My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Controlling pests of bamboo

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stevelau1911
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My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by stevelau1911 »

About a week ago, I lost a 1 inch phyllostachys dulcis shoot, and then today I lost another one, perhaps due to squirrels. They don't even seem to eat it, but I guess it is fun for them to murder my shoots. My tallest dulcis shoots are near 5ft tall already but I don't think they are safe until they are fully grown and hardened off.

I know I haven't applied animal repellant spray to this one yet, but it really sucks to lose good shoots. I guess I can leave it the way it is, and hope that another shoot rises from the base since I already guided this whip shoot into a nursery pot.
Image

So far none of my other bamboos have any signs of animal damage, but one of my 2 blackberry plants got completely destroyed. it wasn't eaten either, but it appears that some kind of animal likes to sabatoge my plants, and I'm guessing that it is probably the squirrels.
benboo
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by benboo »

They do the same here. They destroy plants and don't eat them. I hate squirrels sometimes.
jpluddite
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by jpluddite »

Squirrels did the same thing to a couple of my shoots yesterday. Last year they broke my aurea to the ground before they were 6 inches high, so I thought I was safe this year since the shoots are already leafing. Squirrels are evil.

jp
pokenei
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by pokenei »

Ooo... I wouldn't want that happening to my bamboo. My neighborhood are squirrel free for now because it is kinda new (about 10 years old) so there're no big trees for squirrels to hide. We do have rabbits however, and I just chased one off my yard last week. It freaked me out momentarily because it was standing next to my newly planted bamboo, trying to gather dried grasses (to build its nest). I figure it hadn't experienced bamboo and I want to make sure it won't get a taste of bamboo. I chased it like a predator and made sure it understood that it is not welcomed.

However, cats and birds are welcomed because they keep mice and grubs under control.
pokenei
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by pokenei »

Steve, why don't you trap the culprit and relocate it far far away. That's what I did to a menacing rabbit once.
stevelau1911
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by stevelau1911 »

I could, but I would rather simply spray them all because that seems to be working. I just forgot about spraying that one because it was only up for a couple days. Most if not all my bamboo shoots should be out of the reach of short critters in another week.

The dulcis already has shoots getting up around 6ft, and it looks like this year, they will have a lot of internodes without branches, unlike the previous years where branches started almost from the ground level up. I guess that means they should become well taller than last years which only got up to 12ft, with a 10ft avg height.
moriphen
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Re: My second phyllostachys dulcis shoot gets destroyed :(

Post by moriphen »

Feral cats and planting catnip, or anything in the kiwi family to attract them and you will be lucky to have songbirds in your yard.
M
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