Topic: Phantom string-cutter

[Squash64]

One of our plot holders told me that he and three other people have had string, which was being used to mark sections of their plots, cut. He said it was a clean cut, didn't look as though it had been chewed.

He said his string was on the ground, not sure where the others were.

I think it sounds quite bizarre that someone would go around cutting string and then leaving it, but who knows, there are some strange people around.  ::)

Does anyone have any idea what could be doing it?

[shirlton]

Probably foxes Betty. I have heard of it before

[Kleftiwallah]

If it is important to you, buy some cable used for electric fences, the wire threaded through should flummox 'em for a while.     Cheers,     Tony.

[Mr Smith]

Foxes had the same problem, :)

[pumkinlover]

Any string on our plots last for a couple of days, I reckon it is foxes or badger! :)

[vicki.m]

I had that, I put it down to the kids from the youth club next door. We do have allotment foxes though so maybe not the youth club this time. ;)

[Deb P]

Definitely foxes, I remember the first time I marked out new raised beds with string and left it overnight....how the other plot holders laughed! Foxes had had a right good time when I came back they next day. They nick your gardening gloves too if you are silly enough to leave them out...... ::) ;D

[Squash64]

Thanks for the replies.

I have seen a fox on the site so it could possibly be the answer.  I'll tell the chap when I see him. 

[saddad]

They are also quite fond of chewing unattended mobile phones... I'm told...  :-X

[pumkinlover]

Haven't done my chickens a power of good either :'( :'( :'(

[woodybrown]

We had same problem with string , this solves that little mystery we also had a spate of golf balls on the plot , we th  ought someone was sodding about on the rec next to us , turns out that was foxes they pick them up from the pitch n putt thinking they were eggs  :o ::)

[pumkinlover]

We get buried eggs as well (shop ones with a lion or stamp mark)!

[Squash64]

We get buried eggs as well (shop ones with a lion or stamp mark)!

That's interesting Anne. Not long ago one of our Sikh plotholders found an egg with a lion mark  on his plot.  He thought it had been put there deliberately by another plotholder as part of a black magic ritual.  He was really upset about it and told me that the only way he could get rid of it was to throw it into running water so he took it to a nearby river and chucked it in.  I wish I'd thought about a fox doing it, but he was so convinced it was a person that I probably wouldn't have been able to convince him.

[pumkinlover]

Oh Betty please try again, tell him it happens all the time. Someone told us it could be mink but it is definatly wild life of some type, I will e-mail Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and ask them. I'd hate to think someone thought it was malicous when it happens so often on allotments.

[Squash64]

Yes, I will tell him when I see him.  He was so sure it was done maliciously because of the stamp on the egg.  It didn't occur to me that it could have been a fox.

[pumkinlover]

What we have never worked out is which shops ell the eggs to the foxes ;) ;) ;)

[brownowl23]

Foxes also nick mobile phones if you are stupid enough to drop them on plot, they have a field day with the mobile phone fabric covers, but they discrard the phone.
My task was find where the fox had dropped it, can only thank my lucky stars i put a reflective protective cover on it, so it glinted in the sun.

[pumkinlover]

Copy of e-mail from Derbyshire wildlife trust

Hi Anne: I’m 99% sure the culprit will be a fox. They bury eggs regularly.
Foxes leave both a strong musty smell and also droppings usually placed on prominent places such as the top of a molehill, on a stone etc.
Have you seen or smelled these signs?
Cheers,

[artichoke]

I used to think children were cutting my string and why would they bother? Eventually I realised that the string slackened and tightened according to rain or sun, and simply snapped under the strain.

I don't really believe that foxes did it, because every string stretched along my plots went. They would have to gallop about in a very determined way to bite off all of them.