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| Each year I post my annual varmint report, basically to keep track of the worst and least offenders, and to see, if any of the programs or methods that I constantly change have any real effects. Also to get feedback from other posters as to how successful their methods have been. I'm not an animal rights lover, but I know that my orchard/garden provides nesting habitats for many animals, some beneficial, some not. I have kind of a love/ hate relationship with birds. I know that they eat many insects that harm the productivity of my orchard, but they also will decimate many things that I havest, mainly figs and blueberries, so much so, that I have to net many of these trees. But's that's a trade off, with which I can live. I trap many birds throughout the year, but I always release them. That's why they are not included in the list. I live in a residential neighborhood on a 1/3 acre lot, surrounded by other houses. I use 5 Safeguard animal traps, 3 large and 2 small ones. I keep them baited with apples from my orchard and sunflower seeds. I also use an air rifle. I'm showing 3 years of data, which helps me to keep track of changes. The main habitat change that occurred in 2014 is my neighbor, catty corner to the rear of my property, removed all of her large trees. You can clearly see, how that drastically affected the number of squirrels that I trapped. Also, this year I disposed of a 5 ft. long black snake, that I found curled up atop a wheel barow that I keep full of rain water. He had obviously just eaten something and was drinking his fill, and wouldn't budge, no matter how close I got. I also trapped my first fully brown raccoon, something I've never seeen before . At first, I thought it was some sort of hybrid animal, until I did some research and found that brown raccoons are not uncommon. I'm enclosing a pic, in case yoou've never seen one. Squirrels 2014-- 25 Rabbits 2014--10 Opossum 2014--15 Raccoon 2014--5
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Although some people may get upset, I thank you for the report Rayrose. Wildlife depredation is a real issue for fruit growers. I've also had to net birds out of my small home orchard. I'm currently trying to build a fence to exclude deer at the farm. I also trap squirrels here at the house. I haven't had much problem with rabbits. We do have rabbits, but they aren't extremely aggressive bark eaters here. Here the weirdest thing rabbits do is get up on their hind legs and knock low hanging fruit off w/ their front paws so they can eat it. Did you really kill the snake? I treat a non-poisonous snake like a baby, but then I think of snakes like most people think of dogs (i.e. man's best friend). Keep in mind this is coming from someone who keeps a pet tarantula (Actually it's my daughter's spider since about 4th grade. We've been feeding this thing for years and years. I'm starting to think it's going to live forever.) Here's a picture of it on my daughter's shoulder several years ago. Picture by Kristin Olson |
This post was edited by olpea on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 20:43
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 17:51
| How are you trapping the rabbits? I've baited traps with carrots but am catching skunks and possums- the first I never kill and the second only sometimes at harvest time if I don't have time to move them. My sister is a vet and claims possums are somewhat gypsy-like and are one species that it is ok to move to other locations. Because she's had possums for pets I like to move them in respect to her. |
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| While I hate to, I destroy chipmunks. They have become a serious pest problem in our residential neighborhood. I have no other experience handling dead wild animals. I confess I am paranoid about handling the corpse. Fleas are blamed for spreading the plague, etc. Are their any precautions I should be taking when disposing of the corpse? Thanks. |
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| We also refer to those raccoons as "Cinnamon" raccoons. Not extremely rare but not common either. Chipmunks (aka 13 lined ground squirrels).... I hate them! They dig in my flower beds, make holes in my yard, bury sunflower seeds everywhere from my neighbors bird feeder. I exterminate them whenever they give me a chance. At this point I am able to prevent damage from other critters or at least tolerate it. |
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- Posted by larry_gene USDA8b-OregonPDX (My Page) on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 22:55
| You slightly topped my 22 squirrels trapped, during 10 weeks of 2014. Also caught one small possum and two scrub jays in the same trap. Walnut pieces for bait. The results are that I may have reduced the number of individual squirrels entering the yard by 90% at one point, but the half-life of this success is brief, every week there are more squirrels to be seen. The trap comes back out next April, to help protect caneberry shoots. This in a Portland urban lot. |
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| Here, rabbits are agressive bark eaters and will strip a tree in no time. I learned my lesson, when I "allowed" one "cute" rabbit to eat all of the bark off of my lone fig tree. That's, when I knew I had to fight back. Rabbits escpecially love apple tree bark, and I have black plastic corrugated piping around the base of each tree. It comes in 8 ft sections and is easy to cut into individual pieces. I put over every new apple tree that I plant. One year i made the mistake of putting it over a new peach and a nectarine tree, only to find out that i was providing a place for borers to hide. I eventually lost bost trees to borers, another expensive mistake i had to learn the hard way I find that trapping is very seasonal. I have the best success with rabbits, oppossums, and raccons in late fall to before bud swell, while squirrels are a year round problem. Rabbits, Oppossums and Raccoons seem to love apples, no matter how rotten they are, while squirrels are suckers for sunflower seeds. I'm not a snake lover and black snakes are very aggressive and will bite first and ask questions later. I broke his back with the blunt side of an axe, then finished him off with the air rifle. Course I had to show him off to all of the neighbors, who thanked me immensely for getting rid if this varmint. Not many snake lovers here. I always use gloves when handling dead animals, and place them in grocery bags, then place them in city provided roll carts. Luckily, we don't have any chipmunks. I keep my five traps baited year round, occassionally moving them from place to place, but the two larger traps usually stay in the same place and get the most action. Luckily, I don't have any deer. |
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| I caught 36 'coons and my cousin 150 yards away caught 12. Talk about overpopulation!!!!! This was also just through June when I put the traps away. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Fri, Jan 2, 15 at 17:54
| Yes, but what do you bait the traps with for rabbits? I have all apple trunks protected and they started eating the bark of smaller plum trees which are now wrapped with plastic. What concerns me is that when we start getting snow they will be able to get above current plastic and I'll have to do it all again. |
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| I only use 2 baits, apples and sunflower seeds. Rabbits love apples and they aren't partial to any variety. I use the ugliest fallen apples and place a few in each trap, You don't even have to cut them. We rarely get snow, so I don't have your problem, but here's a pic of the black plastic on a new tree. |
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- Posted by UncleEllwyn NC-7 (My Page) on Fri, Jan 2, 15 at 19:39
| I have the same black tubing on my fruit trees but plan on replacing them with wire cages. I've read recently that these tubes are bad for the trees. Anyone here have any experience/advice? |
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| Totals (2014): Rabbit x 1 and Berry Eating Birds x 6. The squirrels scurry back into the woods too quickly to shoot them with the air rifle. I wiped out the ground squirrels / chipmunks with baited rat traps 2 years ago. On a different note, I saw this posted online and have laughed about it for weeks...I don't know what this says about my sense of humor but I thought I would share. Apologies if this is too far off topic. |
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| I haven't had any success at trapping rabbit. Most of the time, I've been using apple and peanut butter. I've also tried lettuce and carrots (at the risk of stereotyping the rabbit based on Disney). There is one grey one with a puffy white tail which I've been trying to get for the last year and a half. He decimates my beans, but thankfully he hasn't taken to eating apple bark yet. He does eat very low branch tips and the tops of little root suckers. |
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| How is the black tubing harmful to trees? It's corrugated, so water can pass through it, and it shields the tree from herbacides, such as Roundup, when you spray for weed control. If you're going to make a statement, please back it up with facts, before you make it.or don't make it at all. |
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- Posted by Fascist_Nation USDA 9b, Sunset 13, (My Page) on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 14:03
| Yup, killing a snake is just plain dumb. |
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