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What eats onion sets?

LeggiLeggi Posts: 489
Last autumn I planted about 150 red and white onions that I'd started off in modules indoors at my allotment. After a few weeks I realised the birds were amusing themselves by pulling them up, so we fleeced them for winter. When we took the fleece off there were only about 10 onions left, looking decidedly munched rather than nibbled, am I right in concluding that they've probably been had by rodents? I don't think it's anything slimier because of the time of year. Shallots and garlic planted in the same bed are doing perfectly fine.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Yep, sounds like mice, rats or blummin squirrels, Leggi. image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • clogherheadclogherhead Posts: 506

    Hi , I had always been led to believe that we Humans were the only animal that eat onions

    puzzled

    Derek

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    I think rodents will eat almost anything if they are hungry enough, Derek, and it's been a looong Winter!

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • clogherheadclogherhead Posts: 506

    BOG  True True

    Derekimage

  • LeggiLeggi Posts: 489
    Cheers, thought as much. I'm pretty sure it's rats as I've also seen them running about on abandoned plots. image



    We've decided to start off some more but unless we put some poison down they'll have to be netted to within an inch of their lives.
  • Here in the Furness Peninsula. South Cumbria, we have occasional visits by deer, usually when it snows.  This Winter, most of my onion sets have been pulled out and eaten by them.  As well as seeing them at it, their footprints in the onion bed have added to the weight of evidence.  When I had an allotment in Carlisle (North Cumbria), we were plagued by rabbits.  They'd eat everything but rhubarb, onions and potatoes. Slugs and snails have ruined wallflowers over Winter as well. We do have rodents, but lots of semi-feral cats keep them down.

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