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Gardeners World blog

Grow & eat

Squirrel damage to Brussels sprouts

Posted by: Pippa Greenwood, 31 January 2008, 12.04PM

Squirrel I've had a great few years growing an extraordinary range of vegetable crops for my series 'Veg With Pippa' in Gardeners' World Magazine.

The results of my vegetable trials have often been fascinating, and on more than one occasion I've been converted to liking vegetables I'd previously dismissed. For example, I now love beetroot and have discovered I like many oriental salad leaf varieties, few of which I had grown until trialling them.

But there are some crops I still struggle to enjoy. Top of my list is Brussels sprouts. I don't normally grow them because no-one really eats them in our house. But I grew a few varieties of them last year to test in the magazine.

I nearly didn't get a crop of them at all; the trial was almost annihilated by squirrels. I went to great lengths to build a butterfly-proof shelter around them to prevent attack from the caterpillars of cabbage white butterfly. Fortunately, this was a great success. But towards the end of the season the squirrels moved in. They munched their way through the green netting to get to the sprouts. Squirrel numbers seem to have risen greatly here in the last year, and I'm starting have rather un-vegetarian thoughts about them, despite their cute faces and fluffy tails.

Interestingly they ate every single one of the purple and red varieties I had grown, but were less keen on the more traditional, green varieties. Maybe I should have included their preferences in my analysis of the trial.

Comments

  • Antonia

    31 January 2008, 07.41PM

    Hee hee, I wonder if they just like the colour or if there are different properties in the purple and red ones that they can smell or taste.

    I loved your veg tests, Pippa, in fact I grew garlic for the first time last year on your recommendations, plus I'm going to be giving broad beans a go this year too after having read your article. Are you going to be doing more this year? Thanks.

  • christo

    03 June 2008, 09.18AM

    Good Morning All,having dug over the back garden to make three separate beds for the first time, I am now enjoying the first results.But I have noticed a lot of the small black ants climbing all over the broad beans, my question is will the ants damage the flowers ,or are the ants looking for insect type food.regards chris

  • Kate, gardenersworld.com - reply to Chris

    03 June 2008, 11.03AM

    Hi Chris, this is perfectly normal. On closer inspection, you'll find that the tips of your broad bean plants are covered with blackfly. Blackfly is a type of aphid, and sucks the sap from the plants, but is relatively harmless in small numbers. In fact, they are beneficial to the garden, as they attract ladybirds and lacewings, who feed off them and help maintain the delicate balance of pest and predator in the garden.

    Anyway, back to the ants. Blackfly secrete a sugary substance, called honeydew, which the ants love. The ants 'farm' the blackfly, and push them to the tips of the plant (where growth is newest and lushest, which leads to the production of the sweetest honeydew). Then they drink it.

    I wouldn't worry too much, unless you see loads of them on the tips of the plants. But, to reduce blackfly numbers you can pinch the tips out (just nip the tops off the plants), but it's important to leave a few blackfly there to attract ladybirds and lacewings.Good luck, Kate

  • Jenny

    11 July 2008, 04.57PM

    I was surprised to find two squirrels under the strawberry netting last week. I thought I had to protect the fruit from birds not squirrels!

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