hello all! I have a squirrel hanging around my garden and a couple of days ago, I noticed a bite mark in one of my baby watermelon’s! question is... Do you think this will still be safe to eat once it’s grown? Is there a risk of bacteria/virus/etc infecting the whole fruit? The bite mark is only through the outer rind. I’m inclined to just cut off the small bitten part and still eat it... although, avoiding hospitalization would be nice!
Personally...I would eat it . If it ripens fine and seems to otherwise develop okay. I always wash my munched on stuff well, and cut far away from the injured part. But honestly if I discarded every squash,carrot, strawberry or beet that someone else (fur bearing or creepy Crawley )had sampled I would lose a lot. I mean ...sharing is one thing but giving all of that hard work away is another.
I would just cut around the bite mark and eat it if ripe ! Not much you can catch from squirrels ! I would look more for a terrapin rather than squirrel ! I have never known a squirrel eating watermelon ,,but there is always a first time ! Didn`t eat much so I guess they didn`t like it !!
I had to google what a terrapin is! LOL. I haven’t seen any of those around where I live. I do have 2 sneaky squirrels in my yard and they steal and eat my tomatoes, I’ve watched them take one, jump up onto a bench near my garden and eat half of it and then leave the other half. so that is why I’m thinking one of them took a bite of the baby watermelon. I’m not sure what else would eat watermelon. Doesn’t look like it’s from a bird... they usually stick to eating my figs! Maybe I’ll do some investigating on what different animal bite marks look like!
The squirrels will munch on my tree peony’s and spray with peppermint hort oil works great. In rainy season I use plantskyyd, even keeps the deer and ground critters away.
Lucky to attract more squirrels to help with your squirreling away lots of bird food for the birds too… . It’s generally during the winters the squirrels become Hungary enough to anything .
I saw a cat follow a squirrel up onto the roof today. They climb up the lattice . The squirrels get in the attic and can make a mess, chew on wires and leave waste . So I will be calling a animal control to set a trap to get them out.
