A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 My problem....

Okay, so here is the deal....

2 days ago I went down to one of my flower beds and noticed one of my cosmos had been fully uprooted....not just knocked down, but totally out of the ground--roots and all, with a hole where the plant had been....

Well yesterday I found 2 more like that....

Today I found one of my sunflowers all wilted and pulled out...

Any ideas what it could be???? My yard is chain link fenced and I'm pretty confident that it isn't a person...I did spot a cat in one of my beds the other day...would a scraching cat do this? My neighbor told me that certain black birds will mess with your flowers, and they weren't very big plants...Maybe a foot tall....so is this a possibility--my feeders are near the areas of pulling. And then mom said maybe it was a mole/vole, but I don't know if they would do something like this or not....There was a possum in the yard the other day but I don't thing they would mess with my plants...

Every morning I go check them now in case the serial plant puller has striked again....It's starting to make me mad ...I've lost 3 plants now because of it.... :p

Could it be gophers? the building we live in is old and there is at least 1 gopher living under the building, one year it dug a tunnel right up into the middle of my garden. The next year it came up under the front doorstep, this year it tunneled clean across the yard and came up under the doghouse in the guinea pig pen. He's gonna be shocked when he can't get out that way, only the sides of the doghouse don't go all the way to the ground so I am nailing boards in place.

Hmmmm, Never thought of a gopher....but I haven't come across any holes come to think of it...My plants have just been totally uprooted out of the ground.....Up above when I explained I guess I shouldn't have said that there was a hole where the plant was...it's more of just a hole from where the plants roots were...

I told Mark that whatever was doing this to my plants would be really sorry if I were to catch it.....Which reminds me, I'd better get off here and go down and check to see if any more of them have been damaged today.... :rolleyes:

Get that gopher Topcat!!!

Could be a woodchuck or sometype that is
looking for grubs/slugs/small bugs....
If one of those little creatures is at the base
of the plant, the woodchuck will uproot or topple
over the plant to get at the grubs/slugs/small bugs.

Could be a squirrel or chippie~monk.... tryin'
to bury some sunflowers seeds???

Hmmmmm....I have a squirrel that visits my yard....he jumps on the birdbath a lot for a drink......Never thought of it being the squirrel....

I didn't have a chance to check down there this morning to see if there was more damage....I'll have to go down after I eat and check it out......

Well the serial plant puller made another appearance....

In the EXACT same spot where another plant was pulled out roots and all!!! I transplanted a cosmos there to fill the spot in, and wouldn't you know when I went down there this morning there it was pulled out and shriveled up!!!!!! I'm so mad...It's war now, me against the plant puller....too bad I don't have one of those night cameras that takes pictures when there is movement........

Now I have an empty spot and I'm scared to transplant anything else there because it'll probably happen again!

Birds will uproot small plants. As will some small furry mammals:-)Maybe spread some damp sand or fine silty stuff around the area so you can see the tracks in the morning of your night visitor. If it's a bird it will be around at dawn. And don't be too angry with them, they're probably just looking for grubs and insects to eat to survive. Once you figure out who the visitor is, you may find him a useful pest predator that needs a bit of planning to stop him being a pest himself. A rubber snake in the garden bed may be all the deterent you need.

Thanks for the info Longy...I never even thought of putting a little sand down around the area....I have some around here somewhere....I'll have to dig it out and try some...

I bet it's a dam squirrel...

This is the truth... squirrels will scratch around in areas where the soil has been disturbed- they are curious. A few years ago they did a lot of that in my garden. My neighbor and i shot over 200 squirrels after that. It's a rare occasion that i see a squirrel now...

If its an animal after grubs, it could be be a bird, possum, or skunk, or vole...

Hope u catch him!

I have seen skunks and coons do this searching out underground bee nests. Most of the time grubs are not in a high enough of a population to warrant this behavior in a garden, while they may be present, they do prefer lawns. Voles would not do this, as they are veggies, and pretty much thrive on seeds and bark.
Just wondering if you might be using a fish emulsion type of a fertilizer or blood meal in the area? Any of these type of things may confuse a animal enough to start digging in search of a free meal.