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Post by davida on Apr 19, 2012 16:07:58 GMT -5
OMG, don't wait get that fence up. Remember 1 night of pigs took out 1/4 of my crops! My neighbor's wife is feeding the sweet little wild deer out of her hand. Neighbor said he could only get within 50' but could watch while his wife fed them from her hand. This explains why they are not showing any fear to humans. Another neighbor has two corn feeders out for the nice little deer. Sure hope they keep them full where they do not bother my orchard and garden.  David |
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Post by johninfla on Apr 19, 2012 18:43:57 GMT -5
I hate that they do that! (feed the deer) my neighbor does the same! I have to borrow a spotlight and try to fix the problem!
John
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Post by MikeH on Oct 10, 2012 16:23:16 GMT -5
I saw this and thought of you, Holly, and your marauders. Enjoy.
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Post by davida on Oct 10, 2012 16:29:57 GMT -5
I saw this and thought of you, Holly, and your marauders. Enjoy. Funny stuff. Had both my wife and myself rolling. David |
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Post by steev on Oct 10, 2012 21:41:32 GMT -5
That's so twisted I love it! One must respect a worthy competitor.
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Post by nathan125 on Oct 11, 2012 0:30:18 GMT -5
holly:
your first picture looks like what i have, i thought they were voles/field mice.
i guess i'm wrong
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Post by circumspice on Oct 11, 2012 3:28:27 GMT -5
Bad vermin in our area - white tail deer
- meadow vole
- cottontail rabbit
- Canada geese
- crows and redwing blackbirds are about a tie
I'm hoping to be able to put up a good deer fence in a few years, especially since the wild boar are starting to migrate into the area from PA as the population builds. We haven't seen them yet but they've started to get sighted next county over. None of these are as bad or as chronic as Holly's gophers, they sound like a total nightmare. Deer are by far our worst pests, orders of magnitude worse than the rest of the list which are merely nuisances. The varmints we have: Whitetail deer Nine band armadillos Raccoons Jackrabbits Cottontail bunnies 'Possums Feral hogs Various birds, even wild turkeys & pheasants (I've seen both on my land) The armadillos tunnel quite a bit, but they don't bother the plants directly. They're just trying to get to the soft-bodied insects that they feed upon. Still, they can indirectly decimate a garden. Lets not forget all my neighbors' unsupervised dogs, cats & horses... My neighbors to the south of me feed the deer, annoying the heck out of me. They have Bambi Syndrome.  I used to have 2 live traps but I gave them away when I moved overseas. I see the need to get more in the near future.  My mom used to trap the varmints & make me execute them... I didn't like to do that, but I guess I will do it again if forced to choose between my garden or the fuzzy-wuzzies. |
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Post by circumspice on Oct 11, 2012 3:42:34 GMT -5
That's so twisted I love it! One must respect a worthy competitor. Twisted fer shore! I was just getting into The End by the Doors... I found myself rooting for the trap, screw the verminous mouse!  |
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 11, 2012 9:19:58 GMT -5
On the farm the garden predators we had included deer (love sweet potato vines and swiss chard), raccoon, groundhog, chipmunk (burrow into giant pumpkins),and my own turkeys who once ate the pointed tips off of a row of Early jersey wakefield cabbage.
Back in the city, we had Greta the Glutinous Gopher last year who systematically at all of the blue tomatoes.( Hey lady, thanks for putting them in containers, it makes them easty to knock over and consume) Haven't seen her this year though. I think someone must have taken her away. But we do have Black and Gray Squirrels; billions of them it seems....And my neighbours feed them which only encourages them more. It's illegal to trap so we bought a slingshot. Some of them steer clear now but not all...
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Post by circumspice on Oct 11, 2012 13:54:09 GMT -5
On the farm we garden predators we had included deer (love sweet potato vines and swiss chard), raccoon, groundhog, chipmunk (burrow into giant pumpkins),and my own turkeys who once ate the pointed tips off of a row of Early jersey wakefield cabbage. Back in the city, we had Greta the Glutinous Gopher last year who systematically at all of the blue tomatoes.( Hey lady, thanks for putting them in containers, it makes them easty to knock over and consume) Haven't seen her this year though. I think someone must have taken her away. But we do have Black and Gray Squirrels; billions of them it seems....And my neighbours feed them which only encourages them more. It's illegal to trap so we bought a slingshot. Some of them steer clear now but not all... Thank goodness it's not illegal to trap or shoot varmints here in Texas! (except inside municipalities) I have new neighbors that I'd like to bean right between the eyes with a slingshot though! Because we're out in the 'country' they think it's cool to shoot firearms recreationally. It sounds like Armageddon on the weekends... Their ammo bill must be enormous. What bothers me is that they are on a little plot that is only a couple of acres & they don't have berms sets up for target practice. They set off fireworks EVERY weekend. They also run ATVs around the neighborhood from dawn to dusk. SMH  At this point, they don't live out here full time, they come in for the weekends & holidays. I live with the fond hope that all this will eventually become less frequent as they settle into country living... |
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Post by littleminnie on Oct 11, 2012 22:04:37 GMT -5
Bad vermin in our area - white tail deer
- meadow vole
- cottontail rabbit
- Canada geese
- crows and redwing blackbirds are about a tie
I'm hoping to be able to put up a good deer fence in a few years, especially since the wild boar are starting to migrate into the area from PA as the population builds. We haven't seen them yet but they've started to get sighted next county over. None of these are as bad or as chronic as Holly's gophers, they sound like a total nightmare. Deer are by far our worst pests, orders of magnitude worse than the rest of the list which are merely nuisances. The varmints we have: Whitetail deer Nine band armadillos Raccoons Jackrabbits Cottontail bunnies 'Possums Feral hogs Various birds, even wild turkeys & pheasants (I've seen both on my land) The armadillos tunnel quite a bit, but they don't bother the plants directly. They're just trying to get to the soft-bodied insects that they feed upon. Still, they can indirectly decimate a garden. Lets not forget all my neighbors' unsupervised dogs, cats & horses... My neighbors to the south of me feed the deer, annoying the heck out of me. They have Bambi Syndrome. I used to have 2 live traps but I gave them away when I moved overseas. I see the need to get more in the near future. My mom used to trap the varmints & make me execute them... I didn't like to do that, but I guess I will do it again if forced to choose between my garden or the fuzzy-wuzzies. Wild hogs huh? Eeek Have you seen that laser eye thing for pests? The guy next to me at market says they work well. I almost ordered some this summer but never did. I have: voles striped gophers white tailed deer once in a while a rabbit baby woodchuck one time (they can climb trees) killdeers nest in early summer and drive me crazy when I am anywhere near the nest but they do protect the area from everything else. Never had a raccoon there. I sometimes see some crazy scat and not sure what it is. I have made a bhut jolokia spray for the critters and use row covers and fishing line for the deer. The voles go about their business on my sweet and regular potatoes at will. Need cats. |
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Post by circumspice on Oct 12, 2012 3:15:59 GMT -5
Feral hogs aren't much of a problem except in droughty years when they come closer to where people live to get water and forage on whatever they can find. (usually gardens) Otherwise, they tend to avoid places where humans are. I'm not sure, but I think that we can kill feral hogs year round without a license & no limits to how many we can kill. But most of them aren't worth hunting. They're mostly a skinny & raggedy looking bunch of critters. One year, we had a bad drought & I saw lots of the oinkers along the county roads out here. I once saw one that had to be a China-Poland cross trotting along the roadway with a road-killed raccoon in its mouth. *shudder*  |
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Post by nathan125 on Oct 13, 2012 21:36:35 GMT -5
is it worth hunting for meat or is it too lean?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 14, 2012 5:11:56 GMT -5
is it worth hunting for meat or is it too lean? I'm assuming you are meaning as a survival strategy? I think it is clear from history, anthropology, and archeology that throughout human history our species has always found hunting to be worth the effort to acquire valuable protein food. Wild meat is not always lean , and there is considerable evidence that most hunting cultures would preferentially hunt different species at different times when they were most likely to be high in fat and energy. I'd say that as a survival strategy hunting is fairly low return vs raising livestock. It is also fairly low return vs trapping. If you are out in the woods (or wherever) hunting, there is only one of you and that means you aren't doing other useful work. If you set a bunch of traps they are all out there working for you while you do something else useful. If all I wanted was an abundant source of animal protein I could probably obtain it all from my pasture by setting out a large trapline ( 50 -60 traps) of common mousetraps in little boxes and just eat meadow voles. I feel pretty confident that I could trap several pounds of vole a day and not affect the population at all. And they are very stupid and easy to trap if you understand their behavior. With a few (10 or so) 110 conibear style traps I could keep myself in a pretty steady supply of cottontail rabbit as well. An even fewer number of 220 conibears would keep me supplied with opossum, groundhog, and racoon. And just one or two 330 conibears would be sufficient to catch a couple adolescent beaver out of the creek each year. So I could eat a lot of meat from just the 3 or 4 acres around my house with a set of traps with a total of less than $50 if I didn't mind eating a lot of rodent. Right now I'm not that hungry. |
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Post by circumspice on Oct 14, 2012 6:38:09 GMT -5
is it worth hunting for meat or is it too lean? They're a pretty starved bunch of critters by the time they start making a nuisance of themselves around people. Also, they can be full of parasites, which is not very appetizing. Starved animals tend to be more susceptible to parasitic infestations. If I wanted to hunt feral hogs for meat, I'd hunt them in the fall after a really good spring & summer for that year. If it was a good year for the hogs, it would have been a good year for me too. I'd do better hunting deer & wild turkey I think. Either that or raise my own hogs. |
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At this point, they don't live out here full time, they come in for the weekends & holidays. 
