Even underground, gophers must know what time of day or night it is. Otherwise, they would not know when to “lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans” (Micah 2:1). Why do they bother being so sneaky with their exploits? They know that there is not much I can do to stop them. Why are they so creative with their damage? Is it just to flaunt their ability to get away with it? Gophers enjoy this too much.
1. Only the Heavenly bamboo to the right in the background is standing upright to show off its red new foliage. The other four (with two in the background) are suspiciously flopped forward.
2. It was as if they were just set on the surface, with no roots to hold them down. Removing their carcasses was like picking up litter. They flopped forward because of wind a few hours prior.
3. This is all that remained of the roots. It is amazing that the foliage was as fresh as it was. This much damage did not happen just recently. Foliage should have started to desiccate already.
4. The worst of the four demonstrates how thorough the damage was. It was like a mean prank. It seemed as if someone pulled them up, whittled the roots away, and plugged them back in.
5. Yarrow gets partially eaten by gophers too, but somehow survives. Supposedly, only the thick tap roots get eaten, while lateral roots are ignored. Gophers do not seem to be so discerning.
6. Daffodil is how I should end this mostly unpleasant six. No one eats them. Many are still blooming. I probably should have posted pictures of flowers, instead of what gophers are killing.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Beautiful daffs. We don’t get gophers over here but we do get moles. Luckily I don’t have any.
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Moles should just eat grub. They damage lawns, but I don’t mind if they take out the grubs.
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Oh, that’s a shame. Here, our common name for them is woodchucks. They’re just about impossible to garden around–and they’re one of my most common lecture questions. Short of planting everything with a wire cage around its roots (which is no guarantee that they won’t eat the aerial parts of course), you have woodchucks until you sell the property and move.
Karla
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If woodchucks are what I think they are, they are a different species that gets bigger and eats more!
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We don’t seem to have many underground pests, just the above ground armadillos, rabbits and deer.
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with rabbits, you have plenty to contend with. I don’t know what armadillos do.
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Armadillos are like a little plow going through the beds and grass while looking for grubs.
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They look scary.
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Just found a dead one on the street in front of our house.
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Oh, how unfortunate. I sometimes trap gopher. they make me so angry. However, I can’t help but feel badly for them, and their friends and families.
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And the vultures didn’t do their jobs.
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Quite glad we don’t have gophers but you’ve got some lovely daffodils.
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Thank you.
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That’s one critter we don’t have here and I’m glad.
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You should be. They are quite destructive.
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Thank God we don’t have gophers in the UK! That really is a devilish prank. It’s enough to break your heart seeing them sitting there but they are actually not rooted down any more. Bad gophers.
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That is how gophers work though. They have eaten roots of camellias while I am waiting for the fat floral buds to open.
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Little devils!
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You might find this amusing: https://tonytomeo.com/2018/06/10/halston-junior/
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Brilliant! Go Halston!
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Sometimes . . . I sort of wonder where he is at now.
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I thought all the weird destructive animals were in Florida! The aftermath is heartbreaking.
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There are many more people in California than there are in Florida, . . . and a few other destructive animals too.
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We always called them ground hogs. I think they eat things from underneath, the way voles do. Regardless how they do it, it’s alarmingly destructive. And who knew Nandina were so tasty!!!
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I believe that groundhogs are bigger and more destructive.
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I just looked the two up and they are indeed different animals in different families of classification. So many burrowing rodents eating roots!!!
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You might find this, and the article it links to, to be amusing. https://tonytomeo.com/2018/06/10/halston-junior/
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Groundhogs are smarter than they look. And they don’t look very smart. Of course they won’t eat Heavenly Bamboo. It’s poisonous!
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How can gophers eat it?!
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By nibbling the roots of your plants.
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Well, as you can see, I am aware of that technique; but how do gophers survive it?
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Every-time some one mentions Gophers I think of Bill Murray trying to get rid of them on the Golf Course.
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They are sort of like that, and also like ‘Tremors’.
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Oh, I see!! All those plants were Heavenly Bamboo and the gophers left one alone? I thought the other three were other kinds of bushes. Maybe by the time they got through ravaging the first three they died and never got to the fourth one.
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Oh! That would be sad! I hope he or she just relocated. Maybe he or she is out in the forest eating roots of poison oak or other vegetation that I do not want.
There are actually four other Heavenly bamboo that got eaten. The two in the background look like one specimen. They are not as red as the survivor because their foliage flopped forward, exposing more of the undersides of the foliage.
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Rabbits are bad enough, I’m grateful not to have gophers.
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I can not imagine anything more destructive than gophers, but I am told that rabbits are worse. I can not imagine something big like moose!
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So the other day I noticed that something had chewed away a bunch of the wood around an old maple stump. Could that be a gopher? Please say no.
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No.
Are there beavers there?
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Not around here.
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There must be other scary animals that can do that sort of damage. I do not know who lives in your region; but I doubt that gophers would pointlessly chew a dead stump above ground.
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