I have tried many things to keep safe this latest round of edibles, so it’s hard to say which of the many worked best, which was the bellwether of our current good fortune. Likely, our flourishing garden results from a confluence that would be hard to parse.
Insects have ceased to be a serious threat, including the grasshoppers that proved such trouble in early spring. A lot of hands contributed to this success. For my part, I noticed where new grasshoppers tended to emerge and returned there daily to crush the nymphs. The praying mantises I released are rapidly maturing based on the few I’ve encountered, and I can only assume they’re doing their share of the pest control since other insects are all they eat. And we’ve begun letting our four chickens range and eat what bugs they will, turning problems into eggs. I also distributed 50 feet of floating row cover around sensitive areas of the yard, which seems to have given the seedlings in those plots time to mature unimpeded and uneaten. However, the heat the covers trap tends to wilt the plants during these hot days of July, so I’ve begun phasing them out. But they did their part and will be key to next season’s success in the cooler months of early spring.
Nature has finally begun to work with us, or the other way around. Several pairs of birds are nesting in our yard, including a set of Orioles, and I have watched on several occasions as a bird has swooped in and plucked a caterpillar off a broad squash leaf. And I haven’t seen the gnawing, strawberry devouring rabbits in weeks. They used to make daily forays into our yard, but no more — prey to something, I assume.
I have also been fortunate in keeping the powdery mildew that plagued seasons past at bay by treating outbreaks immediately with a spray of one part milk, 10 parts water.
That just leaves the squirrels.
Right outside our property line a colony of California Ground Squirrels took up residence, and the eight or so animals seemed to feed only on our edibles, chewing the growing tips off of every vine, eating new sprouts into the ground, pulling down wheat and rye stalks, biting into immature squash, melons, and almonds, and generally ravaging plots in our lower, upper, and front yards — including those planted right up against the house. The row covers seemed to provide a bit of a temporary obstacle, but the fencing that kept the rabbits out sure didn’t. Marigolds and other defensive plantings proved ineffectual. I put out packs of pelleted fox urine in an attempt to make them fear fear itself, and this worked, except on windy days, of which we have many. The scent deterrent was most effective on days when it could just hang in the air. But the squirrels only needed one breezy afternoon to devour weeks of progress.
While planting a last effort at a late-start warm season crop in June, I felt I had little choice but to get rid of the squirrels. Trap and release is no good. In California it is only legal to trap them, not release them, because they carry diseases and are classified as agricultural pests. Shooting them with a .22 is only recommended in rural areas, and would likely be ineffective and time consuming. They won’t scare easy with a scarecrow or other predator mimic. Natural predators and domestic pets can’t control their populations, typically.
I decided to poison them, which infringes a bit on the permacultural ideals I’d hoped to establish here. And it’s hard to say how it’s much different than the poisoning practices of industrial agriculture. I find arguments of scale and magnitude self serving and unconvincing. It’s clearly an industrial move. But, at the same time, I found the prospect of harvesting no warm season edibles for a second year unacceptable. Resources are wasted on an organic, super-local effort that yields nothing.
Poisoning is not a friendly, humane enterprise. I chose an anticoagulant bait, which is housed in a feed station only squirrels and similar animals can access, rather than a pelleted poison broadcast on the ground. This minimizes the collateral damage like a smart bomb does. It’s also a low-dose poison that must be eaten regularly over several days to kill — again to reduce the likelihood of a non-target animal dying.
But, in the end, something does die. Horribly.
An anticoagulant prevents blood from clotting, so a bruise or a bump turns into an internal (or external) hemorrhage that never stops. I have no fantasies of squirrels curling up in warm dens and drifting off to a peaceful sleep from which they will not awake, none the wiser, because I have found them immobile, panting, and scared, the ants already upon them. And I should find them and see it, and own the decision, so that next season it doesn’t come to such a false dichotomy: food or squirrels.
I haven’t seen a squirrel in weeks. The garden flourishes. Next year we’ll do better.
Dude, I’m so bummed that you poisoned squirrels. I hope you won’t feel the need to do that again. The cost for them, is life. For you, however, something far short of that: Gardening success? Yeah, I think the cost is too much.
That being said, however, I realize that I am one of those who cannot even watch Lassie get lost in a movie. I’m sorry that this is such a judgmental post, but … there ya go.
There are birds eating some of my peaches, but I figure it’s all part of the Big Picture, and let them have some. If I want some un-pecked fruit, I just have to be quicker than they are at detecting which ones are ripe.
Better luck next year, Jason — for both you and the squirrels.
-csc
I know how hard that this decision was for you. It sure seems like you tried everything in your power to avoid resorting to poison. In the end, it was either decrease the population of squirrels around your property or give up the garden. I think that you made the right choice.
The first half of this post is so encouraging. It’s been fun to watch the graph inching up, and I’m expecting to see a spike as eggs become a more regular part of your diet.
A good BB repeater pistol run on CO2 can be an excellent approach. As it can deter a squirrel without doing it in necessarily. It’s important that you use brass or steel bb as lead pellets are no good (for much of the same reason as 22s are no good.) this does raise the issue of your birds pecking up the bbs, but if you shoot sparingly they won’t become a problem. If you draw in enough birds with your garden you may also draw the attention of local predatory raptors or owls. This seems to keep the squirrel population under control in my client’s garden. There’s no guarantee of luring a hawk but they are always welcome members of the local ecosystem. The health of the garden must be measured by the success of it’s predators.
We are going with owl boxes and a pellet gun with pointed pellets as our main defense against squirrels. Pellet guns are legal to fire on our property in city limits because they are not considered firearms. We will not poison them. We have dogs and cats. Our neighbors have dogs and cats. If any one of them decides to eat a dead squirrel that was poisoned it could be disasterous.
You can also use carbon monoxide on them by running a hose from your tailpipe into their active burrows (make sure it’s not being used by kit foxes or burrowing owls).
I know that we have already spoken about your battle about squirrels. I respect the fact that you owned up to a decision that went against your core beliefs. Hopefully the alternative solutions that others have posted here will provide you with the same desired results and will keep you from having to poison them.
Carbon-monoxide is an interesting idea. The pellet guns/.22 are a really time consuming alternative. It doesn’t seem practical for an individual who has an occupation other than gardening.
This is a big picture thing. Too many squirrels is unnatural, and there are other forces that are destroying their predators. I agree with you that it’s not worth it to lose your garden. There’s more social and moral good happening in your garden than there is fault in killing the squirrels. And perhaps this can encourage your neighbors to start similar gardens without the early frustration you’ve had.
I’m really disappointed. This was so much fun to read and so inspiring to me until this post. There had to be another way. Also, Amy and especially Paul, I’m disappointed in you for your encouragement. I expect better of christians than to endorse needless killing of any kind as it’s hardly good stewardship of the earth. It’s not ours to kill what we’re not eating and is not threatening our lives. It’s the same selfishness that has resulted in the damage to our planet and culture that this whole experiment is (was) working against just on a smaller scale. Wrong is still wrong no matter how small the scale. Maybe pets wouldn’t be able to control their population, but I’ll bet a dog would’ve kept them out of your garden.
[...] expected a thoughtful discourse in response to my July 22 post, “What Price edibles?”, which dealt with my decision to poison a few squirrels on our property, among other topics, and I [...]