Community Corner
ENCORE: Is There an Anti-Tomato Hex for Socially Deviant Chipmunks? Editor's Notebook
The tomatoes are ripening. If you're lucky – and not everyone is – you'll get a taste of them before the socially deviant chipmunks take a bite.
This Labor Day Post was written by Beth Dalbey
"I caved," I wrote in in a May 2012 column. "I bought the chipmunks a tomato plant the other day.
"I swore off playing at urban farmer after my last few tomato crops were devoured by an exploding chipmunk population. They’re heartless creatures. They wait until the fruit is at its ripe, succulent best, then get up early in the morning and take a big bite. Big Boys, Better Boys, Beefsteaks or Romas – they’re not choosy.
"Still, I couldn’t resist the well-established tomato plant at the garden center. I hope the – er, buggers – don’t take this as a sign I want to be pals and will stop calling them bad names. Neither should they let up their guard because I don’t step out the back door and find them in the sights of a .22.
"My friend does that.
"If I’d been through what she’s been through, animal-lover that I am, I might, too.
"Her chipmunks have been as officially diagnosed – or as officially as diagnoses ever get with chipmunks – as social deviants."
Read the full column on West Des Moines Patch >>>
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