For the last 2-3 weeks my pea seeds have been disappearing. Mice, I thought, after the first few holes. Next night - more missing. Filled the holes in. Next night even more - way more than I'd ever lost at once in any previous year in my life. I had to replant two whole trellises of peas and a quite a few off a third trellis. OK - I covered all the pea trenches with 1cm mesh - I do this some years when the mice are bad.
Next night - more peas gone. They had dug under the mesh. Most unusual.
Next night more peas missing. This kept going on for a while. I'd fill holes in (the mesh couldn't quite cover all the peas) and the smaller pieces of mesh weren't that heavy. Then one night I noticed larger pieces of mesh moved quite a way back from the trellis.
I put pieces of wood on top of the mesh to hold them down - that should do the trick.
Rats - I put it down to - big buggers and lots of them.
This kept on going for a while. Then it dawned on me - it can't be rats - even rats couldn't move the wire that far - it must be Quenda's (short-tailed bandicoots). I've seen a lot of quendas around recently. So I quickly found some old cupboard doors to act as low solid gates to the seed garden.
This morning - no peas eaten.
Problem solved - gourmet PEA EATING QUENDAS. Quenda's have a taste for garden peas so watch out!
PS. My war with the quendas is over and finally we have peas.....
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