Our guest on the next episode of the Root Simple Podcast will be Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild. We’re interviewing her tomorrow (Thursday) so if you have a question about coyotes, moles, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, rats or any of the other creatures that visit our urban backyards, leave a comment.
Last year I lost my entire crop of persimmons to squirrels. This year it’s raccoons or opossums. I tried covering the fruit to no avail. Is there anything I can do to protect my fruit from being eaten? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Gophers. Ugh. I’ve been trying to get them out of my yard before planting fruit trees as I’m afraid they’ll destroy the roots. But to no avail. Any suggestions? I’ve seriously considered hiring an exterminator but even they make no guarantees they can get rid of the gophers so I’m hesitant to spend the money.
Moles. Similar to the gopher question, they go after fruit and plant roots and make a general mess of things, and make it dangerous in the pasture for alpacas and such.
Don’t have a question, just wanted to let you know how excited I am that you are having her as a guest! I just finished The Urban Bestiary, and I LOVE Crow Planet. Very excited for this episode!!
Any recommendations for keeping hawks from visiting our Culver City backyard? The chickens do not like these looming visitors perching on the power poles and occasionally hanging out even closer.
Our neighborhood has an abundance of rabbits that inhabit many front yards. We also have coyotes, and once or twice a year we can hear the yipping of their pups. The question is about being safe when jogging the neighborhood in the pre-dawn morning. Any suggestions on what to do if we see coyotes?
I love coyotes and have seen one in my backyard several times this year. According to The Coyote Project, if I put pet food out in my yard, I am endangering coyotes by attracting them closer to areas of human habitation, where they are likely to be considered a nuisance. They urge pet owners NEVER to feed pets outside. However, I have several feral cats living in my yard who depend on me for food. My solution has been to feed them only during the day and to put the cat food dishes on my patio, very close to the house. But are there better ways to balance one’s reverence for coyotes with one’s love of feral cats?
From an interview I heard with the author on NPR, she is more taken with co-habitating with the creatures than keeping them at bay. It is a charming perspective but a tough one to align with try to maintain a productive urban garden.
We’ve had a serious problem here on our small farm with squirrels raiding the fruit trees. Something eating the grapes before we can get to them. My brother bought some Animal Be Gone thinking that would help, he bought the type for rabbits and squirrels. It didn’t help. We have 4 buck rabbits running lose all the time here (we have about 18 in cages), I tested the Animal Be Gone on the lose running rabbits. I don’t think they even noticed it. Any ideas on how to control the squirrels.