Animals digging up flowers

[Oblomov22]

Please had anyone got any advice. This happens a lot. Dh is cross! has tried cayenne pepper. Tbf We Don't even know if it's a squirrel, cat, rodent, rat.

1st picture, 2nd plant in, at the back.
2nd picture, white bulb exposed.
3rd, dig right down, taken out all soil, to the bottom of the tray!

Every night. We come down in the morning to plants gone. I want a drastic action, no pleasantries! We are passed that. I want poison / rat killer, hardcore stuff.

We have a little squirrel who digs up stuff in my planters. I put wire netting over the planter for a while , then the squirrel seems to forget and the wire comes off.

Could also be badger, fox.

Have you tried a sheet of chicken wire just under the soil when planting?

🐿 🐿 🐿 🐿 🐿

Little blighters.

Likely to be squirrels in my experience.

Thanks for the advice re chicken wire re planting. But that doesn't help with what to do now. As you can see they have been planted for a while, are coming along nicely, starting to be established.

So if it is a squirrel, Or whatever it is, What can I spray / Pellets put down / use some sort of poison - to get rid of them/ stop them doing it? Now?

OMG, it's a few bedding boxes. Don't kill the squirrel. Why don't you put out some peanuts for them at a good distance away from the boxes and keep them stuffed with those. Or make a chicken wire cloche to protect them til the squirrels get bored.

What can I spray / Pellets put down / use some sort of poison - to get rid of them/ stop them doing it? Now?
You want to poison an animal for eating some bulbs? Christ, we really are a grim species aren't we?

We’ve got a badger digging for worms in ours and a fox digging for bulbs. Please don’t poison them, they are just trying to feed themselves!

Perhaps you could set up
a camera and appreciate the wildlife you have?

this! Live and let live….

Also at this time of year they will be feeding their young. So if you poison the parent, you will be leaving multiple babies to starve to death.

You want to poison wildlife?

Just protect your plants

Birds have been doing this to my pots.

Why don't you put out some peanuts for them at a good distance away from the boxes and keep them stuffed with those.

If it's a squirrel they'll still dig up the planters to hide the peanuts! Not sure which of my neighbours puts out monkey nuts but I'm always finding them buried in our planters/beds. Always feel a bit guilty that they're going to come back and look for them.

We had the same so used the fox deterrent (high pitch sound) which we cannot hear. No trouble ever since. Available on Amazon.

Our squirrels eat the peanuts from our bird table. They don't seem to bury them til autumn. And then they just do that in the soil of the flower beds, (or cover them up with a leaf! 🤷) but not in the flower pots. Maybe our squirrels are thoughtful squirrels. But even if they weren't, I wouldn't poison them!

You need to make your soil hard and compacted. Difficult to dig. Alternative put big pebbles in your planters, again deters digging. DO NOT put any pellets or poison down.

We have a large garden full of planters and beds. We have squirrels and hedgehogs, foxes and rats. We have hundreds of species of birds, and bats. We all live happily along with one another. I don't know why, but I have never had any plants dug up, but anything.......

But that doesn't help with what to do now. cut a cross into the chicken wire, bend the corners back so you have a hole to slip over the plant, then bend the corners as far back to their original position as you can once it’s in place.

or put a tent of chicken wire over the plant . It’ll soon grow over it and cover it.

Or try big pebbles.

And don’t use blood, fish and bone fertiliser

As Mere says - use chicken wire but create holes to feed the existing plants through. Flatten down then top with something like pebbles or grit to disguise it.

Honestly, though - this IS gardening. It is 45% tidying up. 45% trying to outwit everything that wants to eat, dig, damage your plants and 10% fun.

Squirrels dig up my plants. I hate them! When I bought this house I thought they were lovely but now it's a constant battle. They steal the bird food, dig up the plants. I've not found a solution though, I just fix the damage!

Sorry if the mention of poison offended. I just don't want them coming and eating any more plants.

And @Clymene said "Just protect your plants", but it wasn't clear to me how. What are you suggesting to actually do so?

Thank you elephant lover, I will look on Amazon.

Thank you meredinto, I will look at putting up chicken wire, not at the planting stage, but now.

You can cover them with chicken wire or plastic wire as others have suggested. You can bury them deeper. You can layer your planting where you put the bulbs under the plants that come out earlier in the season.

I'm sure a quick google will give you other suggestions. Putting down poison should never be a solution

I did Google.

Have you put blood fish bone or similar fertiliser in there? That will attract animals.

You could try collecting a load of stones - biggish, not tiny ones - and covering the surface of the soil with that. That might deter a squirrel but it won't if it's a Badger (nothing will). Or planting a LOAD of sticks in the soil just for a bit.

Or, er, getting dh to Pee on it. Like a big predator!

Is it just this planter?

I had already read about men peeing. I made ds2 do it once, he was unimpressed. No just a normal bag of fertiliser. Aldi I think. No it's not just this one. We have beds in the back garden. And then 6 pots in the back garden. 12 pots / containers in the small front garden. Every single container has been eaten, 1 or 2 plants.

My badgers dig up garlic bulbs and squirrel-buried nuts when they are hungry. High summer is hungry season btw, because the fruit harvest hasn't come in yet.