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Who's doing this?

bédébédé Posts: 3,095
edited April 2023 in Plants
Who's doing this?

It's the start of the bluebell season.  I have lots to spare.  Just a puzzle.



It looks like someone was eating it and then puked it up.  Not me.

And then I found more.


 location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Posts

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Something does not know that Bluebells are poisonous to mammls.
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    Pigeons are the worst culprits for picking off flower heads in my garden but I'd expect them to be a bit more scattered than that. Do they look as though they've just been picked off or do they look chewed / ingested?
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    Roe deer eat my hostas and then spit them out.  But these flowers look too carefully chosen for deer.

    They look ingested and puked up, but not chewed.  All in just two places.  After the rain there is no trace of saliva, but I would expect there to have been some, they look deposited with a liquid.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Looks like mice to me.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited April 2023
    Busy-Lizzie said:
    Looks like mice to me.
    It look as as if mice have eaten every  blue petal and left all the rest behind.
    A camera trap would provide evidence of who is doing it.


    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I've got squirrels doing the same to my tulip flowers for the first time ever.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    Yesterday a badger (probably) had flattened my small clump of Spanish bluebells with her fat bottom (probably digging for worms).  The flowers at early bud stage survived.  Today the flowers are all missing.  Difficult not to link effect with cause.

    Also today, in a more distant part of the garden, I found some puked-up grass with saliva.  Typical of what a dog or cat might do.  Difficult not to think of a connection.

     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Badgers do eat bulbs so maybe 2 culprits, the badger digging down for the bulb and mice eating the petals.
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