Mystery pest destroying shrubs and small trees
Citygirl
Posts: 23
About two weeks ago, some kind of animal pulled down a number of very large pieces of various shrubs, bushes, and small trees, and made a big pile on top of an establishing peony bush, crushing it. The branches were sometimes woody up to 1 inch thick and came from 3-4 different plants so I struggled to work out what had done this. We removed the material (it filled up an entire garden waste bin!)
last night, the same set of bushes were 'attacked', this time the culprit simply pulled down the heavy branches so they are lying on the ground but still attached. This has made a little protected area underneath for creatures to hang out.
I know now we have foxes in the area - we can often hear them scream at night. Also on a few occasions we found the same peony trampled on and a small hole dug next to it. We always fill the hole straight away (not possible for a fox to hide in it as it's the size of a large bowl). Also ( not sure if this is related) I often find my container plants on our patio with germinating seeds or young vegetables dug up slightly- but not eaten. Those with cloches are fine
We we haven't yet had any pungent fox smells and only 1 incident of fox defecation over a year ago
I cant imagine a fox is able to do such damage to our shrubs and bushes - can they??? What else could it be? The only animal I'm aware of who can do this are beavers and we live in London suburbs.
What could be causing this???
Posts
It sounds like badger damage to me but I'm no expert.
Or Muntjak deer.
I know they are expensive but night time Infared sensor cameras are amazing for finding out things like this. It's also super interesting to see which wildlife visits your garden at night
My first thought was badger
H-C
Are badgers starting to inhabit urban arears now?.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I am not sure about urban areas Iamweedy but the question relates to suburbs where they definitely are moving in.
We have a lot around us we are essentially rural and the soil is deep and sandy for their setts.
Lot's of dead badgers on the roads. They have no road sense and the lanes around here are narrow.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I always feel very sad when I see any dead animals on the road - especially hedgehogs and badgers. The worst I saw just recently was a deer on the M6 near me. It was on the hard shoulder and was later removed. Its always a great shame.
I've seen dead ones in the roads outside Bromley.