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Tree rats stole my bulbs😡

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
in The potting shed
Planted them yesterday and they're gone.  The bgggrs  have gone for The ones in the soft improved soil and left the others alone so far.
Would it have helped to plant them deeper? I swear they were watching.
Thalia ain't cheap and I'm peeved😠
In London. Keen but lazy.
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  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    Yes has happened here in the past too. We cover with chicken wire, over pots or pegged down on ground. Even that's not 100% as last year, with crocus, I removed wire to let them flower, the bu**ers still eat them. Smothered them in chilli powder, that put them off long enough for us to see the few remaining flowers.
    AB Still learning

  • WeekendPrunerWeekendPruner Posts: 28
    Pesky Squirrels.

    A nice afternoons work and spring colour undone. 

    I bought some bulbs today and have also prepared a new border by a wall. They will most certainly see these as a tasty great. 

    Hope some of them still come  through in spring for you. 




  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    With any luck, they won't spot the ones that I tucked in about the place. Last year or the year before, I watched out of the window as a squirrel helped itself to the crocus bulbs I'd just planted. Too far away for me to lob something at it.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    We lost ours last year. I was told a. Plant them deeper than usual. b. press the soil down harder than usual and c. cover the area with mulch so that the scent of the bulbs is covered and the soil disturbance is no longer visible. It does seem to have worked so far. (Bows to Hubris).
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I understood that squirrels don't touch daffodil bulbs as they are poisonous to them, it's crocus and tulips they really go for. Coverage with small diameter chicken wire, securely pegged down seems to work for me. Tulips I grow in pots in the greenhouse until they start sprouting as squirrels don't seem to tough them then.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Well we had the same this year. Covered the pots with mesh but they or something still got them. No bulbs flowered but @Lizzie27 they did sprout but "they" still got them
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    It does help to plant them deeper. We have squirrels in our Norfolk garden but they don't touch daffodils. I don't bother with crocuses. I planted tulips deeply and they were fine until they flowered then a muntjac ate them.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Songbird-2Songbird-2 Posts: 2,349
    Couldn't you plant the bulbs in a pot @B3 and put them away in the greenhouse eg  ( with door shut). ?Then bring them out in the Spring when starting to pop through?
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    No greenhouse, I'm afraid. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    You have to bury them deep enough. They only dig down to a certain depth, although in light, dry soil, it'll be easier for them. It's usually crocus or the small botanical tulips they get here, but they probably never go deep enough to reach daffs etc.
    I use netting or chicken wire fixed around pots. 

    Another highly invasive creature @Busy-Lizzie - those muntjac. Fortunately, we don't have them up here. We mainly see our native red and roe here, although there's a couple of others.  
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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