I'm having a really strange problem in the garden this year. In the last few weeks I've had lily stems chewed at the base to the point that they fall over. Now something is tearing up iris foliage too. What could be doing this?

Teeth marks and the rooted side of the rhizome chewed

Wow, you have me stumped. Rabbits usually don't bother my iris this time of the year, some years in the middle of winter they will chew on the leaves above the snow. Looks to be a pretty big bite mark. I don't know if squirls would eat them? Or gophers? Good luck finding the culpret.

You, me and a lot of other people are stumped. The only other things I can offer is that there are no tunnels so no evidence of those type rodents, but do have raccoons, possums and squirrels. Pics of lily stem damage and weird hourglass-shaped urine damage in the lawn can be seen here The thread "Bark Stripped??" in Lilies forum

Well, one thing you have to keep in mind is that you might have more then one critter doing the dammage. Those seem to be large urine spots. Maybe a stray dog is marking territory. If the grass was dead, I'd say it might be a mole, but you say it's just burned, and not dead. Have you tried contacting any of the university or county extention people? They might be able to help. Here we have a really good radio show called "Garden Talk" on Friday around noon. They often have good resource people that you can call in, or e-mail questions. It's on Wisconsin Public Radio, and you can get the information about programs on line. Good luck! Tom

I have chewed foliage also but not the rhizome damage. We do have a lot of critters in our yard; whatever it is, it is nowhere near as damaging as borers!

Yeah, that's another little nasty that I have to deal with from time to time.

Did you find any poop? If you didn't find poop, it's probably not a rabbit, as they just sit there and poop. I bet it's a woodchuck. And then you probably won't find poop. If you do find poop, post a picture, my husband is a poop identifier. (Too much poop talk?, LOL).

But seriously, I bet it's a woodchuck.

We do see coon and possum poop once in a while, but not so much since DH has been trapping them. We're on the western edge of woodchuck distribution. I did see a couple poops but they were tiny! Maybe half the length and width of your pinky and very seedy. I'll take a pic if I see it again. It's been so dry that there aren't any tracks.

The only thing different this year is that I'm using soybean mulch which does have stray soybeans in it. I've chased a squirrel out of the garden several times. Maybe he's psychotic... Last year they did a good job of tearing up my sunflowers.

I've found about a dozen chewed lilies now. This one was too far gone to save by the time I noticed it.


Here is a bite take out of a tree


A couple more lilies with just the buds eaten ~ over 2' tall. Foliage is untouched.

No deer tracks? If things are dry deer will eat tree bark. What about porcupines?

Strange. Not seeing it here and there are lots of coons in the park that visit my yard. Also possom. Not many squirrels with my 3 cats and no trees, so that would be my guess. Weird food for a squirrel. My big problem is buds aborting on both lilies and daylilies. I'm thinking tinker is right that it's caused by the solar flares and increased radiation. Maybe that's what drove your squirrel crazy too?

Why not?? That seems as likely as answer as anything.

I live right in the middle of the city, so deer and other exotics to town are unlikely. A wildlife camera would be nice but I'm not going to blow 100 bucks over what is probably a psychotic ninja squirrel.

Maybe a live trap with a variety of tasty morsels in it?

Going to set the trap tonight and not sure what to put in it, but think I'll try an apple for a change of pace.

Marshmellows work good for Raccoons, or esle a can of cat food that's been cracked open, but not fully opened, and wired to the base of the cage.

Dry cat food works very well. If it's Possum or Racoon, they'll be enticed.

Let us know what you catch. I lost some daylily buds & blossoms - and also had a scape that was dead (from when it bloomed before it was shipped to me) and that was chewed. My neighbor also lost the blossoms on her lilies at the same time.

But I put rabbit fencing around my garden, and the last one to bloom didn't get eaten. In my yard I am guessing bunnies or woodchuck, I don't think it;s a ninja squirrel. On the other hand, I DID put beer out to catch any slugs - perhaps my squirrels were drunk, and not ninjas! ~Jan

Now if I could figure out what was eating my poor baby bee balms!

Nothing worse than a drunk ninja

I left a whole flat of vegetable plants out one night and something came and ate every one of them. . Even the hot peppers. I had potato eyes set out to dry and they disappeared. The next night, it ate a 3' shantung maple tree that I had just bought. The next night, we set a trap. We caught a big PACKRAT! I had been blaming deer for the damage on the lily stems, but since we caught the rat, I've had no more damage. I haven't caught any more rodents in the traps, either.

Eeeww! What did you use for bait?