If you have a beautiful collection of succulents and are constantly finding them damaged, bitten or eaten, it’s probably more than just bugs and pests. Some animals can also eat your succulents or even steal them! In this post, you will find out why birds, dogs, slugs, snails, squirrels, mice and other animals eat succulents and different ways on how to stop them from eating or damaging your succulents.
The main reason birds, rodents, or dogs/cats eat succulents is because they get curious or want to bury seeds and nuts in the soil. Also, succulents store water, and birds & rodents can get nutrition and extra water by eating succulents.
How to know if birds are eating your succulents?
To find out if birds are eating your succulents, look at the soil and around the pot. Do you see any poop? Birds’ poop will be small and round. You might also see small white excrement – those are urates, urine in solidified form. Birds tend to taste succulent leaves, so you are likely to see small holes instead of big bitten chunks.
If there are bigger chunks missing or if you see chew marks, that might have been a larger animal. Larger animals that can eat succulents are voles, possums, mice, squirrels and other rodents. Even dogs and cats sometimes eat succulents, but they often stop after tasting them. If you have dogs or cats, make sure your succulents are non-toxic to them, and move your succulents out of their reach. Smaller bugs such as snails and slugs can also damage and eat succulents.
But don’t think that only birds and other animals can damage and eat away your succulents. There are small pests that can eat your succulents, or at least suck their juices out. Those include aphids, for example. Aphids are small bugs, that are often green, black or yellow in color. Spider mites come in different colors, but are very small. They also suck out plant juices. Scale bugs can also affect succulents in a negative way. Slugs and snails can damage succulents too.
Always make sure to check your succulents and their roots for any discoloration, bugs and damage. If your succulents are infested, you can use natural solutions to get rid of them. These include neem oil, horticultural mineral oils, and insecticidal soaps.
You can read all about succulent and cacti pests in this post (new tab).
How to stop birds from eating your succulents?
If birds are eating your succulents, you must be wanting to stop as soon as possible! First, if you have coconut liners on your pots, you might want to remove them. That’s because birds will get curious, gather around your succulents and peck at them. This might also make them curious to try your succulents!
However, one of the main reasons why birds or rodents try to eat succulents is because they are thirsty. Succulents store lots of water, especially plump ones. You can try to stop birds and rodents from eating succulents for water by putting a birdbath or a waterfall like this.
What is more, make sure your succulents are not infested with pests or bugs. If there are bugs on your succulents or on the soil, birds might peck at the bugs, thus damaging leaves too. Bugs can in general attract birds. Check your succulent and the soil – do you see any small red, black or green bugs, any slugs or worms?
Do you see any thin white webbing? Also check the soil – if it’s time to repot your succulent, you can also do it. Root-bound succulents will have roots circled around the rootball, and some roots might be sticking out of the container holes.
Another reason why birds might eat your succulents is that they have a nest nearby. Many birds look for places to make their nests, and sometimes it might even be in one of your pots! To stop birds from coming close to your succulents, eating them or making nests in your garden, you can scare them off. For this, you can use spikes, special bird deterrents, or scarecrows – fake owl statues like this. You can also use statues of other birds of prey. There are also devices that create owl sounds for an extra deterring effect.
What also scares birds are shiny objects that create reflections. For this purpose, you can hang or place something that preferably moves and creates reflections. You can easily find those for sale – including reflective holographic wheels, wind twisting rods. You can even try to use reflective and/or holographic ribbon or tape on top of your plant pots.
Apart from being thirsty, birds might also eat succulents because they are hungry. If you don’t have any bird feeders, you might try placing them in your garden and always keep them full. This might help divert their attention and need to eat your succulents.
How to stop birds and other animals from eating your succulents?
If your succulents are being chewed on, bitten or even missing, those might be other animals and not birds. Mice, voles, squirrels and other rodents can eat and even steal your succulents. If you don’t notice anything during the daytime, rodents might be stealing or eating your succulents at night!
While it is frustrating when animals bite and steal your succulents, they are just looking for food to eat. One of the tricks that will greatly help reduce damage by rodents and birds is covering the soil with topdressing or rocks. This way, birds or rodents won’t see the soil and might not think that it’s food. Plus, topsoil or rocks will make it much harder for them to dig into the plants.
Another simple solution to deter both birds and rodents from your garden and succulents includes a motion-activated sprinkler like this. Motion-activated sprinklers are a great way to harmlessly deter all animals away from your plants. It will sprinkle water when animals get near your plants 24/7. It’s also helpful if you have cats or dogs at home. Night-time succulent eating is a big problem for many succulent keepers too.
If nothing is working and birds or rodents keep coming into your garden to eat or even steal succulents, you might cover them at night. To do this, you can use a thin net curtain or a mesh and weigh them down with bricks or rocks. You can also use cages made of wire, to put over your succulents. Make sure that a cover has holes for air exchange and allows light to go through.
What you can also do to deter animals from your succulents is to sprinkle some cayenne pepper around your plant (it might not work for birds though). Cayenne pepper is a natural repellent that will work mainly against rodents. Depending on which critters you have in your garden, you might also use repellents such as peppermint oil, dish soap and garlic cloves.
If you have a collection of succulents and possibly other plants that get damaged by birds and rodents, you can get a mini-greenhouse to protect your plants. A mini-greenhouse often has shelves for plants, a roof and a cover to protect them from animals as well as rain. There are different ones to choose from, from cheaper portable ones to bigger 2-3 tier ones like this.
Another tip would be to bring your plants indoors if possible, for a few weeks. Animals will see they are not there and might stop coming back to eat or get them.
Why do animals eat cacti and succulents?
Most animals where succulents and cacti are native, eat them because they store water. Animals eating succulents include gophers, jackrabbits, woodrats, javenilas and many more. There are also stories of people stranded in deserts, when they would eat succulents not to die of thirst.
Most animals pick softer succulents or softer parts of cacti to eat, because spines will hurt them. While not all succulents are edible, some are very nutritious and provide you with water. Those are for example, Opuntia cacti and Barrel cacti.
However, camels and alpacas can even eat the spiniest cacti to quench their thirst. Camels have a special rough lining inside their mouth, consisting of papillae. It helps them to protect their mouth from spiny thorns and move food into their stomach.
Final thoughts
If squirrels, birds or other rodents are attacking your succulents during the day or night, you will need to try different methods to deter them. Often it’s water & food why birds attack and peck at your succulents, while for squirrels – to hide their nuts and seeds.
Unfortunately, most animals are observant and might find out about your tactics and ignore them. Scarecrows might be effective for some time, but if they don’t move or make sounds, critters might find out that they are fake. Try moving scarecrows and adding sounds effects if possible.
If your problem is with squirrels, don’t put out any nuts or seeds for them. Squirrels and even mice will start gathering in your garden, and this will only worsen the situation. Often, creating a physical barrier will stop birds and other animals from getting close to your plants to eat them.
For birds, try placing a birdbath and possibly a feeder to try solving the problem. Make sure to check for pests regularly, as they can also attack and cause damage to your succulents.
Thank you for reading this post! To discover more informative posts on succulents, please see this page.