Bark stripped from young Cosmos stems

The bark or stem covering is stripped from several of my young cosmos. Stem diameter under 1/4". It goes all the way up on some stems.

Damage looks similar to what a starving mouse would do to a one inch sapling, but goes too tall for a mouse to reach and stem too small to support much body weight.

Drip tube irrigated, and soil surface is dry. No sign of slugs or snails in that area.

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Ernie

Sounds like damage caused by a worm/larvae of some kind.
Do you see any evidence of fecal matter below the plants ?

Mike,
There is a lot of damaged area considering how small each stem is. flowers were recently planted, and range from 5 to 8 inches tall. some stems are completely stripped and some part way up.

So, it would take a large insect to eat that much but too large and it would be hard for it to hold on to the tiny stem.

The soil had compost worked in when we we planted so suface is dry and rather rough. I am going to soak it tomorrow and apply slug bait as well as follow the suggestions made by a member to my same post made on Beginner's Forum.

How are your roses doing? It looks like I am going to be an Accidental Rose Grower. There was a very neglected, almost dead, rose bush just across my property line, and it is getting some water and fertilizer that i have applied to my plants, and it is responding in a big way. Very beautiful plant now with several buds on it, so Roses will be blooming soon.

Ernie

Mike,
I looked at the damaged stems with a glass this morning, and the bark, if that is a usable word for the outer skin, has been very neatly taken off in vertical grooves. No sign of transverse chewing like a mouse or such would have left.

Do you happen to know what the damage pattern from slugs look like?

I hit it with Systemic, Contact Spray and Slug bait, so we will see if something stops it, but i do not see any slime trails, or any other clues. About ten have been stripped so far.

Ernie

Cosmos problem solved. Damage was done by snails, but i would not have believed that a full grown snail could climb that small a stem and eat all the bark, or that the small stem would have supported the weight.
But i put out some Ortho snail bait and found a lot of dead ones this morning. They have been living under some nearby Statice plants, which they do not harm, and have not left any visible slime trails on the soil.

tha