The Mountain Beaver Saga

Since it's the weekend and some gardening is going to happen, I thought I'd do an update on my ongoing Mountain Beaver battle.  Here's a brief summary:  a Mountain Beaver (named Butt Head) lives in the bushes on the edge of our yard.  Every year he waits until our new raspberry shoots have grown long and lush, then he chops them off with his sharp little teeth and carries them off to his evil lair.  We had a total harvest of about 10 berries last year. It makes me so mad I could spit (as my Grandma always said).  After several years of trying an electric fence solution, I finally gave up on it.  I just never felt confident that it was working, either because my kids had turned it off when they played in the yard or because the power supply would fail.  I was constantly preoccupied with checking to see if it was functioning properly.  I was living a life of paranoia and obsession... a shell of a woman.

So this year I just put up a chicken wire fence.  I like it because I can actually see that it's working.  It may not look great, but it's totally serving its purpose.  I just used lengths of rebar every two or three feet, which I wove through the wire and hammered into the ground.  I tacked down the bottom edge of the chicken wire with tree stakes to make sure BH couldn't push his way under.  True story...on the day that I went to Home Depot to buy the tree stakes my husband was out in the yard and saw BH walk around the edge of the fence and try to nose his way under it.  What a little s#@t!  

Happily, he was not successful.  See how nicely everything's growing in!  I'm feeling very hopeful.

The Saga continues...Part 4

Caught in the Act!

A follow-up in our mountain beaver saga...

The kids and I were outside today hanging out in the yard (not very quietly, I might add) when we heard a rustling in the bushes behind the raspberries. I looked down into the hedge and saw a tiny little clawed hand clutching a laurel branch and the beady-eyed creature attached to it. A real, live mountain beaver sighting! The kids were thrilled.

I ran to fetch the camera and didn't have to wait long for the chance to snap a few shots...the Mountain Beaver (who I call Butt Head) seems to have no fear of people...or regard for their ownership of prized fruit plants. He can't get at the raspberries now because of my elaborate electric fence shield.

Latest update: Summer 2011

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The Mountain Beaver is my enemy.

I have a long-standing war with a Mountain Beaver that has taken up residence in the bushes near my yard. His scientific name is Aplodontia rufa, but let's just call him "Butt Head." You may have never heard of a Mountain Beaver. They aren't actually beavers and they don't live anywhere near the mountains. They rival Skruben in their elusiveness. They have opposable thumbs. They eat my raspberry bushes, and therefore, are my sworn enemy.

Two summers ago I started noticing the new shoots of my raspberry bushes (the next year's crop bearing stalks) were being cut off near the base. After first secretly blaming several different people for the damage, I spied a small fury creature trotting along the base of my raspberry bushes...clutching a bouquet of new shoots in his hand. I instantly knew who the culprit was after having heard tales of local mountain beavers. I consulted with several different garden experts here in Seattle and eventually settled on putting up an electric fence to keep BH out. That worked well, and I settled into a state of egotistical and reckless complacency.

This spring I took down the electric fence, thinking that BH had moved on to greener pastures. There was no sign of him at all through the spring and early summer. My raspberries grew long, lush new shoots and were looking very fine, if I do say so myself. Last Thursday, in the dead of night, he came back. He took half of them the first night and most of the rest over the next few days after I thought I had re-installed the electric fence properly. Idea for a new blog post: how to correctly install an electric fence.

Mountain Beaver: 2, Anne: 0

Follow up (with actual photos):  Caught in the Act!

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