Critter Ate My CPs, Pooped on Deck Beside Them

[TENroaches]

It was super windy this morning, and my mom woke me up telling me I was having plant problems with all the wind, that some of them weren't even in their pots. So I went down and was assessing the situation and saw some of the pitchers looked shredded. I said "I think these were eaten! This can't be from wind!" Then I turned and saw two piles of poop about 3' from my CPs on the deck.

It's approaching winter dormancy time here in the Pittsburgh area, so I'm not as concerned about the eaten greenery as I am about them being uprooted. I tried to scoop a lot of the straight peat from the deck and put it back in the planter around the VFTs. The other pitchers there, I don't know what the potting media are, because those are the containers I bought them in. I don't want to put my plants into too much shock this time of year. But I need to read up on what I should put these guys in if I want to fill the pots back up properly.

I don't like this one bit.

You can see pictures here.

 

[rattler]

looks to me like a declaration of war.....arm yourself......

 

[BrassLeaves]

looks to me like a declaration of war.....arm yourself......

to the teeth...

 

[jimscott]

That's gotta be the ultimate insult!

 

[GregNY]

Not sure on what kinda of consequences you may feel from the uprooting, but if you need media 50/50 of sphagnum and perlite would be the mix

 

[dashman]

Those look like deer pellets. Do you have deer in your area?

 

[Nickrober]

I don't know what kind of poop that is, but I'd recommend a Big Cat to protect your plants.

EDIT: If it's a deer, you'll need bigger than a Big Cat...

 

[GregNY]

Don't who those pellets belong to, but I betcha it is deer, we're talking about Pennsylvania here...

 

[TENroaches]

Not sure on what kinda of consequences you may feel from the uprooting, but if you need media 50/50 of sphagnum and perlite would be the mix

For the pitchers? I made some straight peat soggy and put in the planter, since that's what I had in it. I know those Red Bug pitchers had something lighter, since water would go STRAIGHT through it when top-watering.

---------- Post added at 10:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:10 AM ----------

Those look like deer pellets. Do you have deer in your area?

That's what I thought! Then my mom said I was nuts because she doesn't think deer could or would climb the stairs to come up onto the deck.

Could you imagine if I'd seen the deer doing this and opened the door and scared it? I bet it would have jumped off the deck and fallen about 12'. Or gotten confused and jump into the house.

 

[SirKristoff]

That there be Deer poop.....
Thankfully i have no problem with them eating my CPs up here **knocks on wood**
Deer can clear a fence no problem, so im sure a few steps is nothing to them

 

[rattler]

doubt its deer unless its had one heck of a screwed up diet....never seen deer crap that looked like that....no clue what it is but im betting it aint native to Montana cause ive never seen a pile that looked like that....

 

[Baylorguy]

It's almost like that animal has something against you. That is messed up!

 

[ellisonk001]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but I 'm sure they will bounce back.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but that looks more like coon droppings than deer to me and it seems more likely that a coon would be on the deck than a deer....

 

[GrowinOld]

Racoons!

Yes,
I hate to disagree with others (except ellisonk001...you just beat me to it!),
but I know we have a lot of racoons around here,
and had the EXACT same situation happen to me around july/august.
I don't know what they eat (berries or seeds or what) but their poop is "pellet'y"
like a deer, however it is combined with a dark gooey (yuck) ,
VERY different than deer poop is!

In this area, I encounter both deer and racoons.... along with skunk, chipmunks,
squirrels and possum! With the amout of racoons in our area, and their destructive habits,
I would say its racoons as I have seen their droppings in our yard often....
(Deer poop usually only in the front yard, except for the occasional droppings when they bother to hop over our fence. And yes, their poop is similar, but definitely different!
The racoon poop looks like seeds or something and not just the dry pellets of deer poop.)

Be warned!!!! They WILL return & do it again!
Even if they don't eat the plants every time, they can't seem
to resist digging up the plants. It is possible they are rooting thru things looking for bugs/grubs, as they do that to peoples lawns here regularly, and ruin their lawn doing it! Although they actually do a service by it, by eating the japanese beetle grubs
in the root area of the lawn.... but they dig the grass up to do it!

I agree with the potting mixtures already suggested, and if you need to get the mixture to
drain water better than straight peat, perlite, or coarse sand will help if you have either.
(Even finely broken up styrofoam will work! An often overlooked substance that will in fact
work to make the soil drain better. Maybe not the best thing, but it works.)

A final note, if you plan to put the plants back out there, covering them with chicken wire,
or netting of some kind may help. I lost some nice VFT's (one big mouth, a B52) and a few
of my pitcher plants and a couple of 'dews. Some things recovered, some didn't.
Just do your best, and the ones not damaged should recover fine.

I also fixed things back up and hoped.... but a few days later they came back and did it again!
Consider moving them, or putting something around them to make them difficult to get to or
"unseen". They kept getting to mine, and I finally moved them to a place where they can't
find them now!

Good luck!
Paul

 

[TENroaches]

This stinks, because I like critters, and I like my plants. Can't they just agree to like to eat bugs? Ugh. I'd keep them inside, but I want them to enter dormancy. I wonder if a gate, like the type to keep kids from falling down stairs or going up stairs, would work at the top of the stairs to the deck. Squirrels used to come up and nibble on a trap or two, and drink from the pie plate, but they pretty much stopped coming up when I stopped putting peanuts out for them.

So you're saying a raccoon probably liked eating the bugs out of my pitchers. Let the raccoon catch his own dang bugs!

 

[dashman]

Ah, yes. Racoon makes a heck of a lot more sense. I didn't know what Racoon poop looks like. It did resemble deer though which I am familar with having hunted for them in my childhood/teen years.

Guess I am not the poop connoisseur I thought I was... which is a good thing I think.

 

[TENroaches]

I don't know what I'm going to do. If I could put something up to keep them from getting up the stairs... I read that a waterproof radio set to a talk station can scare 'em away, but a shower radio's battery would die pretty quick out there. Maybe if I put a strobe light in the window to the deck, it'd keep them away! I forget where I put my strobe light, though. I'll hide in the bushes and when I see it come around, I'll wrestle it until one of us dies.

 

[swords]

Have you seen those plant troughs that are made to hang on deck railings? You could put your CP pots in those, they could still be outside but they'd be up off the ground out of the line of sight of critters.

I'm sure you're kidding but don't tangle with a raccoon! If it's not scared off or it gets cornered they can be mean little buggers. We were outside at break once when we heard this horrible noise from across the street. So we ran over to this lady's yard to see what was going on and her dog had stuck it's head into a raccoons nest and it tore that poor dog's head to bits and the lady nearly got attacked trying to get the dog away.

 

[CN]

Yep That is Raccoon Poo Fo Sho

Daren

 

[Drew]

hmmmm my conclusion DEER ARE EVIL

(i grew tomatos and cuecumbers and the deer 8 them )

---------- Post added at 04:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:25 PM ----------

and if its a raccoon im sure there evil 2