Do deer eat cabbage?
 

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

Did you take a dental impression? Sorry...

Deer will eat pretty much anything green, tomatoes, peppers, the plants
mostly.

Human urine is pretty effective as a shield, at least around these NE GA
Piedmont parts.

John!

George wrote:
Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

There is a Mark Twain Story on point except that it is about elephants
rather than deer.

Bill

I would have thought that you would have seen deer tracks if they were
around. Rabbits eat cabbage, and in my case, took it clear to the ground,
except you said you had it fenced. I planted garlic between each cabbage
plant after that and I have had no more problem with them.

I have had grasshoppers and green worms, and some yellow/orange bugs with
spotted backs eating on mine this year, but they start eating anywhere they
find convenient. I use a vegetable spray I found at Wal - Mart that is safe
up to within 48 hours of harvesting.

I caught a turtle eating the end off my cantaloupe and small watermelons, so
that could be your zucchini problem. I made myself mad, because I was the
one who put him inside the fenced area because I thought he would eat bugs.
I gently evicted him the same day I saw what he was doing.

Dwayne

"George" wrote in message
...
Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

In article ,
George wrote:

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

All members of the deer family *love* cabbage. We have to put
up 10' high fences and keep barking dogs out in the yard to keep
moose (the largest member of the deer family) out of our cabbage
patch.

I lost my second and third plantings of broccoli and Brussells
Sprouts to a 3-day old moose calf earlier this summer. (Lost the
first planting to voles -- the Alaskan version of field mice.)

Jan
Zone 3, 59N, 151W

--
The way to a man's heart is between the fourth and the fifth rib.

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 01:13:35 -0800, Jan Flora
wrote:

In article ,
George wrote:

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

All members of the deer family *love* cabbage. We have to put
up 10' high fences and keep barking dogs out in the yard to keep
moose (the largest member of the deer family) out of our cabbage
patch.

I lost my second and third plantings of broccoli and Brussells
Sprouts to a 3-day old moose calf earlier this summer. (Lost the
first planting to voles -- the Alaskan version of field mice.)

Jan
Zone 3, 59N, 151W

Moose? I guess there are worse things than woodchucks.

G

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:29:47 -0400, George
wrote:

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

Hi George!, First let me say deer will eat cabbage and just about
anything you grow in the garden.

Might I ask you a couple questions, and maybe we can solve this
riddle.

First are they messy eaters, by that I mean do they leave small pieces
of cabbage all around the plant, or do they eat every thing they bit
off?

Secondly, are there no tracks of any kind?

Also, have you had a dry spell, followed by rain, just before this
happened.
Have a good day=JustMe

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:24:27 -0500, JustMe wrote:

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:29:47 -0400, George
wrote:

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

Hi George!, First let me say deer will eat cabbage and just about
anything you grow in the garden.

Might I ask you a couple questions, and maybe we can solve this
riddle.

First are they messy eaters, by that I mean do they leave small pieces
of cabbage all around the plant, or do they eat every thing they bit
off?

Basically, no. There was one scrap near one cabbage, but otherwise it
was very clean.

Secondly, are there no tracks of any kind?

Unclear. The ground between the rows is pretty compacted by now, so I
doubt anything would show up there. Early on, there were some strange
indentations in the row, near where the first cabbage was eaten. As
best I recall, they were maybe 1/2" (?), and about that far across.
They were pretty close together, maybe 3-4" apart. But, it wasn't
clear that they were even tracks - they had no toe pattern, at least
that I could see.

Short answer: they didn't look like deer tracks. And, I haven't found
any 'sign' inside the garden.


Also, have you had a dry spell, followed by rain, just before this
happened.

No rain at all. But, it has been very dry. And we do irrigate, with
a soaker hose.

G

Do bears go in the woods?

Bob

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 21:56:49 -0400, George
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:24:27 -0500, JustMe wrote:

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:29:47 -0400, George
wrote:

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to
from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are
unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places
where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can
get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and
it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near
(but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks,
George

Hi George!, First let me say deer will eat cabbage and just about
anything you grow in the garden.

Might I ask you a couple questions, and maybe we can solve this
riddle.

First are they messy eaters, by that I mean do they leave small pieces
of cabbage all around the plant, or do they eat every thing they bit
off?

Basically, no. There was one scrap near one cabbage, but otherwise it
was very clean.

Secondly, are there no tracks of any kind?

Unclear. The ground between the rows is pretty compacted by now, so I
doubt anything would show up there. Early on, there were some strange
indentations in the row, near where the first cabbage was eaten. As
best I recall, they were maybe 1/2" (?), and about that far across.
They were pretty close together, maybe 3-4" apart. But, it wasn't
clear that they were even tracks - they had no toe pattern, at least
that I could see.

Short answer: they didn't look like deer tracks. And, I haven't found
any 'sign' inside the garden.


Also, have you had a dry spell, followed by rain, just before this
happened.

No rain at all. But, it has been very dry. And we do irrigate, with
a soaker hose.

G
George, your response completely disrupted my theory, the only guess I
would have is deer( sorry).

What the heck!, I'll tell you what happened to me anyway. I had two
rows of cabbage, It had been very dry for several weeks, and then it
rained, the second night after the rain something was devastating my
cabbage crop, it looked as though something had just taken a big bit
out of the top of the head. That night well after dark, I took my
flashlight and shotgun, and went to the garden. Sure enough, more
cabbage had been eaten. As I cautiously walked down the row, at my
feet, just in front of me I heard a "rrriiippp" and the cabbage just
burst open on the top. Because of the drought the outside of the
cabbage had became tough and not very flexible. Since the rain, the
inside of the cabbage was growing very rapidly.

I know this is not your problem, but it actually happened , and I
thought you might find it humorous. Have a good day--JustMe.

JustMe wrote:

What the heck!, I'll tell you what happened to me anyway. I had two
rows of cabbage, It had been very dry for several weeks, and then it
rained, the second night after the rain something was devastating my
cabbage crop, it looked as though something had just taken a big bit
out of the top of the head. That night well after dark, I took my
flashlight and shotgun, and went to the garden. Sure enough, more
cabbage had been eaten. As I cautiously walked down the row, at my
feet, just in front of me I heard a "rrriiippp" and the cabbage just
burst open on the top. Because of the drought the outside of the
cabbage had became tough and not very flexible. Since the rain, the
inside of the cabbage was growing very rapidly.

Whew. Good thing you stayed clear. Those are actually
triffids and you this close to becoming a pod person when
it opened. Shotguns don't work against triffids. Or
maybe watch out for little aliens crawling out of nearby
deer. ;^)