"cloud dreamer" wrote in message
...
Steve Latham wrote:
Hello,

I live in southeastern Virginia. I've got your basic house vegetable
garden with Tomatoes and Peppers. I've also planted a couple of Eggplant
and some Pattypan Squash (acorn squash to some). The Pattypan has fairly
large leaves with little spikes on them, as do the stems. But I came out
yesterday and something had eaten most of the leaves of one plant, and
some off the other. Some of the leaves were down to the stem (which is
cylindrical and hollow). The Pattypans themselves were not eaten (though
something has chewed on a couple of them a bit).

Also, oddly enough, I had some sunflower seeds that I noticed sprouting,
so I went ahead and put them in the ground. They've been growing well
(the largest is only about 8 inches tall though). But today I just went
out and something has eaten the leaves off them as well.

I'm sure we have rabbits in this area, though I've never actually seen
any in my neighborhood. I live on a wooded marsh and I do have Raccoons
(I've seen one trying to get into my bird seed container). Rabbits I
would think would eat the vegetables!!! I would think the marks on the
Pattypan came from rabbits. But do they eat the leaves? I mean, I know
rabbits will eat grass and lettuce when you feed it to them, but those
spiky leaves off the Pattypan?

If not rabbits, what other animals might do this? I wouldn't expect a
Raccoon to eat leaves - or even a Fox, especially when there's some other
things like half-ripe banana peppers and green tomatoes around, not to
mention the close to ripe Pattypan itself. I've had things get eaten in
the past - but always the fruits of the plant (these by the way are not
bugs I imagine - they've been sprayed with insecticide, and that's a lot
of leaves for one night!), not the leaves.

Any thoughts,
TIA
Steve


If it's just the leaves, it could be slugs (or snails). They can devour an
awful lot in one night and I'm not sure how effective insecticides will be
with them. Have you mulched around the plants? You can go out after dark
with a flashlight and you might find the buggers crawling up the plant for
the dinner buffet. Or lay out a tray of beer near the plants...if you find
slugs in there after a day or a two or so....then that's the culprit.

Well. don't want to waste the beer until absolutely necessary! I'll try the
flashlight manouver first. I have not mulched though. I did last year and
didn't have this problem, so that is a possibility. What about diatomaceous
earth if it is slugs?

I wasn't crazy about mulching if I didn't have to. Moisture retention is not
too bad, and I've been able to stay on top of weeds. I think last year I had
some cutworms or something that ate the stems of the smaller pepper plants
and killed them, so I went out and bought some aromatic cedar mulch and that
seemed to keep most things away (including the ants that were around). I
just wasn't crazy about it being mixed in the soil when I turned it over at
the end of the season - though this year it appears to have pretty well been
assimilated. Since I've had those green monsters that eat the tomato leaves
(and fruit) and the little black bugs that make lace out of the eggplant
leaves, I thought I'd go back to the Bug-B-Gone.

Thanks - more advice always welcome - I'm still at the stick 'em in the
ground and see if they grow stage, so If I can pick up things little by
little I still feel like I'm getting better at it!!!!

Best,
Steve