
{"id":917,"date":"2007-09-13T11:44:11","date_gmt":"2007-09-13T19:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/09\/13\/recently-critters-suffer-too\/"},"modified":"2007-09-13T11:44:11","modified_gmt":"2007-09-13T19:44:11","slug":"recently-critters-suffer-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/09\/13\/recently-critters-suffer-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: Critters suffer too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Valarie Schwartz\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The drought has started making me droop.<\/p>\n<p>By the time you read this, maybe we will have had rain. Rain might save some withering plants, push the dirt around on our cars and settle the dust on the roads, but it comes too late for many things, and will be no more than the proverbial drop in the bucket for our reservoirs.<\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more to the drought than our gardens, trees and water supply. The critters need water as well, and if the ones you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve observed have been as creative as the ones in my neighborhood, then you too may be wondering how to cope.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been some beautiful green tomatoes on the vines this summer, but before ripening, they disappear, only to be found lying in the yard covered in little claw marks with a large hole chewed-out.<\/p>\n<p>Squirrels have even been spied in the act, snatching a tomato while running through the garden. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perplexing. There are tons of small tomatoes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d cherry, sunburst, grape \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that could be mistaken for acorns, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no evidence that the squirrels take any interest in them whatsoever; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the big, slicing tomatoes they so greedily mutilate.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like us, squirrels are picky eaters,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bob Jankowski, staff biologist at Critter Control on the Durham\/Orange border. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like everything either.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But the drought is challenging their discriminating tastes.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the white oak acorn production being killed by our Easter frost, Jankowski said that because of the drought, other oaks are dropping their acorns early and the squirrels will not have the food supply required to sustain them, reducing births and thus their population next spring. Those that do find acorns are having trouble storing them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Squirrels like to bury their food supply, but the ground\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so hard they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dig in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jankowski said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All wildlife is struggling with the drought.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Some are struggling to get into our homes, working (eating?) their way into people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attics, where they hope to find sustenance. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just being squirrels,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jankowski said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need rain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the farmers are having a terrible time. Ponds and wells are drying up as they haul water for their livestock, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using their winter hay reserves.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is very critical,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Karen McAdams, agricultural agent for the N.C. Cooperative Extension. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got farmers selling beef cattle because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough feed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being sold for less than they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worth. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much hay to be had in North Carolina. Rain would provide some grazing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rain now might even save some trees, but for others it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too late.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People think these 50- to 75-year-old trees can fend for themselves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mark Daniely, horticultural agent for N.C. Cooperative Extension. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They pretty much can, but the wilting, scorched leaves make them more vulnerable to attack by insects and diseases.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They need to make food for next year through reserves in their leaves, but many don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have what it takes. Some have already died, but others may starve to death and not leaf out next spring, Daniely said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A number are barely holding on that won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it to spring.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nRemember this year: 2007 has been the hottest and driest that many in this region have ever seen. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a record that holds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valarie Schwartz\u00c2\u00a0 The drought has started making me droop. By the time you read this, maybe we will have had rain. Rain might save some withering plants, push the dirt around on our cars and settle the dust on the roads, but it comes too late for many things, and will be no more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}