So right when I think I'm getting a handle on things, a new problem showed up...
I think I know what happened to those three (3) shoots....
To explain... I'm not completely heartless. I actually purchased two different spray products to try to dissuade the squirrels from chewing on the bamboo. One was advertised as a bonafide squirrel repellent 100 percent guaranteed to repel squirrels...
https://spray-n-growgardening.com/an...rfj1oobkcvc253
That ABSOLUTELY did not work!
So I tried another product that was supposed to repel ALL animals..
https://spray-n-growgardening.com/an...rfj1oobkcvc253
That seemed to be a bit more effective, but within a few days of application, it seemed to rapidly lose it's effectiveness. And later on I actually read some reviews where someone claimed that raccoons seemed to LOVE the stuff. So my guess is those above three shoots that were knocked over were done do by a raccoon. I actually found quite a few shoots where it was obvious that something had been digging around the base of the shoots, which I have never seen before. So my guess is that the "repellents" actually attracted this attention from one or more raccoons, and possibly a possum. So I really can't blame the raccoon for this. And I sure can't bring myself to shoot a raccoon.
So anyway, I didn't see any more squirrels this morning, but yesterday afternoon I did shoot a squirrel that had jumped from a pine tree to the top of a shoot that is around 10 ft. tall, and started to chew on the tip of the shoot. Luckily I was right there, when he jumped on the shoot, so he went to the promised land before inflicting any damage. I also saw another squirrel close by a little bit later, but that one ducked behind a pine tree and I never saw him again. So there is at least one more squirrel I need to remove.
I don't know what got into the squirrels this year. I have had minor problems with them in the past, but generally it was just one squirrel. If I could shoot that one, then the problem was over with for the season. This year, they have just gone berserk and have done extensive damage to the new shoots coming up.
Quite honestly, every year I start feeling bad about shooting the squirrels. I don't allow them to come near the house as they are quite destructive. They are "tree rats" in every sense of the word. And if they had never bothered the bamboo, I would be a WHOLE lot more tolerant of them even then. But all it takes is a season like this one to see the wholesale destruction they are inflicting on my bamboo, and it's "game on, suckers!" I lose absolutely all sense of regret killing them. And I can say with no hesitation whatsoever, when I get to actually shoot one caught with his pay in the cookie jar chewing on one of my bamboo shoots, killing the little SOB is quite satisfying.