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Vegetable Gardening

Something destroyed my squash plant!

11 years ago

I went out to look at my squash plants this afternoon and noticed a dead vine. I traced it all the way to the root and realized the whole plant was cut from the ground up. Something had gnawed at the plant until it fell off its root.

I picked up the dead plant and proceeded to look for its root but it was nowhere to be found. I checked for vine borers but there was none in any part of it. I dug down where the root supposed to be expecting to find a hole left by a gopher but there was no hole! The ground was solid and packed with earthworms.

What kind of critter eats only the root of a plant, from above the ground?

I know we have something in our yard because there were a few holes near my plants. Many more holes are found outside our fence where we can't do anything about them. We have set traps (for gophers and for mice) inside our yard but didn't catch anything.

We also have a lot of holes in our front lawn where we set traps and caught two rodents (mice or small rats).

At this point I am not too concerned about the front lawn; so far nothing has been eaten or destroyed and we're catching the hole dwellers. But I really worry about my squash plants. They have just started to bear fruits and I am afraid whatever that did the evil deed will continue to eat one root at a time until there is no more.

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Comments (4)

AiliDeSpain
11 years ago
google gopher holes vs. mole, vole, and ground hog holes. Their mounds look different. Try to identify which variety of rodent you have. That's important when trying to figure out which trap to use, and how and where to set it. Once you figure out what you have you can google or watch youtube videos on how to properly set and place traps. It's not as easy as you think. It must be done properly to catch the rodent.
Good luck!
lindalu2222
11 years ago
A ground hog laid waste to my zucchini and acorn squad vines. I agree though research the type of hole you have. It took me over a week to catch my groundhog in a trap. And he did a lot of damage during that time.
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althetrainer
Original Author
11 years ago
The holes look pretty much like the mouse/rat holes in my front lawn (have already posted pictures in the other thread). There is only one hole that is still open in our yard. It was probably made by the pocket gopher a couple of years ago but now used by something else. My husband used a block of brick to block off the other hole that's next to the fence inside our yard. The rest of the visible holes are all located outside our fence so we can't dig or trap anything there. I will take a picture today and post it later. We set traps again last night but didn't get anything. It's been very frustrating!
althetrainer
Original Author
11 years ago
Here are a few pictures of the holes inside our yard and out

1) The main hole that we've found a couple of years ago. We covered it but it came back, only looked a bit differently than before. It has been there since early spring:

{{gwi:108572}}

2) A hole used to be here in the corner but my husband placed blocks over it; not sure how effective it is but we can't see the hole any more:

{{gwi:108574}}

3) The holes outside our yard, in the back lane, where we can't do anything about them:

{{gwi:108576}}

4) I don't think these are holes, just cracked ground. Strange enough I water the patch a lot but the soil still tends to crack like this:

{{gwi:108577}}

{{gwi:108579}}

As you can see we have set traps but they didn't even get triggered, yet, one of my plant got destroyed. Any suggestions?

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