Congrats linnea - how exciting. I'm glad you found a way around those squirrels. Now do you have to worry about deer eating the leaves? This year for me they've bitten them right down to the ground - post bloom at least! Alana

No, fortunately no deer here. The rabbits and squirrels are bad enough! The rabbits are making big inroads on my early tulips. They have not budded yet but some have already been mowed to the ground. I tried grating Irish Spring soap around them yesterday: thatÂs something new IÂm going to try: read about it here last year. Not sure how deer feel about it.

I think it's bunnies that eat my crocus foliage. Spray them and they'll stop. I am now using a combination of either eggs/water/mint extract, or eggs/water/hot sauce, in a large pump sprayer. Strain the egg/water solution before you put in sprayer bottle to aleviate clogging of the sprayer holes.

Linnea, I'm glad your bulbs came up. I just planted tulip bulbs this past fall, but luckily my timing was perfect just before the snow storms hit, so squirrels never had time to dig. And, I think it helps that I have only a tiny strip of soil between my driveway and house, so the area is a little more protected. I have a ton of tulips coming up - I just hope I get to see some blooms, I'm so excited as this is my first with bulbs.

I just noticed my crocus have been mowed down (presumably by rabbits). I bought a product called "deer off" or "deer out". Can anyone vouch for it?

I did the same thing this year. I had planted crocus in '07 and the squirrels dug them up and I never saw a one. So I cut hardware cloth and laid it on the ground where I planted the bulbs and just anchored it with bricks. Everything came up...then I discovered, B&B sent me the wrong crocus. lol Oh well...hope springs eternal to get it right next year. At least I have crocus. :-)

Ive been using a lot of mesh expect I get some really fine stuff that almost looks see through, perplexed squirrel anyone?

Here is a link that might be useful: wire mesh

Unfortunately barriers are about the only reasonable way to go. My wife had the same problem losing almost all her crocus due to squirrels. I too had experience with this and having them dig up various bulbs out at my moms so I took a piece of metal rabbit fencing wire and cut a small square with the barbs poking around the edges and put them over any bulbs that I wanted to plant. I hid them a bit with mulch over the squares. This worked perfectly and is what I'd recommend to those who are frustrated with this persistent problem. Nice thing is these square barriers can be used over and over again making it pretty economical.