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Old 03-12-2018, 05:28 PM   #1
WebSlave
Bamboo shoots - 2018

I think the shoots for the Phyllostachys vivax bamboo is coming up early this year. Connie first spotted a few a couple of days ago when she was running down compost to dump among the big bamboo grove. Now I'm seeing at least a dozen poking out of the ground already. I had planned on putting the hunting blind out before the shoots came up in order to try to wipe out as many squirrels in the area as I could before they could get a chance to destroy those new shoots. But so much for that! I thought I had another month to go before we would be seeing new shoots.

I guess I'll be putting out the blind this week, even though I haven't seen any squirrel damage yet. Maybe they weren't expecting the shoots this early neither. But I seriously doubt they won't be showing up sooner or later. Last year I had to kill around 15 (confirmed kills) of them, and there were still more chewing up the bamboo when I had to take down the blind because Connie and I were going away for a bit. In previous years it was only one or two problem squirrels, and once I killed them the problem stopped. But last year was REALLY bad for the bamboo, as the squirrel population seemed to have exploded over the Winter months.

I had to get a new squirrel rifle as my Remington 597 in 17HMR exploded on me. Come to find out that Remington has had a recall out on the gun for years, but I never heard of it. In any event, I sent the gun back to them, and while waiting for them to send me a bolt action (ugh) Marlin as a replacement, I bought a semi-auto Savage model A17 in the meantime. Sighted in the gun yesterday after mounting a scope on it, and I think it will do the job nicely.

Honestly, I don't really like killing squirrels, but the declared war when they started tearing up my bamboo. You just don't mess with my bamboo. If they would just leave it alone, they would be welcome to stay, but they made that choice, and there have been consequences to pay.

Anyway, took some pics of the new shoots coming up. Still trying to get the hang of getting the most out of that 15mm to 30mm lens I got recently.













 
Old 03-14-2018, 05:17 PM   #2
WebSlave
Got more bamboo shoots coming up in this particular grove, but so far not seeing any damage from squirrels. Maybe the big hawk we've had hanging around here lately has chased the squirrels off.

I'm going to be putting out the hunting blind tomorrow anyway, just in case, however.

If the squirrels start in on those bamboo shoots, I want to be able to get out there on guard duty against them as quickly as I can.
 
Old 03-21-2018, 01:16 PM   #3
WebSlave
The rain we got the other day seems to be really beneficial to the bamboo shoots. Getting lots of them coming up. Connie and I walked down to our largest grove to check out the temporary pond down there and saw that some of the bamboo shoots were really getting some size on them.










Fortunately I'm not seeing any squirrel damage in that grove. At least not yet. The squirrels REALLY tore it up last year, even with me sending 15 of them on their way to the hereafter. I do have the hunting blind set up in there, just in case they do come back. I have another really small grove of the same bamboo in another area that has already had two shoots destroyed by squirrels. So I think it's just a matter of time before I start seeing squirrel damages in the big grove.
 
Old 03-21-2018, 07:50 PM   #4
WebSlave
Well, I took another walk about to check for squirrel damage in the big bamboo grove early this evening, and I found some damage, but not absolutely sure it's from a squirrel.....







Usually squirrels will chew right through the shoot, and this just looks completely different. Of course, it could be squirrel damage, just from a squirrel with a different idea about how to destroy bamboo shoots. This took place just a couple of hours in the afternoon between the time I took my walk around in the early afternoon, and then again in early evening.

Might have to start spending some time in the hunter's blind, just in case.

 
Old 03-28-2018, 11:20 AM   #5
WebSlave
Well, looks like the "ground" rats are joining the tree rats in attacking my bamboo shoots this year.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRuyfQ1bbYE

Not seeing any other damage other than those two shoots mentioned above, however, so nowhere near the damage we got last year from the squirrels. The ground rats will have to be dealt with some other way other than shooting them, since they seem to be mostly nocturnal, and unfortunately I don't have a night vision scope for my rifle.

Shame I've been having to relocate the gray rat snakes I find in the bird feeders, otherwise they would be helping out with the rodents.
 

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