I had whole rose buds disappear year on young roses and I finally determined it was a fat leopard slug. Sometimes he eats half a bud. he is swimming in the county pipes now.

I've never seen a squirrel bother a rose bush-- other than to escape the neighbors cat by blazing a path through the rose bed-- and, in hot pursuit, the cat ends up getting hooked on the roses and tearing off branches. Leaving behind tufts of hair. I can't really blame that on the squirrel tho....:-)
Same with the hummingbirds- when the neighbors cat tears my clematis off the trellis trying to blaze up the vine to get the hummer. Or the cat destroys the monarda by making a bed in the middle of the clump so he can make a sneek attack from within! (I really do love cats- but sometimes when I garden I hear Ralph from the honeymooners in my head saying "one of these days... to the moon, alice!)

Your squirrel feeder sounds like lots of entertainment for the people watching the clever squirrels.

I have 2 Hav-A-Heart traps that I got for armadillos. Didn't catch any dillos but got 2 squirrels. I think I'll bait them and put them out. I just don't know what to do with them after they're caught. I get squeemish about killing them so I let them starve to death as a warning to the rest of their evil friends. DH bought a pellet gun. Can't hit the broad side of a barn, but maybe I can hit one in the trap. Ewww.

I hate them!!!!!!!!!!!

Sherry

On the other hand, I wish the rabbits would take the hint! Last year one of my labs killed an entire family of them which was upsetting. Plus, they do so much damage to my younger/smaller roses. Just the other day, I noticed that my Jeanne LaJoie (which I'm trying to get to climb up an iron pillar was chewed to the ground! It was new last year, but had put out some pretty long canes :(

oh, and don't get me started on the moles!!!

Birds I'm good with...I like birds :o)
Tammy

I can put up a single post about spraying roses/insecticide/fungicide and the environmentalists will come out in droves on this forum.

Yet here, we get descriptions of shooting squirrels, trapping and starving them, cutting down their trees, dogs and cats beheading them and eating them ... no one complains.

I've been accused of having Stalinistic tendencies, but so far have managed to refrain from mass murder of squirrels. After they dug up all our newly-planted Caladiums at our old house - each bulb TWICE - I researched ways to kill. Initially, I very briefly put tasty boxes of rat poison in the crotches of trees where I could see squirrel nests, and at the entrance to a place on our old home's loggia roof where they were nesting. Neighbors were finding dead squirrels all over the place, and knowing my reputation as a dragon lady politely (voices in-tremolo) inquired whether I had 'done anything', "....you know... about the squirrels?" Well, I realized I could be poisoning my beloved Bluebirds and Woodpeckers, and so quickly gathered-up the rat poison. No dead birds were found, but many big dead squirrels... And anyway, Mockingbirds started nesting in the Cherokee Roses I planted, and so the Bluebirds disappeared anyway, since the Mockingbirds were eating their babies.

Online, I found instructions for making SQUIRREL POLES... poles with fishing line nooses tied along their length. Lean against tree... bait with peanut butter... Squirrels will apparently hang themselves. I imagined finding a flailing squirrel on the pole, and going next door to visit Fluffy the Yappy Poodle, whose greatest dream (judging from his incessant yapping at them) was to catch a squirrel. I'd hang the squirrel pole over the fence... finally within reach of Fluffy, and say "Here, honey! Knock yourself out! When you're finished with this one, I'll bring ya some more."

Okay.... But this was after the Gena Six Grievance Industry Circus, and so leaving nooses tied under trees was not cool, even if I'm only borderline-white at best. I'd have been on the news as that mean white lady with a hundred nooses under her oak tree, who traumatized the Meter Reader, whose memories of being a slave in Antebellum Times were triggered by those hundred tiny fishing line nooses. Protestations on my part that I only had the pole with the nooses because I wanted to strangulate squirrels would probably not have helped matters. I could envision news crew vans messing up my Zoysia lawn, selling an office park to pay legal teams, and fleeing to some sweltering heckhole of a country from which I could not be extradited.

Soooo.... I opted for something I'd seen used on Canadian Geese: MOCK PREDATION. I'd rush out of the house, clapping my hands, or growling and snarling like a Bobcat, and look up into the trees, in the same way that troops of Chimpanzees do, when they're stalking monkeys. The squirrel would move the far side of the tree: I'd move to that side. He'd peek at me, and I'd snarl. Started saving those free newspapers that land in the driveway, got them good and wet, and would throw them up into the trees. And I'd beat on the trees, to make the Squirrel feel the tiny shocks... and think something was climbing the tree after him. If you can keep that up until the squirrel flees in terror (the Alpha squirrel will be barking as he does this), then they will definitely remember.

Got to the point where the first flash of my white Lexus SUV coming down the street would send the squirrels fleeing. Then any Lexus (they have a distinctive non-sound), and finally any white car would panic them. Finally, they gave up on my yard. The surgeons who bought the house said the property stayed squirrel-free for a year or two after we left.

.

I've never had a problem with them eating plants or roses in my yard, but if that's something they're known to do, I don't know why. My neighbors have 2 large pecan trees, and they're always burying pecans in my garden. And getting into my bird feeders. They're very clever when it comes to getting into bird feeders.

I have 3 dogs who spend a bit of time in my yard, and there's a feral cat that sleeps under my shed, maybe that's why they don't spend a lot of time in the yard?

I clicked on the gallery tab of the "squirrel pie" link.
I wish I would not have done that.
Not what I expected in the least.

Urp.

A friend asked me recently what a group of squirrels is called, like, you know, a herd of cattle, flock of geese.... I thought about it a minute, and said, "close grouped target".

Elizabeth

A Leopard slug? Really?

I thought they only ate rotting debris, as well as other slugs. In other words, they are good slugs. They love the compost areas and work damn hard over there, and I have never seen them eating any living tissue off my plants. I have seen them eating other slugs, the kind I do see eating green leaves on my plants. I have some self sowing seed plants in my garden as well as tender lettuces we grew last year. I have seen none of these disturbed by the Leopard slugs. And actually, I think our bad slug population may be down.

Are you sure a Leopard slug was the culprit?

I've spent tons of time watching and photographing them during the night. I think they are so cool looking. I love the leopard slugs and they are welcome in my garden. I encourage them by keeping pockets of dried leaves packed down in corners against the stone walls they like to hide in. I had them in my last garden several blocks over and at my studio space pot garden, but not here until about four years ago. I was glad when they finally showed up.

Right, I know… I get the grossed out looking at rows of dead squirrels but go out of my way to photograph the Leopard slugs in the garden in the middle of the night. At least the leopard slugs are alive for their photo shoots. :)

And no worries about the link Lucille! I'm a big girl and the web is full of all kinds of weird, wonderful and creepy things. We are all responsible for our own clicking! :)

For the record, I've been a serious vegetarian since around 1984 or so, so I spend very little time looking at dead things, either in the back of a truck like the pictures or at the grocery store. I'm not sure where I thought the "gallery" tab would lead me. Not there, though! Poor little squirrels. I can't even kill the white slugs I pick of my plants. I gather them in a tupperware and put them next door in the wooded yard of the neighbor or in the hellstrip by the road. A bit nutty, maybe, but I like to feel I still fit in on this board, none the less.

I think I ended up with quite a population of them and then I started noticing buds missing. Some buds were scooped in half in a very smooth way(toothless). A couple of bands seemed to be growing in reverse. I could not figure out what was doing it, until reading that these slugs like young plants and do eat flowers. They can eat crops faster than they grow.
I could be wrong, but what else could eat a bud like that?
I keep the garden mulched with bark and so there are no leaves about.

Anyway- I wish it wasn't the slugs because I heard they eat mold and other slugs and would have kept them. They are cool looking too. but, Nothing was eaten after I rounded up a bunch of them ( 6 or 8) and flushed them.
I dropped their numbers in the rose beds. I am sure I still have plenty of them in other parts of my garden as the slime trails exist on the walkways. Im fine with them there.