Groundhogs in the Garden

How do we share our spaces with undomesticated animals?

Animals are cute, fun, even magnificent – just so long as they are where we want them. As soon as they invade our space, we consider them pests.

I heard a woman say this on NPR back in January but I didn’t catch her name and forgot which program. Still, I keep thinking about this. Why do we admire animals from a distance but consider them a problem when in “our” space?

Last year I struggled with mice. Or maybe just one mouse – can’t say for sure. But whatever it was, it had a fondness for dog biscuits. Sometimes it took a nibble of a pear or some other soft-skin fruit I might have in a basket, but the mini Milkbones in five different flavors were consumed in gusto. I stopped leaving fruit out and moved the dog biscuits to a sealable container and that was that – I never saw evidence of a mouse again.

Unwanted animals in our gardens and yards can be super annoying. Voles were a big problem when I lived in Idaho. My dogs had a penchant for… well, it’s gruesome so I won’t tell you. But one year there were so many voles that even the dogs couldn’t keep up. And of course, there are rabbits and groundhogs.

Have you heard of Chuck the groundhog?  A Delaware resident set up a camera to see what was eating his garden and the videos are pretty funny. Chuck knows the camera is there and gleefully chews on what he culls. Are his onscreen antics chutzpah or gratitude? The property owner decided it wasn’t worth it to be upset. Eventually Chuck attracted a mate and they had three pups. So the resident built them their own garden and now both groundhogs and people are happy.

Deerfield, Deer Creek, and Elkhorn are just a few neighborhoods in the Wood River Valley of Idaho, where I lived for fourteen years. These places were obviously named for the wildlife that once populated the area. But no sooner were the homes built and landscaping finished when folks started complaining. For the most part, people enjoy watching these large animals (moose are common in the valley as well). But when the animals start eating expensive plants, that’s when residents get angry.

Elk herd is a problem near Sun Valley (Idaho State Journal)

The thing is, animals were there first, before the people. People move in and expect the animals to move out. A better solution, I think, would be to live in harmony. I know that sounds naïve but hey, Ed Dumke, Sr. tried this approach for more than twenty years and it worked. Until it didn’t. You can read about the elk herd problem near Sun Valley here in an article from 2009. What to do about the elk is still an ongoing discussion.

I got to thinking about all this after reading about the Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, who was a theologian, missionary, musical prodigy, author, philosopher, and doctor. Recognizing he was born to privilege, he returned to school at age 30 (already having completed a PhD in philosophy) to become a medical doctor and, in his words, serve humanity.

His wife, Hélène, trained as a nurse at the same time and upon his graduation, they traveled to Africa and set up a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. The First World War began and the Schweitzers were sent to a French prison camp for four months. It was eight years before they were finally able to return to Africa and the jungle had taken over the hospital so Schweitzer built another one a few miles away, on a better plot of land.

The Writer’s Almanac wrote on January 14 (Schweitzer’s birthday):

The hospital was rustic, even dirty, by Western standards. Most of the work was done by the light of kerosene lamps because there was no electricity except in the operating rooms. There were no phones and no radios... Schweitzer extended his reverence to animal and insect life as well; he was a vegetarian and wouldn't even kill ants or mosquitoes. Animals were allowed to roam about freely, and a hippo once invaded the vegetable garden.

You think a groundhog or vole is bad? Consider a hippo…

Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. He used the $33,000 prize money to expand his hospital, adding a treatment center and housing for lepers.

Schweitzer's hospital in Lambaréné

Could I abstain from killing mosquitos and ants? Definitely not. But I do deeply appreciate his values and example, which continues impact lives around the world. Even here in Tulsa there is The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, which funds wellness programs for underserved Tulsans – 5,000 since its conception in 2016.

Upon my first visit to our Sicily home after receiving the keys, I discovered geckos – lots of geckos – residing within. I mention them repeatedly in a video (affectionately referring to them as critters) and received LOTS of comments telling me how beneficial they can be and encouraging me to cohabitate with them. The thing is, there weren’t just one or two – there were many. Maybe even a nest. I didn’t want to kill them. Only, I didn’t want so many inside. Outside, fantastic! But several in each room… umm, no.

The scent of peppermint is apparently a deterrent. I purchased a bunch of mint car fresheners and hung them on the walls. This seemed to have worked. Four months later, when we returned in February, it was fun to see only two geckos. One was small, without a tail, and scuttling around a window. The other one was inside. We named the inside one Bob.

I’ll never forget two stories involving the slithery kind but I won’t repeat them since this is the worst fear for many. Typically though, these occupations are the result of the animal’s natural habitat being destroyed. Like the rest of us, they’re just looking for a warm, safe place.

Maybe there will always be people who are willing to share their homes and resources and those who will not. I admit that my days of capturing and releasing spiders outside are largely over. Still, it sure would be great if we could all try to be a little more like Schweitzer.

Have you ever had an unexpected (unwanted?) animal in your home? If so, how did you deal with it? Be honest.

I dropped a 10 pound weight on a spider once. And yeah, I would probably do it again :/

You can read more about the life and work of Albert Schweitzer here: The death of a great humanitarian.