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Gardening

Who's the culprit?

(21 Posts)
annodomini Fri 05-Apr-19 19:35:32

When I returned from NZ at the beginning of February I found bits of tulip bulbs half eaten on the patio. I was inclined to blame squirrels. Some tulips survived but only four sad blooms. Today, I could have wept to find the pot turned over as something had dug out the remaining bulbs and the heads had come off. A squirrel couldn't have pushed over the pot which was quite heavy, so now I am quite sure that the local badger has visited. This vandal has made inroads into a neighbour's lawn, so I presume it has decided to take it out on my garden as well. I can't badger-proof my garden as there's a big hedge at the end rather than a fence. Any ideas as to what I can do about badgers?

Baggs Fri 05-Apr-19 19:52:17

Lucky you, anno! I've only ever seen dead badgers. It'd be nice to think a live one was visiting my garden. It'd make a change from roe deer eating everything anyway, and the heron that doesn't give the frogs and newts a chance.

Mind you, an Oxfordshire friend used to complain about the damage badgers did in his garden. I think he had a whole badgers sett.

Maybe put out peanuts for them in the hope they'll leave your plants alone?

lemongrove Fri 05-Apr-19 20:04:57

No grin if you provide a food source they will stick around forever!
Move any pots of bulbs out of their reach.If they can’t easily find food in your garden they will go elsewhere.

Alima Fri 05-Apr-19 20:07:39

I have only ever seen badgers sleeping at the roadside. To be honest anno I would say stuff the tulips and get a night viewing camera.

annodomini Fri 05-Apr-19 20:26:12

There's a badger sett across the brook that runs along the end of my garden. Some people just along the road have made a little bridge which I think the badger is using since the brook recently has been quite full.

ninathenana Sat 06-Apr-19 07:51:39

Tulip bulbs are poisonous shock

phoenix Sat 06-Apr-19 08:09:07

Alima I doubt they were sleeping.

annodomini Sat 06-Apr-19 08:50:46

nina, that's probably why the bulbs I found on the patio seemed to have been spat out.
phoenix, sadly that is likely to be true.

Alima Sat 06-Apr-19 09:15:54

Sounds better than dead Phoenix.

shysal Sat 06-Apr-19 09:30:42

Squirrels and badgers sometimes damage my garden, but I love watching them. I find that feeding the badgers stops them most of the time. These days I see only 2 or 3 at a time but years ago it would be up to 7. If I was late putting out the peanuts they would press their noses against the french door window.

Baggs Sat 06-Apr-19 10:54:37

Tulip bulbs are poisonous

Apparently not to roe deer.

Baggs Sat 06-Apr-19 10:56:10

But roe deer are herbivores, aren't they, whereas badgers are fairly omnivorous so their digestive systems will be different.

ninathenana Sat 06-Apr-19 12:18:38

Sorry more accurate would have been toxic.
Vomiting, dizziness, convulsions and can be fatal

farview Mon 08-Apr-19 17:06:15

Oh shysal I'm soooo envious... beautiful creatures...

BlueBelle Mon 08-Apr-19 18:19:58

My bulbs have been dug up four times by a marauding large fluffy ginger cat, not seen signs of them being eaten but as fast as I put them back in the next day they were all up again They re now growing with net over them

BlueBelle Mon 08-Apr-19 18:21:32

Wow you lucky lady Shysal I ve never seen one

Namsnanny Mon 08-Apr-19 18:41:58

Shysal…..lovely photo!!
We too had/have badgers eating peanuts in our garden, they became so used to us that we could leave the patio doors open on a warm evening and just sit on the floor quietly watching them eat 6 inches away from us!!

Unfortunately we had a case of rats living in our wood pile so we had to stop feeding all creatures including the birds, so we could eradicate them.

Now I'm a bit nervous to encourage the wildlife back, because the rat situation really worried me!

Namsnanny Mon 08-Apr-19 18:43:19

BTW….I've grown loads of tulips in the garden and pots for the 20-30 years we've lived here and I haven't had one ruined by anything...…..(touching wood!) yet!!

Desdemona Mon 08-Apr-19 20:14:02

I had badgers digging up my garden and while they are cute they are also very destructive. I bought a sonic badger repell
er from Amazon which uses high pitched frequency (humans can't hear it) to deter them - it seems to have worked so far. I noticed Lidl were selling them the other day repellers not badgers!).

whywhywhy Tue 09-Apr-19 11:28:05

I have never seen badgers in our garden but we do get a fox. I am envious of anyone who gets them though, so maybe ditch the bulbs and put some badger food out. Also the camera idea sounds good to me. x

jeanie99 Wed 10-Apr-19 22:43:02

My memories of badgers are from our last home, they used to bite the heads off the visiting hedghogs.
It was terrible at night to hear the screams of these little creatures.