Damn Porcupine!

[Tarlo Farm]

Well! So the critter eating the legs of my wicker furniture has been a porky!!! I'd decided to leave Clay out at night when the weather is nice to keep the deer at bay. Last night at midnight, my Men of Mayham pup started barking and barking and barking while right on the front patio. I ran out with a flashlight and there was the porky, cowering in the corner of a patio garden, quills at the ready. While putting Clay inside and quickly checking him for quills (none, GOOD DOG!!), porky trundled off into the night.
Put now I've been researching how to trap and move him. I have a live-trap, and it seems salted apples area good bait.

[PaulaO]

Good luck. Porcupines are so cute, but so deadly. Don't pet him!

[KathyK]

Moutaineer is our resident porcupine expert.

[Chisamba]

This year it had been a deer . It has eaten things never before eaten.

Grrr

[Moutaineer]

Well, yeah. Porcupines will do that. (They also have a particular fondness for hosepipes. Make sure yours are put out of reach.

Trapping and relocating any wild animal into strange territory is inhumane and generally illegal. If you can't find a way to keep your furniture away from it, you'd best shoot it and be done.

[Tarlo Farm]

you'd best shoot it and be done.

Damn. I was afraid of that. Only thing I have is a shotgun. It would be messy.

[Moutaineer]

Try wrapping the legs of your furniture in tinfoil.

[Tarlo Farm]

He/she is nibbling plants too. Lower leaves on sunflowers, nips here and there.

[Moutaineer]

That's rural living for you. I no longer plant anything. I regard the wildlife as my yard decoration.

[Suzon]

That's rural living for you. I no longer plant anything. I regard the wildlife as my yard decoration.

[Tarlo Farm]

Yeah, until it comes covered with potentially deadly sharp objects.

[Koolkat]

I regard the wildlife as my yard decoration.

LIKE!

[Woost2]

I forgot you have a MoM dog.

[Chisamba]

You can get to make your yard unwelcome, clang garbage lids together, have motion lights. Train them to avoid you.

[Flight]

I want to see the porcupine!

[Minz]

With the drought we have had an explosion of grubs in the lawn. The porcupines have churned it up like a rototiller so what little bit of grass that might have been alive is now definitely dead and the lawn looks like a ploughed field. And then the deer have eaten every geranium out of the planters so we don't have a single one left. It has just been a bizarre animal year so far. My friend has been trapping teenage skunks from under her porch. She thought there were 4, but she is on number 12 and there are still more. I wondered if they were making it back somehow and she keeps trapping the same ones.

[Larbear]

That's rural living for you. I no longer plant anything. I regard the wildlife as my yard decoration.

Like!!

[Tarlo Farm]

I forgot you have a MoM dog.

Every dog I've ever had has been "the best". But he really IS!! Everyone who crosses his path thinks the same. Really an amazing mutt. I have had no fewer than five people think he's a Nova Scotian Duck Tolling Dog. One guy worked for a woman from Chicago who raised them!

[Saddlebum]

Tarlo, if you have a live trap, try dry dog food, the cheap stuff from the $ store. I kept a porky over winter one year bc I thought I had hit it with a snowplow blade. I didn't, but the thing had mange really really really bad, ugh. Cured it and found out how much it liked dog food. The thing was nearly starved tho.

Leave a trail of food about 2' outside the trap leading into the trap.

GOOD LUCK!

[Saddlebum]

Oh, btw, the porky is most likely eating your furniture for the salt. Try putting a salt block or bowl of salt next to your furniture and see what happens!

I personally don't believe the inhumaneness of trapping and relocating is a worse solution than taking it's life.

I have trapped and relocated two very young opossums who were living in my garage (unbeknownest to me) for a few months and have no regrets. I let them out near a small lake in an area heavily wooded. Animals can and do adjust. Have you ever adopted a dog or cat from a rescue organization or humane society? I have and they were extremely grateful.

Best,

[Astral]

I forgot you have a MoM dog.

As an aside, maybe we should have a spinoff thread of MoM updates - I remember the original story, and sometimes wonder how all of them are doing!

[Tarlo Farm]

Will start one! ^^^

Thanks for the tip on the dog food. So far, my MoM dog may have put the fear of god in Porky and he/she has not returned. If she/he does return and I trap it, I'll relocate to some lovely area. It appears to be a youngster, certainly not as large as others I've seen.

OTOH, a wonderful, dignified, environmentally conscience elderly woman I used to know would think nothing of pulling out her custom-made 22 and shoot two animals: Shrike and Porcupines. Between the tree-killing aspect of porkies, and the fact one of her favorite dogs lost an eye to a porky, she spared no mercy. The callousness of the Shrike drove her to distraction.