Critters in my Peppers (Southern California)

[Derelict]

 
My wife did at first, too.  When I asked her why, she angrily stated that she didn't want to have to be picking up dead animals in the back yard. :facepalm

 
I'm worse off than you.  I have 42 plants in 13 containers, I outdid myself this year.  A glutton for punishment.  And boy did I hear about it from the better half.  You can already imagine what she says about the critter in my garden. 
 
"So what if you lose a few plants you have waaay too many already."
 
"I'm glad the critters like your peppers.  I sure don't.  And when peak season hits there won't be enough room in the frig for all your peppers and sauces, so I hope they pilfer more out of the garden then, too."
 
"You know, tomatoes would have been far more useful." 
 
You get the picture, I expect!

 

[Derelict]

 
I'm worse off than you.  I have 42 plants in 13 containers, I outdid myself this year.  A glutton for punishment.  And boy did I hear about it from the better half.  You can already imagine what she says about the critter in my garden. 
 
"So what if you lose a few plants you have waaay too many already."
 
"I'm glad the critters like your peppers.  I sure don't.  And when peak season hits there won't be enough room in the frig for all your damn peppers and sauces, so I hope they pilfer more out of the garden then, too."
 
"You know, tomatoes would have been far more useful than your stupid peppers." 
 
You get the picture, I expect!

 

 

[Harry_Dangler]

 
I'm worse off than you.  I have 42 plants in 13 containers, I outdid myself this year.  A glutton for punishment.  And boy did I hear about it from the better half.  You can already imagine what she says about the critter in my garden. 
 
"So what if you lose a few plants you have waaay too many already."
 
"I'm glad the critters like your peppers.  I sure don't.  And when peak season hits there won't be enough room in the frig for all your damn peppers and sauces, so I hope they pilfer more out of the garden then, too."
 
"You know, tomatoes would have been far more useful than your stupid peppers." 
 
You get the picture, I expect!

Sounds familiar re: peppers.  I'm now at 110 plants.  I replaced a few struggling plants and I get the "why are you replacing them ..... we won't be able to sell/use them all anyway". 
 
The tomato discussion has happened in previous years when I've had around 100 plants.  It's always the same discussion just substitute whatever we've got lots of.  

 

[solid7]

 
I'm worse off than you.  I have 42 plants in 13 containers, I outdid myself this year.  A glutton for punishment.  And boy did I hear about it from the better half.  You can already imagine what she says about the critter in my garden. 
 
"So what if you lose a few plants you have waaay too many already."
 
"I'm glad the critters like your peppers.  I sure don't.  And when peak season hits there won't be enough room in the frig for all your damn peppers and sauces, so I hope they pilfer more out of the garden then, too."
 
"You know, tomatoes would have been far more useful than your stupid peppers." 
 
You get the picture, I expect!

 
I would leave her, immediately.  No woman is pretty enough to endure listening to that kind of dross.
.
Wait... why didn't you plant some tomatoes, too?  Shame on you. Plant the tomatoes, get the fence.  See how it works?  This is your negotiating point.  Agree to plant a more balanced garden, get the upgrades.
.
How long have you been married? 

 

[Doelman]

 
I would leave her, immediately.  No woman is pretty enough to endure listening to that kind of dross.
.
Wait... why didn't you plant some tomatoes, too?  Shame on you. Plant the tomatoes, get the fence.  See how it works?  This is your negotiating point.  Agree to plant a more balanced garden, get the upgrades.
.
How long have you been married? 

Haha it's definitely a balancing act.  I took over a second garden bed this year for peppers, the only way I was able to keep the wife happy doing that is by growing a few extra sweet peppers for her.
 

 
Great idea!   I need to do something immediately, the little sh-t just trampled the hell out of my stuff last night.  Almost destroyed one plant and damaged a few more.
 
So you just drape the Deer X netting over the tops of the plants?  Or did you run it vertically between posts?
 
In fact, see the picture, I've been using the plastic mesh (shown) for a few years.  I'm guessing the critters are just climbing over it. 
 
As for the yellowed plants, it's the potting soil.  I'm a newb, remember?  I have 12 containers and had to transplant 8 of them over two weeks from the Kellogg crap (mostly tree bark) to real soil.  Just about all my transplants quickly turned green;  what you see in my post is the chocolate habaneros, it seems to be taking them more than two weeks to fully look healthy again.  Also, we've had a sunless spring out here in So Cal, so my plant growth is all over the place.  Some are already at 24-30", some are still barely 6" tall.
 
What do you use for liquid and dry fertilizers?
 

I have a post at each corner of my beds, I zip tie the mesh to each one, top and bottom, and just stretch it til it touches the ground at all four corners, it's roughly 4 feet high.  Critters can't climb it, it's too loose and too catchy and the holes are way too small to crawl through, they don't even try to bite through it. I use fiberglass stakes as the posts and the zipties just slide up and down it very easily, so when I want to get into the garden I just slide the mesh down, easy as pie.  With that said, before I started doing this I never had rodents breaking well established plants.  They would dig up and bit through very young plants, but not mature ones.  It kind of sounds like a bigger critter to me but the deer x might still work, it is designed for deer after all and it comes in an 8 foot wide roll.  You might be able to attach it on the outside of your green fence if they're climbing that, but if they're jumping over it you'll need taller poles.  Do you happen to have a game camera?  Would help to see what the culprit is.

 

[Derelict]

 
I would leave her, immediately.  No woman is pretty enough to endure listening to that kind of dross.
.
Wait... why didn't you plant some tomatoes, too?  Shame on you. Plant the tomatoes, get the fence.  See how it works?  This is your negotiating point.  Agree to plant a more balanced garden, get the upgrades.
.
How long have you been married? 

 

Friend, no man writes such about his wife unless it's mostly tongue-in-cheek.  I've been married to my bride for 32 years and at age 57 she's still the prettiest, sweetest gal I know.  She makes "rude" comments like that with a smack to my bottom and a kiss on the cheek.
 
Tomatoes are next on my list, but I wanted to master the art of growing peppers first.  One thing at a time.

 

[Derelict]

Sounds familiar re: peppers.  I'm now at 110 plants.  I replaced a few struggling plants and I get the "why are you replacing them ..... we won't be able to sell/use them all anyway". 
 
The tomato discussion has happened in previous years when I've had around 100 plants.  It's always the same discussion just substitute whatever we've got lots of.  

 
110 pepper plants!  Would luv to see the list of what you're growing.  I chose 16 varieties with 42 total plants.  I mostly chose them for appearance and color, wanting to cover all shapes and colors of red, yellow, orange, brown, green and white.  See image.
 

 

[Derelict]

Haha it's definitely a balancing act.  I took over a second garden bed this year for peppers, the only way I was able to keep the wife happy doing that is by growing a few extra sweet peppers for her.
 
I have a post at each corner of my beds, I zip tie the mesh to each one, top and bottom, and just stretch it til it touches the ground at all four corners, it's roughly 4 feet high.  Critters can't climb it, it's too loose and too catchy and the holes are way too small to crawl through, they don't even try to bite through it. I use fiberglass stakes as the posts and the zipties just slide up and down it very easily, so when I want to get into the garden I just slide the mesh down, easy as pie.  With that said, before I started doing this I never had rodents breaking well established plants.  They would dig up and bit through very young plants, but not mature ones.  It kind of sounds like a bigger critter to me but the deer x might still work, it is designed for deer after all and it comes in an 8 foot wide roll.  You might be able to attach it on the outside of your green fence if they're climbing that, but if they're jumping over it you'll need taller poles.  Do you happen to have a game camera?  Would help to see what the culprit is.

 

OK, great info.  Based on the infiltration two nights ago, I'm suspecting something larger than a squirrel.  Game camera arrives today, will post pics when I have them. 

 

[solid7]

 
Friend, no man writes such about his wife unless it's mostly tongue-in-cheek.

 
Most people still fail to pick up on my painfully dry humor.

 

[troutbeer]

I have a critter problem this year too. I'm trying a motion sensing sprinkler. The Orbit Yard Enforcer gets pretty good reviews on Amazon. It just showed up on my front porch. I'll post an update on how it's working out in a week or two.

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[Derelict]

I have a critter problem this year too. I'm trying a motion sensing sprinkler. The Orbit Yard Enforcer gets pretty good reviews on Amazon. It just showed up on my front porch. I'll post an update on how it's working out in a week or two.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

Well, I'll sure be curious to see how your sensor works.  Does it keep data so you know how many times it turns on in a given night?  Also, in my case, squirrels are one of the possible culprits, and I wonder if it's sensitive enough to detect a squirrel at an oblique angle or a distance of 30-50 feet. 

 

[Derelict]

Game cam installed for three nights, and here's what showed up last night -- a coyote.  Looking back to my original post in this thread, could it have been a coyote who was nosing around in my pots looking for grubs?  Would the fresh potting soil have been like catnip to him?

 

[solid7]

More likely what you've fed the plants.  If you use any kind of organic fertilizer, that's the number one reason why they'd be in there.
.
It's also the number one reason why you need an electric fence.

 

[Derelict]

More likely what you've fed the plants.  If you use any kind of organic fertilizer, that's the number one reason why they'd be in there.
.
It's also the number one reason why you need an electric fence.

 

Yup, my liquid fertilizer is a liquid fish emulsion product, and is 90% fish and 10% seaweed.  Every time I open it up my dogs run after me a like I was carrying fresh ribs. 
 
So is the consensus here that my critter is probably a coyote?  I'll keep the game cam up for a few weeks and report back.

 

[Doelman]

ha! Coyote, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than a squirrel.  I would say either it's the coyote or another similar medium ish size creature.  Solution is probably the same for all of them though.

 

[Derelict]

ha! Coyote, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than a squirrel.  I would say either it's the coyote or another similar medium ish size creature.  Solution is probably the same for all of them though.

Update:  the critter cam has been up every night for two weeks now.  The coyote seems to return every 3-4 nights and other than that, nothing except rabbits or my own dogs when my son gets home late and lets them out at midnight.  Problem solved for now, it's a young coyote that is attracted by my organic (fish emulsion) fertilizer.
 
And if you want some entertainment, the critter cam caught him playing with my dogs' toys.  Cute.
 
View attachment playing cropped 4 slomo.mp4

 

[troutbeer]

I have had the motion sensing sprinkler going for a few weeks now. It has been effective, and no more damage has been seen on my plants.
Since I have set it up, I have confirmed that I had both rabbits and deer browsing on my leaves. I sit on the couch in the morning before work and have now witnessed both getting sprayed and it really scares the heck out of them.
Just this morning, I watched a rabbit start to hop across the yard and suddenly stop. He gave the sprinkler a wide enough berth to keep it from going off. Seems like my critters are learning how it works. Fine with me, as long as they don't touch my plants.
Overall, I'm pleased with the sensitivity and effectiveness of it. The only down side is the lack of an automatic timer (which I suppose I could buy and add externally) or alternatively a remote control to easily turn it on and off without risking a soaker.


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