I've got a half dozen havahart type live animal traps but so far he's not gone near them. I've baited with lettuce, canteloupe, melon rinds, broccoli, and red beets but the bait goes untouched. I've gotten a few rabbits in the trap but none large enough to do any damage in the garden. I pulled up the chewed lettuce heads, used them for bait but it seems he only bites on a plant once, even in the garden, each time its a new plant that got eaten. I had 300 heads of lettuce, after this week I'm down to about 50 tops, and some of them have damage again now. At this time in the season, as the lettuce bolts, I basically just let it go to seed for next years crop. The problem is he's even chewed off the flowering stalks. I added a wire fence around the roof of the shed on one side today, I increased the overhang on the fence and sprayed the lettuce with some pesticide that I hoped would deter his appetite. I left the garden at 7pm to put some tools away, and came back in less than 5 minutes and four heads of lettuce were chewed down to the ground. The part that gets me is that it can eat that fast. I'm 300lbs and can't eat that much that fast. I gave the remaining plants a good shot of Malathion in hopes the odor deters him. I've grown a garden here for 15 years, this is the first year I've had anything get through the fence. I've had insect issues last year, but never a furry critter getting over the fence. I would have fully expected burrowing rather than climbing, so far, he's not even tried to burrow under the fence. This weekends project will be to install a proper gate or door, I poured a threshold at the point of entry so nothing can dig under, now I need to make an easy to walk through gate or door. The way it is now I have to take down a 6' tall upper gate and remove a fence panel to get in. The plan is to make a screen door from 1/4" rat wire which closes against a cement stop at the bottom and is hung from the adjacent fence post with hinges. I never thought a groundhog would be able to scale a 6' fence, but there's no other way in. Maybe I need to electrify the fence next. There has to be more than one of these things, but the only one on the trail cam was huge. I had to give the game cam back the other day, so I don't have the option to keep it up. I just can't figure how something so small can consume so much so fast, and not even leave any scraps on the ground. The eaten heads look like something just took a huge bite out the middle right down to the ground, leaving only the stump and a few outer leaves standing.

Do not assume the ants are not at fault. They may or may not be. I agree that they are attracted by the sweet nectar, but they may do some severe damage at the same time. People will insist that ants are never a problem until it happens to them. Monitor the blossoms that are visited by ants and those that are not. If the anty blossoms fail to set and the antless ones succeed, I would suspect the ants are causing an issue with their chewing. Otherwise it's a non-issue. Danzeb, did you take that picture in your garden? What is that ant doing? What is it carrying away?

sounds like deer to me, too. some years are worse than others around my yard. they usually don't bother the leaves or branches on mine but they will take almost every flower bud, open or tightly closed, from the shrub. i have had success in years past by putting out strongly scented bar soap shavings wedged in the branches. have to do that before they discover the flowers, though. irish spring is a soap i used which kept them away. if you cut the soap pieces large enough, they will stay there through several rains and melt into the branch crotches.

Yes, and it's frustrating! Probably slug damage. They especially love Asiatic lilies, so much that I cant even grow them in my garden. Get some slug bait, you may not see them during the day. Jen