I pretty much lost it all to the critters! UGH

Meloc, the rabbits didn't give mine much chance to even get started. There are just leafless stumps for the most part. A few runners made it to almost shoulder height on me before the rabbits bit through the stems. I have declared war on them for the foreseeable future. Sorry about your seed for next year.

Grasshoppers...plague style...even ate the peaches & apples off the trees!

What didn't get rotted or drowned out by the persistent rains up to 3 wks ago have now been decimated by the biggest infestation of grasshoppers I've seen in 20 years. The rhubarb plants look like they've been shot by shotgun slugs! I've given up this year. We have a few scrawny tomatoes the size of large marbles, but they are hard and green and show ZERO sign of ever ripening. I an empathize with you losing your graden. It makes me sick to look out over ours and see NOTHING.

The 70 mph winds we had a week ago took out about half my corn!

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

I just got through selling all my chickens cause I knew if I kept them any longer they would become coon food. Last year the coons discovered my garden and ate up all my dent corn and tomatoes. Then they discovered my chickens in a nearby coop. By the time the summer was over they killed and ate all but 2 chickens.

I bought more chicks this last spring with the ideal that I was going to build a new coop closer to my house so I could keep a better eye on them. Well I never got time or money to build a new coop, the new chickens are still in the old coop, and the coons are back. So last Saturday I loaded all my chickens up and took them to the sale.

I'm just gonna wait till I've got a new better coop before I ever get anymore chickens. I've also aquired a coondog a few weeks ago, so hopefully this fall/winter I can thin some of those critters out.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

I am right there with all of you; I only just harvested a cabbage after having to replant 3 times..groundhogs! I try to leave them alone and planted all the cole crops in a fenced in garden..they dug under the fence! I am now fighting to get my dent corn crop(just going to tassel and the wind blew it over for me to stand up); got "scare tape" up to keep deer out. This year I am not having raccoon problems it is groundhogs(#1) and then opposums and finally the ocasional skunk. Deer wander thru and if they pause(fruit trees) do a lot of damage in just one "visit".

If you have access to disposable table skirts they saved a corn crop for me one year. They were between 2 and 3 ft high and I put them around the garden so something at ground level could not see past them. Raccons can not be sure what "is waiting" inside there with the lovely corn and so stay out. Same effect large pumpkin leaves planted in the corn rows have.

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" As needs-MUST!!"--- in other words..a gal does what a gal has too!

I have read that if you put up a fence that deer can not see over or through, they will leave the garden alone. The story said to use 5 feet high burlap as they can not see over nor through it. If you can, put an electric wire about 8 inches off the ground for the coons. For those who use chicken wire, I would recommend putting it at least one foot underground to deter digging. Or you could just lay some 2 foot chicken wire on the ground outside your garder up against the fence.

Get a nuisance animal removal permit and you're allowed to blast away at the deer, coon, etc regardless of season. I would say fence in the garden if possible then put in another fence a few feet away around the first fence and let a dog loose in that area at night. Result? No critter damage other than possible bird damage.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

Well, the radio business has worked for my corn and veggies for 3 years now. I put the radio in a 5 gallon sideways bucket, which serves not only to weatherproof the radio, but the radio sound is magnified. I also have 20 barn cats which patrol the gardens for woodchucks, rabbits, and I have seen them stand off a raccoon, too. One of my tomcats tried to chase down a deer this spring, but all the deer did was play and jump around so tomcat just sat and watched. (As soon as I harvest the corn and take the radio away, the raccoons trash the stalks that are left. Almost like they are just waiting for that 'human sound' in the garden to go away...............)

I gave up on my garden two weeks ago and opened it up to the livestock. First there was the drought that stunted most everything and we eventually got rain but it was too late. Weeds and grass was horrible. At one point most of my livestock got in there but they ate mostly the weeds and grass but did eat some of the melons. FInally I gave up and let them in.

I've had them all this year. Turkeys, deer and coons came together to first, delay production by my having to replant., then reduce production by taking aim at the corn, beans, peas, and tomatoes.

After I replanted, I went to feeding the coons about a hundred yards away down near a stream bed. I fed them dog food with a home made pipe feeder with an upside down V cut into the bottom. After they got to feeding on that really good, I let the dog food run out and placed live traps around that immediate area. I got 7 coons in two weeks. I took them all over one major terrain feature (the interstate hiway) and let them go. After the deer started in on my peas, I strung up nyon string criss-crossed across the garden and tied those cheap plastic white grocery bags about every 4 ft. In addition, I got some buckets of citronella mosquito repellant candles and burned 3 of them in and around the garden, placing them where the wind would blow the smell over the garden. No more problems with deer.

The coon solution is the best I've tried by far over the years. The deer solution will only work for awhile but for right now it has them confused. After they figure it out, they'll be in there again. By that time I hope to have all the peas I want in, by the end of this week I hope. Next year I think I'll try putting a dog on a long wire down the middle of the garden. I'll have to increase the size of the garden overall to accomadate the extra space for his run, but hopefully the barking will keep the varmints at bay. Maybe the coyotes won't make dinner of the dog.

farmerpat. i would check those fruit trees and see if the grasshoppers are eating bark. A few years ago huge grasshopper problem for me in central Nebraska. Hoppers killed large mulberry trees, most of my lilacs, 30 foot pine trees. I am actually headed to spray my orchard with Sevin this evening for hoppers. They ate the paint off of the mailbox post, killed about a 40' border of my alfalffa field, ate rind off of standing ditch weed(marijuana}. Don't stand still too long or they will eat your clothes off your back.

We started a brand new garden this year. We knew from the beginning that we would need fence because we have a large deer population. Silly us, we planted before the fence went up and lost some stuff early on. I got 6' tall 2x4 fence and we now have a 100x100 fenced in garden. So far it's working against the deer but I know that raccoons could climb right over if they decide to. We will attach a couple of low rows of electric next year in anticipation of raccoon invasion.
We did have a big storm a couple of weeks ago which blew the gate open. At least one mommy deer brought her baby (tiny hoofprints) to show it where the good stuff was!
The gate problem has been rectified.
I read that Jackie Clay has had good luck with 6' tall fence against deer. I've also read that 8' is about the best deterrent. It already looks like a fortress!

Well grasshoppers are what I am fighting. Worst I have ever seen it.

The radio trick didn't work here at all, but moving a dog to the garden did. Where my garden is I don't have to deal with deer.

Oldcountryboy, we had problems with coons getting our chickens too until we found out how they were getting into the chicken house .... going between the rafters. We filled in those areas with both wire and wood, whichever fit each open area. Since the rest of our chicken pen is totally fenced (top too) with small holed utility wire, nothing gets in now "after" they are locked up for the night. (During the day, the black snakes grab a few eggs!)

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

The only sure-fire garden protector that I have eliminates squirrels problem. I live in the city and the squirrels don't hve many predators here. I use Havoc rat poison and place it up high in areas only frequented by squirrels. I always put it in little plastic sandwich bags because city squirrels are smart and think it must be people food. When I leave it in its original packaging, they don't touch it.

Within about 3 days, my tree rat, er uh squirrel problem goes away!

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~TheMartianChick~

My latest novels:
Bystander: A Tale of the End of the World as SHE Knew It!

Christmas in Bystander & Other Village Tales

Coming Soon: A Slice of Heaven

They ate the sevin powder like it's powdered sugar, and suffered NO ill effects! I literally cannot find a single one dead anywhere! I know what you mean about eating the clothes off your back - when I go out to get the mail, they swarm out of the weeds, land on me and bite - it's PAINFUL, too! Some of them are literally as long as my middle finger. I cannot remember EVER seeing any this huge since I've been in Colorado (35+ years). Reminds me of the accounts I've heard of the huge grasshoppers during the Great Depression decimating everything in their path. With the economy and joblessness the way it is, I guess it only would figure that we'd get the grasshoppers too.....wonder if a severe drought is in store for next year ( another dust bowl)???? <sigh............>

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Be an ant, not a grasshopper!

"Behind every strong soldier there is an even stronger woman who raised him". I am a Certified Army Strong Mom.

Need some big chickens to feast on the grasshoppers, or maybe ducks.
Not too bad here in the hill country so far, but it is getting dry..

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....