Monday, May 11, 2009

The Mystery of the Nibbled Berries

I like to garden. I'm not that good at it, but I like to do it. The problem is I'm sporadic about watering...and sometimes just the process of getting the plant out of the store container and into the ground takes much longer than it should.

But that's not why I'm writing.

I have strawberries growing in my garden this year. They are beautiful! Granted, I only harvest a "crop" of about 6-10 of these beauties per day (don't laugh), but that's enough for a bowl of cereal, right?

Well, lately, I can't even get that many.

Why?

(Cue suspenseful music--"Dun, dun, dun!!!")

Some critter comes in the dark of night and nibbles my strawberries.

This makes me so mad! I don't know what it is, but it has decided that my strawberries are fantastic. Worst of all, it doesn't eat just one strawberry.

Oh, no.

It takes a little bite out of ALL the ripe strawberries, effectively ruining them all. I can't quite make myself just cut that spot off either. It could be some crazy, rabid squirrel sampling my fruits. You can't eat after a crazy, rabid squirrel, can you?It reminds me of a story that my friend Rob told me in college. His mom had sent him a giant bag of miniature Snickers bars for Halloween. Rob and his roommate, Ted, were enjoying some Snickers one afternoon when Ted noticed that his Snickers had been previously enjoyed by some sort of rodent (that may or may not have been wearing a hula skirt and lei).Rob began examining the rest of the mini-Snickers in the nearly-full 3 pound bag, only to discover that the rodent, which he not-so-affectionately deemed the "Snicker-rat," had taken a bite of each and every one of the candy bars.

Rob was so frustrated. He threw out the bag of candy, but not without shaking his fist and screaming at the top of his lungs, "Why couldn't you eat just one whole one? No! You just had to eat a bite of all of them! ARRRGGGHH!!!"

I am feeling your pain, Rob. Sorry I laughed so much. I guess this is payback.

6 delightful comments:

Lois Christensen said...

That is too funny about the snickers! And I feel your pain with the strawberries. One year SOMEONE kept taking bites out of our tomatoes. Finally hubby put up a fence and it helps! Hope you catch your strawberry taster!!!

LeAnne said...

I was reading this to Lexi and she said that you just need a scarecrow.

Billy Coffey said...

Coming from a hillbilly, there are few things in life that chicken wire cannot fix...

midnightblooms said...

Cats and dogs deter lil' garden critters exceptionally well.

Unless they are my cat, who sits on the deck and watches the squirrels frolic merrily in the backyard, yawns, and falls asleep.

The local garden center or co-op should have some good organic critter deterrents if the scarecrow and chicken wire don't work.

Rachel said...

I feel your pain. We've had our own squirrel hatred issues, except they were eating our house (See "Satan the Squirrel" in my most popular posts on my sidebar), not our strawberries. I dislike them in a major way.

Here's to rounding up the rednecks in Alabama (I know there's one or two) and getting them to hunt 'em down and kill 'em! :)

Stephanie Wetzel said...

Ah, I see that Ninja Squirrel has crossed from Georgia to Alabama.

I like the chicken wire idea, cuz I'm a hillbilly too.

But I think you could probably just scatter mini snickers around the garden.