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Sat, Mar 10, 12 at 11:09
| I planted a beautiful Iceberg floribunda with many new shoots last weekend. I noted Monday night that the shoots were gone, pegged the culprits as the many squirrels in my neighborhood, and mixed up a spray with cayenne, black pepper, chili powder and hot sauce and doused the bush and my other plants. I just saw the bush in daylight today for the first time and the little buggers not only ate the shoots, they stripped the canes of their bark! I can't find any information on what this means for the bush - can I prune the stripped canes back and expect new growth? Is the bush done for? Should I mix up red pepper laden wax and paint the canes? I'm totally new to this problem - any advice would be greatly appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I would cut the stripped parts off and hope for the best. You don't want to leave open wounds that could let in diseases. Re-douse them with the chili mix but I'd also go get some kind of animal repellent too. Or make some kind of cages to put around them if that's possible. I have rabbits and squirrels and they've been having a feast on my roses with this mild, snowless winter we've had. Some of my minis have been taken right to the ground. |
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| I had this problem with a new crape myrtle which has only a single stem and put thorny rose cuttings around the base so they couldn't get to it. I also do this with new roses, especially bands, since otherwise the squirrels and rabbits would make short work of them. It's not pretty, but eventually the roses get big enough that the rodents don't bother them any more (usually), and I can remove the thorny barriers. |
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| I strongly recommend chicken wire cages around those roses. A woman I knew years ago called them fluffy-tailed rats, and for those of us who live with squirrels, that's not far wrong. Rabbits can be just as bad, of course. Jeri |
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| I really appreciate the responses and advice about how to repel the nasty critters, but my real question is about the rose itself and whether there's anything I can do to save it at this point or if it's a lost cause. Seil, I've cut the canes down somewhat, but I've also coated them with wax laced with cayenne pepper. Guess I'll wait a week, see if anything changes with the bush and, if all else fails, I'll replace it and surround it with electric fencing ;-) I've also laced the potting soil with cayenne. Hope that fixes the little critters! |
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