Our latest garden development has been animal destruction. Everyone said we'd have an issue with the rabbits. Because of hubby's awesome fence, that hasn't been an issue.
But recently, our near ripe tomatoes were suddenly being eaten (sadly, I have somehow not taken pictures of the devastation). We were worried about two culprits - rats and squirrels.
Squirrels seemed like an obvious culprit. We were finding tomato chunks in the yard and this one in the tree. I apologize for the truly terrible picture. But you get the idea. Limb, red blob = tomato.
Rats we were a little skeptical about. I've never seen a rat in Colorado, but we noticed that something was digging holes underneath the fence that faces a busy street and we didn't think it could be rabbits because the tomatoes are in cages, and the damaged tomatoes were high off the ground. Something had to be climbing.
Hubby decided to get traps and make some fancy homemade contraptions as well. And the homemade ones are the only ones that worked.
The first involved a water-filled, 5-gallon bucket with a dowel rod suspending a 2L soda bottle over the water. Peanut butter was placed on the bottle. Sure enough, a rat slipped into our trap of death.
Disclaimer: The following images might be disturbing.
Hubby caught another rat in a humane trapped he built for the squirrels. So two dead rats so far.
In the meantime, we borrowed a pellet gun from my Grandpa for the squirrels, figuring maybe a couple shots in the butt might dissuade them. It didn't.
Then on Sunday morning, hubby sat outside with his gun and coffee and nailed one right in the throat, dead.
No, I didn't take a picture. I still find squirrels cute and thought the image might be a little much, but after pulling almost all of my near ripe tomatoes out of my garden this weekend with chew spots, I didn't feel bad about this squirrel's death.
I know this garden doesn't mean our survival. But there is no shortage of squirrels and I also feel, personally, as a meat-eater, I need to be ok with animal death. I know we didn't eat the squirrel, but I need to be able to look that squirrel in his dead eye I and be ok with it. That's just me.
But recently, our near ripe tomatoes were suddenly being eaten (sadly, I have somehow not taken pictures of the devastation). We were worried about two culprits - rats and squirrels.
Squirrels seemed like an obvious culprit. We were finding tomato chunks in the yard and this one in the tree. I apologize for the truly terrible picture. But you get the idea. Limb, red blob = tomato.
Rats we were a little skeptical about. I've never seen a rat in Colorado, but we noticed that something was digging holes underneath the fence that faces a busy street and we didn't think it could be rabbits because the tomatoes are in cages, and the damaged tomatoes were high off the ground. Something had to be climbing.
Hubby decided to get traps and make some fancy homemade contraptions as well. And the homemade ones are the only ones that worked.
The first involved a water-filled, 5-gallon bucket with a dowel rod suspending a 2L soda bottle over the water. Peanut butter was placed on the bottle. Sure enough, a rat slipped into our trap of death.
Disclaimer: The following images might be disturbing.
Hubby caught another rat in a humane trapped he built for the squirrels. So two dead rats so far.
In the meantime, we borrowed a pellet gun from my Grandpa for the squirrels, figuring maybe a couple shots in the butt might dissuade them. It didn't.
Then on Sunday morning, hubby sat outside with his gun and coffee and nailed one right in the throat, dead.
No, I didn't take a picture. I still find squirrels cute and thought the image might be a little much, but after pulling almost all of my near ripe tomatoes out of my garden this weekend with chew spots, I didn't feel bad about this squirrel's death.
I know this garden doesn't mean our survival. But there is no shortage of squirrels and I also feel, personally, as a meat-eater, I need to be ok with animal death. I know we didn't eat the squirrel, but I need to be able to look that squirrel in his dead eye I and be ok with it. That's just me.
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