In some cases, this is okay. For example, if I saw a bunny in the yard nibbling on, say, some alyssum, I'd be completely fine with that. Bunnies are wonderful and rarely show up in my yard now that we're in Minneapolis (a stark contrast to our yard in St. Paul, where Dozer and Zoe frequently napped under the tree near our back steps), plus I've got a ton of alyssum.
Ditto the goldfinches (although I thought they were orioles at the time) that visited the dwarf sunflowers last year. The flowers ended up looking pretty scraggly, but part of my goal was to lure more birds to the yard, so I was perfectly comfortable with the result.
On the other hand, one of the stupid fat squirrels was eating a bunch of George's berries (which are surprisingly yummy, tasting like a combination between a pear and a blueberry) the other day. This is not okay. The squirrels have given me plenty of reason to hate them, and although George is doing really well this year, his branches are still pretty small and were clearly taxed by trying to hold the weight of a big honkin' squirrel.
So what about this guy?
Kinda cute, but doing some noticeable damage to my African blue basil. The issue is that I don't know who he is.
Is he a pre-butterfly? If so, I'm pretty okay with him hanging around. After all, my garden is intended to be, in part, a butterfly garden. That means not only choosing plants to attract mature butterflies to their blooms, but also limiting the use of pesticides (even the organic ones) and providing food sources for butterflies in their larval state (caterpillars). So it seems disingenuous to discourage this little guy if he's going to become a Red Admiral or something.
On the other hand, what if he's "just" a bug, eating my plants?
I don't have the answer, so for now, I've picked this little fella off the basil plant and put him onto the goutweed out front. He's welcome to stay, but I've only got the one African blue basil plant so I'm a little protective.
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