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Was it rabbits eating our potatoes?

EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
in Problem solving
I had to harvest my main crop potatoes too early this year because something was eating a lot of them. They were in raised beds, with 3 foot high chicken wire fences around them, and whatever got in jumped over that because there was no sign of entry at the bottom. I assumed it was rabbits, because the holes in the bed were rabbit-sized, and we do have a lot of rabbits. My neighbour thinks that rabbits don’t like potatoes and says it must have been mice, which it wasn’t unless they were mutant monster mice. Do you think it was rabbits? Also wondering how to keep the little blighters out next year because there comes a point in the arms-race where anti-pest measures become anti-gardener measures as well  🙂. 
Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


Posts

  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    edited November 2020
    Oh, hadn’t thought of rats. However, we did have rats in the poly tunnel  a while ago - I saw one of them, and their holes were much smaller, probably an inch or 2 across. The holes dug in the potato beds were 4 or 5 inches across, with big piles of soil around them. 
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    My brother is a potato farmer ... he says that rats will gnaw through concrete to get at potatoes ... they just love 'em.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Rats will chew through chicken wire too. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    I believe you that rats would love to eat the potatoes, but they don’t dig holes 4 inches wide, with great piles of soil on the surface do they? Maybe we had both rabbits and rats 🤣
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Emerion said:
    I believe you that rats would love to eat the potatoes, but they don’t dig holes 4 inches wide, with great piles of soil on the surface do they? ...
    Yes ... absolutely they do ... sounds typical of big farm rats to me.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    Oh no! It will have to be traps from the get-go next season then - yuck!
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


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