HELP! somethings eating my Scabiosa!

Or I should say ATE them. I planted "Butterfly Blue' Scabiosa in the fall,(tiny little plants) and they were coming up nicely, nice little bushy things,and they were covered, survived our freeze, doing great. Went out to check on things, and they're gone! Except for a tiny stick. Birds? maybe? I cant find tracks of any kind, 'cause of the mulch. I have some lightweight sheer fabric, maybe try to cover them? Any ideas? Anyone?

Please, anyone?

I'm sorry about your scabiosa! What a blow, after nurturing them all winter. Hopefully they will surprise you with some new growth. They're tough little plants.

Rabbits? I have some little bushes that got more "pruning" than they'd probably have preferred over the winter, guess I should've covered them with netting or hardware cloth. Groundhogs probably wouldn't have left the stick. :-)

Slugs might also be a possibility, especially after the recent wet weather. They can munch things to the ground faster than I'd belive possible! You can check around, turn over rocks etc. to see if they are abundant in your garden. Any of the pelleted phosphate slug baits will work well against them (Slug Go, Slug B Gone, etc)

HEY CRITTER!!!!!! what's up? I'm not sure, not seeing any 'slime' , I know I have slugs, when do the start coming out? I can't remember. I've been watching the hosta tho......not too many rabbit 'round here. Would Slug Go hurt the dog? ( he just eats the salt and drinks the beer) hes a real party animal!

I think it's considered to be pet safe (according to the package directions anyway)... not that your dog should chow down on a whole bag of it, but I don't think that there's anything in it that would attract him, and tossing a few handfuls around should be fine.

With this weather, who can say when the slugs will start coming out in force this year? They're usually around in time to munch on tender spring seedlings, and I've seen a few lately.

I just chased a *huge* groundhog out of my garden... I'm sure he was about to breakfast upon my lily sprouts!

Oh no groundhog! I'm afraid of them. I'm really afraid of HUGH groundhogs! I got 'em in my shed tho..... Well thank you very much, I will be beginning the " night hunt" , flashlight in hand. I HATE slugs! You are proving to be a valuable asset to my garden, thanks again!

My guess is some sort of mammal vs snails/slugs--slugs don't eat that quick, you would have seen the leaves starting to get munched before the whole plant was just gone. So if the plant got munched down to nothing overnight my money would be on rabbits, groundhogs, etc.

You must have fewer slugs than we get if you can hunt them successfully! Actually, if I don't think they're numerous enough to resort to the slug bait, I just put down a few boards in the garden bed... the slugs shelter underneath where they *think* they are safe (bwaaa haaa haaah!) until I come along and knock them into a bucket of soapy or salted water.

I hope you managed to deter whatever pest went after your scabiosa plants!

just saw ecrane's post... I think that's a good point... my money is on bunnies...

Could be. I think I might try some wire mesh as well. Could be what the dog is going off about. Could be he's smarter than me.

No, I really can't sucessfully anything with these slugs and snails. By hunting them, I'm just entertaining myself, I suppose. Sad huh? Think I'm gonna need more ammo then that.

i would say bunnies too. if you have a slug problem, diatomaceous earth (garden grade, not pool grade) is great to use. it wipes out a whole slew of little varmints, yet is safe for us and our pets.

Eithr bunnies or you may have had soem catrpillars that had a field day. They can munch a bunch in a heart beat too and then they dsiappear and go hid e to start morphen.

I've got bunnies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Caught 'em red handed! Out comes the wire mesh!

I had the exact same thing happen to me! I planted them they look beautiful they were all ready to go I went out there the next day and all there was was stems! Did you ever find out what it was? It’s only eating the Scabiosa sprouts nothing else has been touched it’s very strange.