Garden Critters

Catch and Release

                                           Day 1 - A young possum is trapped in our garden

Lovely sweet cantaloupe; 25 total came to vine.  Juicy tomatoes; big red Better Boys and Italian Heirloom as well as sweet little cherry tomatoes both golden and red ones are abundant under a protective sunscreen.  Wonderful sweet corn; about a dozen ears came on, enough for a few good meals.  Unfortunately, Keith and I weren't the only ones keeping watch for the perfect ripe-time! 

I checked the melons everyday for signs of ripeness and any disturbance.  On July 12th, I noticed a few teeth marks on a soon-to-ripen melon just barely exposing the orange fruit beneath the still green rind.  I knew for sure that I wasn't the only one checking for ripeness.  Luckily, the animal trap we ordered online just arrived.  Perfect timing. 

We knew from last year that trapping worked well.  We had many of our melons and tomatoes hit before we rented a trap from the Missouri Department of Conservation traveling to the Springfield office 70 miles away.  We caught two critters - an old possum and a young groundhog before we returned the trap to get our $50 deposit back.  Then the drought came and pretty much finished off the remaining melons and tomatoes until fall.

So this year we were ready!  As of this writing, we have caught and released nine critters in ten days.  Of the 25 melons, only six remain unripened on the vine with the critters taking only two before we got them.  We have kept up with the tomatoes picking all before the critters get to them.  They did get most of the corn as they did not wait until it all ripened and stripped the stalks in two nights.  We did get one mess to eat ourselves but they were not quite as ready as we liked.  There's plenty available locally so we are having as much fresh corn as we want anyway.

So here are the photos taken each morning of what was trapped the night before.  We share some of our melons as bait using one half each night.  We still have more melons than we can eat 2-3 times a day for both of us.  The critters get the smallest and over-ripe ones.  We will continue as long as we have melons for bait as we still would like to have a fall garden with more corn as well as the  tomatoes to protect.  I believe the critters are better off released on public land on the lake five miles away.  At least they will have all the water they want and wildlife that that is attracted to water to keep them happy. They will be in a better place should we have a drought like last year next month. So far, at least two of the trapped critters were injured from fighting.  The critter population is likely too high in our neighborhood.  I am a conservationist.

                          Day 2 - An older possum is trapped and getting ready for a ride to the lake

Day 3 - Rocky Raccoon is caught and happily released.  He was injured with bites on his neck and the hide slightly rubbed off one arm as he likely tried to reach for food through the wired cage.

Day 4 - Another possum

Day 5 - Rocky II is Staying Alive!  This one was successful in pulling in all kinds of vegetation for a nice soft bed.  He was sleeping when I woke him up that morning.

                                                    Day 6 - This was a mean possum!

Day 7 - Rocky III was throwing a hissy-fit barking and growling at Keith

Day 8 - Poor little injured possum with it's tail and one leg all chewed up. He was able to run off well enough when released on the lake though.

Day 9 - No critters were trapped and the door remained opened when I checked early in the morning. I also checked the melons and none were hit. An hour or so later, Keith went out to get some peppers and found the trap door closed with no critter inside. Also saw that one melon was partially eaten. So one got away!

                                         

Day 10 - A very mean and smelly possum that crapped all the way to the truck leaving a mess to clean up.

Days 11 & 12 -  Empty trap

Day 13 - This cute little raccoon probably never saw people before and was so scared. 

We set the trap for a couple more days and didn't get anything so we have quit for now as the garden produce has mostly been processed by now with only a few melons remaining.  I think we have won the race!