I love iris too. I'm sorry you're having such trouble. I've never had anything try to eat mine. Do you know what is doing the damage? We have whitetail deer here and I've found a product called Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellant works well to deter "munchers." It smells bad when first applied but once dry it's not noticeable. I think your idea of putting the plastic cage trays over them is a good one! I will do that with newly planted iris now, to keep my hens from scratching them out. Thanks for sharing.

LysmachiaMoon said: I love iris too. I'm sorry you're having such trouble. I've never had anything try to eat mine. Do you know what is doing the damage? We have whitetail deer here and I've found a product called Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellant works well to deter "munchers." It smells bad when first applied but once dry it's not noticeable. I think your idea of putting the plastic cage trays over them is a good one! I will do that with newly planted iris now, to keep my hens from scratching them out. Thanks for sharing.

It is not from deer. Deers only eat the top leaves, my front yard is not gated so occasionally in late winter early spring deers do eat the leaves. I think it might be voles or some kind of small rodents. Each bites are tiny. I don't know how to deal with voles as putting traps seems too technical for me.