Last week, this was my gorgeous mulberry tree. Not even in the ground for a year yet, and on to its second fruiting. I was so proud.
And this is my mulberry tree this week. It took one night and something, I suspect either a rat or a possum, has stripped it bare. Every single mulberry gone.
Oh sorry, I lie. There's half a one left here.Every time I walk past it, my angry face gets a good workout.
21 comments:
How annoying is that!!!! I'll glare at any animals locally and hope they pass the message on - actually I have my own glaring to do as they (I think rats or mice) also ate my broccoli and parts of my passionfruit. It always seems to happen at this time of the year - I wonder if its babies practicing their biting skills? Or is that a silly theory?
Oh no, how extremely frustrating!!
Oh, this very same thing happened to my paw paw plant! But then it made a miraculous recovery and created new leaves. And then the second time it was eaten I cried. I feel your pain.
It's still cold and food is scarce ... Are there any scratch marks Ali? Possums are heavy animals and that Mulberry is still small so I'd guess a rat rather than a possum. A number of BLF members have reported rat problems with seedlings this year. In times past I've had a Cabbage hollowed out by a rat but my dog at the time, a Border Collie, caught and ate the rat and disgorged the remains at my feet. Next best to Meg who is no longer with me, is to use Joseph's non-toxic rat bait. It's equal parts of bicarb of soda with flour (any kind) mixed to a stiff paste with water. Apparently the bicarb reacts with the stomach acid and creates wind and rats don't fart (!) so they explode or rather implode instead. Gruesome but effective. Put the bait where you suspect the rat was and await results. If the bait gets taken, replace it until it is no longer taken. End of rat until next time a hungry rat happens past.
Bloomin' nature!
LOL sorry Ali but I'm imagining you as a cartoon character stomping past your mulberry and frowning heavily at it before stomping onwards again. What do you think ate it???? Sooooooo frustrating. HUGS!!
Oh so annoying - though I'm thoroughly impressed by Elaine's suggested remedy, if I hear reports of exploding rats in QLD I'll know what happened. I say give it to 'em Ali.
Amazing , fart rat bait....I must try that instead of all the talon I have been buying...
Ali, I couldnt help laughing, Im so sorry, it wasnt anything to do with your missing mulberries, just that the way you write makes me giggle...sorry....I hope your mulberries grow back very, very soon.............and that your rats start to fart on the inside soon too.xxx
:-( x
I can hear your roar from way down here in the south!
Gardeners are fated for disaster, I think. Now you know the story of my broccoli ...baa, baa, baa! I gave my sister some seedlings that she planted at the same time as me..but she doesn't have goats and has been telling me how good the broccoli was...I had a phone call today. The possums ate the last two heads. Sometimes I think we can't win!
Mind you...I seem to remember a certain blogger posting about a brush tail possum in her kitchen a while back...friend or foe?
I know how you must feel. I think an Angry face is eminently justifiable in such circumstances. :(
Oh how awful. I really feel for you. I was looking froward to my first crop of almond only to come out one day and find a pile of shells under the tree and not a nut left!
Bugger. How annoying for you - I have angry face reading this on your behalf...
I can just imagine what your angry face would be, probably very similar to the one I would be doing if this had happened to me.
Elaine I agree that it's probably a rat rather than a possum, I would doubt very much that the tree could support the weight of a possum... to that end, it could also be mice??
Thank you for your angry face Celia :D
Now while I love the idea of imploding rats (maybe not quite as much as Suzanne!!!) would this cause other things to implode as well? Just how messy is my backyard likely to get?
You won't have shards of rat all over everything! They seem to crawl away to die. Dogs fart as I'm sure you'd know ;-) as do we and cats as well. Whether it's just rats or all rodents, I don't know.
I know exactly how you feel I had put in a mulberry it was in the ground just 5 weeks when it suddenly shrank to half the height .... 2 deer had it for a snack
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