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What's been eating my beans?

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  • #1

    What's been eating my beans?

    Grrr, lost my entire row (bar one, and I bet that'll be gone by now...)

    The one surviving is about 3" tall with two proper leaves.

    The others are stalks with the leaves nipped off.

    Mice? deer? tigers?
    (the first two have been seen on the plot).

    I've never had this before, but I planted late this year (5th June?) - I wonder if that had a bearing.

    Anyway, I've got some more chitting, lets see.
    Peas and mange-toutes untouched.
    French Climbing beans in the same bed as the nibbled beans don't seem to have come up. Or been nipped off at ground level...
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  • #2
    Mice probably.
    The long tailed little bu@@ers did that to me one year. Just as all my beans were about to flower they came along and nipped them all off at about an inch high!

    Now I cut the top & bottom off pop bottles and use them as tubs over the plant slightly stuck into the ground.

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    • #3
      How high were the beans before they disappeared?

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      • #4
        If they disappeared just as they were germinating, then likely to be mice or slugs - if they were larger plants, then deer or rabbits.

        I have all of the above and so gardening revolves around defensive maneuvers for me.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Small pumpkin View Post
          Just as all my beans were about to flower they came along and nipped them all off at about an inch high!
          We blamed voles. 2017 was a vole plague year in Scotland, I think. Could have been mice too. The most annoying part was that they didn't really seem to eat very much of the bean or pea plants - just gave every single one an experimental stem-severing nibble. If you don't like the first few, why keep trying??

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          • #6
            It's just the leaves that have been nipped off - my guess is deer.

            Or tigers.

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            • #7
              I don't plant mine out until they're quite tall, with several sets of true leaves. They're sturdier and can fend for themselves more....................that's my excuse for being lazy and only doing things when I have to.


              PS I'm sure its not tigers as they're not vegetarian. Might be gorillas.

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              • #8
                I think Tigers might like all of them, Runners, Dwarves, the French and best of all the broads

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                • #9
                  I think Cheetahs tend to get the most runners...

                  I shall be taking up greenhouse space with them next year to keep them safe from all rodents, deer and large African quadrupeds...

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                  • #10
                    Like VC I don't plant mine out until they are quite big for similar reasons - still lost over half of them to rabbits though, which seem much more numerous this year. I tend to put clumps of plants in different palaces too - so if I lose one lot some others still have a chance.

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                    • #11
                      How did they eat them?
                      a rodent nibble at the base and leave?
                      a whole stalk gone?
                      just the leaves?

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by nickdub View Post
                        I tend to put clumps of plants in different palaces too - so if I lose one lot some others still have a chance.
                        There's posh you are.

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                        • #13
                          "Noblesse oblige" you know old thing - now off to remind my butler we have house guests later on ....

                          (more fumble fingers to follow almost certainly)

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                          • #14
                            Rats took a whole row of my climbing beans one year when they were just starting to produce. They severed each stem at the base. They gnaw on anything because their teeth grow continuously.

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