Troubling Times In The Garden

When we planted our garden two weeks ago, we did so with such high hopes. A week before we planted the veggies, we planted a grip of sunflower seeds. It was awesome, within three days we had 19 sunflower sprouts. So excited!! We prepared and planted our two raised beds with Tomatoes and Zuccini.

And then, the mysterious disappearance of our plants started happening. First it was the sunflower sprouts. All gone, in one night. I noticed it while watering and it didn't hit me that they were gone until later that night. It was like an AhHa moment. Lol! I said something to Wade and we both thought it was weird but just kinda shrugged it off, until the next morning, that is.

Wade looks at the garden every morning. He's so cute, I love him. Anyway, now not only were the sunflowers missing, ONE WHOLE TOMATO PLANT WAS MISSING!!! What the heck?

One of the things I love the most about my husband is his curiosity. His absolute need to know. I was sent out to purchase a night vision trail camera so we could find out what was doing this to our garden.

It's hilarious! We plunked down $99 bucks just find out what was eating our garden. I love it! I love that we both think the same. Wade's says we needed it so that we can find out what we're dealing with and hunt it appropriately. Just wait for it......Wade is always right. It's disgusting and sadly, I've learned to accept it. Haha

Excitedly, we set up the camera that evening and anxiously waited for the next morning. We were not let down by our new favorite toy!

Are you dying to see what we saw???

I posted this picture to Facebook and Instagram the next morning wanting to see what people thought about what the creature was. I got a few Rat comments, but my favorite one came from a fellow LEO wife that said it was a baby opossum and I should cuddle it! Hahahaha.

Look at that picture! This camera is so awesome!!!  Perfect motion sensing *and* and time/date stamp!!

So, now that we knew we were dealing with a smallish rodent, we set out four traps in the tomato section. Two live traps and two killer ones. Reset the camera and waited until the next morning.

Ready?

It was a RAT!!!! It found itself trapped in one of the live traps. He was put down in the trash can with a pitchfork of all things. Stabbed twice. Both Wade and I felt a certain sense of victory and relief, our garden was now safe.

Did you know rats are super resilient??? Neither did we. Later that evening, Wade had the urge to revisit the rat he killed in the morning, only to find it very alive and desperately trying to exit the trash can!!! Yikes!! So, he had to kill it again. This time we were sure it was dead. I know this because there was significant rat brain matter all over the bottom of the trash can. Lesson learned.

We decided that we should put the camera and live trap out just to be sure that the job was done. Well, it wasn't! Lame!! We caught another rat. We drowned him this time.

Anyway, a couple days passed, no new rats in the trap. We thought we had won the battle. Just to be sure, we put the camera out. Go ahead, look!

Rat Bastard!!! Today we went to Home Depot and got the big daddy rat traps. That's it, we've had enough!!! There better be a dead rat in one of those traps tomorrow morning!! Especially because the replacement sunflowers are about to sprout. 

Stay tuned!