Help! What's eating my garden?

[hoodat]

catjac1975 . ..I lived in Davis for over 30 years ... I have never seen one there as they have not ever hometeaded that area or for hundreds of miles around. However, several types of groundsquirels, gophers, moles, voles, jack rabbits,etc. are thick as theives.

Woodchucks would be a rare sight in California south of San Francisco. Usually they are found in the North East of the Rockies.

 

[logefarm]

Thanks everyone! Your responses are awesome!
OK so I've tried to upload some photos of the half eaten broccoli plants, as well as one of the planter boxes so you can get a perspective.
I haven't seen any bugs in the boxes other than ants, earthworms, and teeny white flies which live mostly on the pumpkin and bean plants. I haven't seen any evidence of black specks/insect poop.

We don't have woodchucks in Davis, but there are an abundance of squirrels, rats and we had a tiny bunny living in our yard for a little while...until our dog scared the living daylights out of it and my husband chopped down the overgrown lavender bush it was living under- we haven't seen it since (3 months).

The broccoli plants seem to get eaten a leaf or two at a time, mostly at night but sometimes during the morning. We've gone out at all hours to try and peek, no luck.

I'll try Sluggo again and spinosad. What is BT?

Thanks again for the advice!!

 

[Lavender2]

Welcome, @logefarm ! Always glad to have new members join the group!

I'm not real familiar with your area or pests so I won't venture a guess. Hopefully one of the suggestions can help you figure out the culprit and deal with them.... and gardening will be fun again!

ETA - Beautiful raised bed system. Love it!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Around here I'd say rabbit or rat, but could easily be some type of ground squirrel or maybe a gopher from Bob's list. Moles wouldn't do that, voles maybe but I thought they mostly ate tubers and roots underground.

 

[so lucky]

In my limited experience, it looks like rabbits, to me. Insects would leave holes or skeletonize the leaf. A bird may tear the leaf half off, or leave part of it on the ground. A bird may also bite the whole thing off, but then so could a rabbit.

 

[bobm]

Where about in Davis do you live in... in town, in the outskirts, or in the country with or open areas under the fence, no fencing ? Seeing your photos of the missing plant parts ... jackrabbit should be included as the culprit if you live on the outskirts/ countryside.

 

[catjac1975]

catjac1975 . ..I lived in Davis for over 30 years ... I have never seen one there as they have not ever hometeaded that area or for hundreds of miles around. However, several types of groundsquirels, gophers, moles, voles, jack rabbits,etc. are thick as theives.

I think wood chuck and gopher are the sam animal different regional name.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The term gopher covers a lot of different animals. Most of them are pretty small. Marshall has had a lot of experience with some of these.

Woodchucks and groundhogs are the same thing just different names, probably regional. They are a lot bigger than what people normally think of as gophers. I don't consider them the same thing but some people might.

All of them are pests and could be doing that damage.

 

[Smart Red]

I think wood chuck and gopher are the sam animal different regional name.

Wood chuck/ground hog is an animal about the size of a medium cat. Gopher is more easily mixed up with a chipmunk than a wood chuck. I tell them -- gophers + chipmunks -- apart by their tail. A chipmunk runs with its tail straight up, while gophers run with their tail straight out behind them. A good-sized squirrel will fall between wood chucks and chipmunks in size.

The damage looks like either a large caterpillar -- should find large droppings easily -- or one of the mammals we've recently mentioned (with rabbit thrown into the questionable pile).

 

[hoodat]

That damage looks very familiar. I'm almost certain what you have is a cutworm or army worm. They bury themselves just under the soil in daytime and come out at night to feed. They are especially fond of any plant in the cole (cabbage) family such as broccoli, cauliflower etc. You might get lucky if you rake around the plant. 'They'll be barely under the soil. BT used to get them every time but since Monsanto is using it in both corn and cotton there are many of them who have become resistant to it now.