Javelinas are for the most part herbivores; they love a variety of native plants (including the roots), even cacti. Usually they leave our landscape plants alone. However, since much of their habitat got destroyed through a development on the last larger empty piece of land left in the subdivision, they now also chew on our landscape plants, such as the succulents. They especially forge through the plants around our walled area after a heavy rain and try to get a bite out of various cacti since the needles are softened from the water. At our house, a javelina just ate a whole golden barrel cactus which had already had a diameter of about 7 inches. I wonder what his snout looked like afterward…but he did not leave much behind, implying he really must have enjoyed the meal! Occasionally, javelinas also chew on tree bark. They like the bark of our crape myrtle trees and the one of our purple leaf plum tree. They literally leave teeth marks behind.

If javelinas are known to roam through your area and you would still like to put out a pot with flowering plants, make sure you choose a variety that the javelinas will leave alone. I know from experience that they like petunias and geraniums; nonetheless, at our house they never touched periwinkles. Good luck!