I have a (Toronto)backyard full of gorgeous lilies I bought from a wonderful grower in Washington State. Buds are maturing, some of the stalks are 7 feet high. I found one cut off at the ground recently. I have racoons here but they do no damage to anything so in turn, I do them no harm(beat it to death with a shovel?! - special place in hell for your father). I thought maybe one of them was lumbering thru the garden and and broke it. Then another, then another. Now its not a random event. I have more squirrels here than in your average 1000 acre forest.
They have never done any damage to my lilies before - tho they chew off my tulip bulbs for spite and leave them on the ground. They take a bite out of my tomatoes and throw them off the deck. When they started chewing my orchid buds, I started trapping them and releasing in the park. Ran out of time after I hit #85.
I used that trap so much its warn out. I went to HD and bought another after work. I didnt put it out that night because I was too tired. Six more lilies next day. Should not have waited. I also bought some of that foam piping that you wrap around your hot water pipe to insulate it. Its the perfect size to go around the lily stem and six feet of it is less than 3$.
Left the trap out last night to catch early squirrels and what do I find but a large possum in it. I'm hoping that was the culprit because none of the 85+ damn squirrels ever did that. I got another idea to wrap the foam covered lily stems in aluminum foil as I"ve seen a bit of chewing on one or two of those.
Fingers crossed - the remaining stalks are quite a sight.
