Allotments 4 All

My peas were just coming up.  Very pleased with them, but now something has eaten all the tops off.  Not even eaten them, just knocked them off.

Will sow some more under plastic bottles.

maybe pigeons digeroo?

Or mice if they were near the surface... can pull up the sprout to eat the pea..  >:( they are doing it to my "washingtonia" palms at the moment... three have had rather terminal neckache as a result...

Mice are supposed to be able to get through a hole made by a biro - they came into my house once  through a hole that used to let in an aerial cable so I believe it.

The chicken wire is still an excellent idea even if it only stops rats. As a backup I also use mouse&rat bait - bags  jammed into 30cm x4cm tubes (waste pipe) to keep other animals off. Adding a bit of peanut butter to the mix will make them more attractive than peas.

It still helps to use paraffin on the peas (without the red lead which is a very bad idea) to set up a sort of carrot and stick dynamic, white spirit works too but might not be as good - just what I had to hand.

Basically my approach is throw everything you have at the problem.

Cheers.

They won't get through a biro hole, but it doesn't need to be that much bigger. The entrances to my beehives are slots about 1/4 inch high (I forget the exact measurement) with nails 9mm apart. No mouse can get though, and if I put the nails any closer, they start knocking pollen off the bees' legs.