She always glows pink so you can disguise the fact that she's always feeling blue

[sovay]

My mother planted some young trees in her side yard last weekend. The overgrowth of rabbits afflicting the neighborhood has since eaten all but two. She is very upset, especially since they have also eaten her strawberries and her tomatoes, seemingly impervious to the usual safeguards. I made a temporary shelter for the leafier, less gnawed of the two survivors tonight and may return over the weekend to construct a more permanent one. Needless to say, I also spent some time yelling and driving rabbits out of the yard. They were astonishingly unafraid for something so plump and delicious.

I do not understand, if one can rent goats to clear one's lawn of poison ivy and other weeds, why it is not possible to procure foxes for similar purposes. Wanted: one vixen with plenty of hungry kits to feed. Offering: attractive side and back yard with overgrown ravine suitable for denning, gratitude and admiration of nearby humans who will maintain respectful distance, all the rabbits you can eat. Please respond by moving in at your convenience.

(I am all in favor of breeding the endangered New England cottontail back to a stable population. The invasive Eastern cottontail is eating everything my mother plants and I think about Hasenpfeffer.)

Comments

[asakiyume]

When I had a vegetable garden in my yard here, the rabbits loved to come and nibble *anything*. I put up chickenwire fencing, knowing very well that they likely could squeeze under if they wanted--but mainly they didn't.

I approve of your rent-a-fox idea!

One thing I remember about the Cambridge-Somerville area where we lived was that the squirrel used to go around chomping the heads off tulips--very depressing! You couldn't enjoy tulips because they got eaten. Maybe it was just a fad among a generation or two of squirrels in the particular neighborhood I was in. I don't suppose you notice a dearth of tulips in the spring, where you are?

[redbird]

Either it was just a fad, or it hasn't spread to my part of Somerville (near/east of Davis Square): more daffodils than tulips, but I have seen fine tulips, and not flowerless stalks. I expect squirrels to eat crocus flowers, often before the buds open, but don't know whether my neighbors here have been planting crocuses.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, it was so freaky! And I never actually saw a squirrel doing it, so perhaps it was an unpleasant human (or some other creature). Or maybe there was a squirrel ailment that the squirrel doctors said could only be cured by eating tulips, and then the ailment passed.

Anyway, I'm glad the tulips of near Davis Square are blooming unmolested! (I was on the Cambridge-Somerville Line somewhat above Inman Square, but it was a couple of decades ago.)

[sovay]

I put up chickenwire fencing, knowing very well that they likely could squeeze under if they wanted--but mainly they didn't.

We fenced in my dogwood for a couple of years to save her; we may have to do the same with my mother's garden. It just didn't used to be necessary!

I approve of your rent-a-fox idea!

I wish I knew who to pitch it to! Drumlin Farm?

I don't suppose you notice a dearth of tulips in the spring, where you are?

Not in my mother's yard! Those come up fine. (I am learning a lot about squirrels in this thread.)

[pameladean]

I am sorry about the little trees.

Around here, squirrels regularly eat tulip buds and blossoms. You can tell it's rabbits instead if they eat right down to the ground instead of "just" nipping off the blossoms or buds and devouring them.

Squirrels also like to take a single bite out of a tomato. I had read that they only did this out of thirst and that providing water would prevent it. Providing water reduces the incidence, but some squirrels must have acquired a taste for tomato juice.

P.

[ethelmay]

I haven't noticed any such tulip predation in Seattle, so perhaps our squirrels haven't learned the habit. We certainly have plenty of them. Not as many rabbits these days, though there was a population explosion of abandoned pets a while back and measures were taken (the Great Rabbit Roundup of 2006 or so). We do have a fair number of hawks and coyotes about (though I've never seen a coyote myself).

[sovay]

We do have a fair number of hawks and coyotes about (though I've never seen a coyote myself).

I would also accept more hawks.