Went to the lotty today to harvest my last dozen sweetcorn before they go hard when to my dismay half of the plants were flattened and the cobs lay on the ground with their outer leaves shredded and the corn efficiently removed completely from the cobs as you or I would do after boiling with a bit of added butter . The only plants standing were ones where I had already taken the cobs.
Some discussions with a fellow allotmenteers revealed the culprit - squirrels!
It turns out within a few days virtually all the sweetcorn cobs had been lost on the whole site. That must be over 400 cobs at least as most of us grow it and its a pretty big site. This suggests not one or two squirrels but at least a dozen feeding en mass. They must have knocked the plants down when climbing up them which explains why the plants where all the cobs had been picked were still upstanding
Anyone had a similar experience?
Anyone know any good recipes for squirrel pie?
Rats eat them too !!! They ate the little scrawny ones left so I didn't mind. I know it was rats or mice because they pushed up the protective fencing i put around the bed and crawled under.
Duke
My guess is rats, we have squirrels and blamed them the first year I grew sweetcorn but caught a fecking rat stripping them the following year, myself and others put plastic bottles on for protection, but even then you can't stop the biggest corn thieving culprit none to man, the greater spotted human being or thieving barstards is I believe the latin name. >:( ;D ;D ;D
Have had a rats and mice attack on my sweetcorn, sunflower heads, courgettes, apples and berries :'(
Not sure how exposed your site is, but the damage sounds more like deer. We have had this on a number of occassions and they can eat a lot and knock many plants over. Otherwise you must have big squirrels to get through 400 Cobs!!!
Peter
our new kitten LOVES sweetcorn,sure it wasnt her?
A neighbour had all her sweet corn eaten by rats. They're all over the site, while there aren't many squirrels, those we do get are mostly on my side of the site, and there are no deer. Flattened plants does sound like something bigger though.