Which animal is a problem in your garden ?

[Gerry Webster]

My God, why, in the face of all that lot, have I ever moaned about a small dog dig or the occasional possum in my garden. I obviously have it very easy with not even slugs or snails to worry about. A few free range chooks used to scratch around plants but I didn't mind as they kept the place free of slaters, earwigs and other crawlies.

For those with a cat problem, I highly recommend you make or obtain a shanghai and practise until perfect. Works a treat. (I wouldn't say this if Arthur were not safely in Iran )

Lesley - translate please. What is a "shanghai"?

[Lesley Cox]

Gerry, I would have thought that anyone who had once been a small boy, would know what a shanghai was, but perhaps you have a different name for it. Basically it is a slingshot; a Y-shaped piece of wood with a thick rubber band tied to the two upper ends and hand-held by the downward end. A stone or peach stone or whatever is placed on the rubber which is pulled back by the other hand, then aimed and released. Hit amidships, a cat thinks twice before coming back but is not damaged except for a sore spot. I haven't used one for a long time but years ago I was the terror of the local feline population.

[JPB]

Chicken are the worst!! They keep a record of anything you do (like planting or sowing), and once you're away, they come and destroy everything. They are no good other than fried on my plate...

[Gerry Webster]

Gerry, I would have thought that anyone who had once been a small boy, would know what a shanghai was, but perhaps you have a different name for it. Basically it is a slingshot; a Y-shaped piece of wood with a thick rubber band tied to the two upper ends and hand-held by the downward end. A stone or peach stone or whatever is placed on the rubber which is pulled back by the other hand, then aimed and released. Hit amidships, a cat thinks twice before coming back but is not damaged except for a sore spot. I haven't used one for a long time but years ago I was the terror of the local feline population.

Ah! - a catapult. Probably illegal now.

[Ragged Robin]

Chicken are the worst!! They keep a record of anything you do (like planting or sowing), and once you're away, they come and destroy everything. They are no good other than fried on my plate...

Hope Gail isn't looking 

[Gail]

Chicken are the worst!! They keep a record of anything you do (like planting or sowing), and once you're away, they come and destroy everything. They are no good other than fried on my plate...

Hope Gail isn't looking 

Actually I was looking out my window watching my 3 Sultan chickens scratching around among the newly emerged delphinium shoots! They can undoubtedly be a pest (although not as bad as the rabbits, voles, swift moth larvae....) but they make me laugh so will never end up on a plate.

[Lesley Cox]

Catapult. That's it. I knew there was another name but couldn't think of it. It could well be illegal used against the polulace but I don't think it's ever been banned here to discourage cats or possums.

I quite like a few chooks (chickens) about. They scratch around one's feet in a friendly sort of way and do eat every slater (woodlouse) and earwig, as well as providing eggs of course. Seems to me to be a fair exchange. I mean they give more than they take.

[Eric Locke]

I think MICE have jumped up to NO 1 on my list after recent attacks on pots of orchid bulbs in the greenhouse.     Plenty of traps loaded and awaiting action. 

Eric

[David Lyttle]

Here is my list:

1. possums
2. possums
3-7. possums
These destructive little pests are here in plague proportions. They will clean out an entire vegetable garden in a couple of nights and damage shrubs and trees, breaking branches and eating all the fruit before it has had a chance to ripen.
8 hens My wife keep letting the hens out as she thinks they should be allowed to roam. They scratch holes all through the garden, turn over pots and randomise labels.
9 Perendale ewes This particular breed poke through fences and come in off the road. They tend not to stay in a paddock if you corral them. The last one that visited half scalped itself  getting through a cyclone netting fence. On another occasion one did a spectacular somersault through another fence. It did not recover in sufficient time to avoid capture so ended up going to the sale yards.
10 rabbits We have had the odd bunny digging holes.
Blackbirds are a minor nuisance eating the berry fruit if it is not covered and the cat's indiscretions are confined to occasionally digging up part of a row of newly planted seeds.

[Lesley Cox]

One less bunny in my area. Just near home last evening as I returned from a meeting, I hit one with the back wheel of my car. It was sitting on the side of the road on the passenger side and if it had sat still I would have passed it safely but just at the wrong moment it darted across and got caught by the driver's side back wheel. I didn't know if I'd killed it until I sent Roger back to look. There it was, dead so will be dog dinner tonight.

[Eric Locke]

One less bunny in my area. Just near home last evening as I returned from a meeting, I hit one with the back wheel of my car. It was sitting on the side of the road on the passenger side and if it had sat still I would have passed it safely but just at the wrong moment it darted across and got caught by the driver's side back wheel. I didn't know if I'd killed it until I sent Roger back to look. There it was, dead so will be dog dinner tonight.

Excellent driving Lesley .

Eric

[alpines]

How about this little fellow?

[Gail]

How about this little fellow?

A very handsome chap - what is he?

[angie]

How about this little fellow?

No thanks worms really scare me, cant imagine a snake looking at me when I am weeding the garden
Angie

[PDJ]

How about this little fellow?

Now thats much better than cats!