 PM

Sounds like a packrat to me. I had one this spring that was coming into the house, cutting my Christmas Cactus and Aloe Vera plants and stashing them in his nest.

Didn't bother any of the other house plants, just the succulents for some reason.

SouthernThunder · #4 12/09/06, 08:08 PM

I was kinda thinking packrat too. The pieces are too large for a mouse to carry comfortably. Yea, they are prickly pear and very few of the the glochids are missing. The pieces appeare to have been chewed off the main cactus. Wish I knew what that rat was thinking....

Little Quacker in OR · #5 12/10/06, 09:26 AM

Two things to consider that makes the Packrat theory likely is that packrats live only on the moisture contained in plants so succulents are high on their list to consume. Secondly they protect their nests with thorns from many species of plants so the cacti would be of great value to them. Interesting.

how do you get the thorns out of the seat of the truck? Ouch!

LQ

mberryrfd · #6 12/10/06, 09:28 AM

I would say a packrat. We have then here and they do take the cactus.But they also love dog food and cat food.Before I put a light in the pump house I would catch one a day out there