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so is this bunny damage?

13 years ago

This was my tiffany bud,... I was thinking it was eaten by a bunny? anyone want to guess?

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Comments (10)

athenainwi
13 years ago
It's possible, but my bunnies prefer the leaves to the buds. I've got one rose right now with almost no leaves and buds on the ends of the canes. Sigh. Stupid rabbits. Anyway, I do have one of my Shasta Daisies with a big chunk taken out of it that is bunny damage, and my tulip flowers were eaten like that too.
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carolinamary
13 years ago
Our rabbits don't leave a plant looking like that. They eat the entire bud if they're going to eat it. But perhaps they got frightened away in the middle of their dinner time at your place? Or perhaps it's something like a grasshopper and not a mammal at all.

Mary
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If I were you, I would prune the brown dying branches back to the crown of the plant or maybe 6" above the crown, (maybe someone else knows better), and keep well watered and put a fence around for the rest of the season. I'm sure there is still enough time for the plant to send up more stalks. May not get flowers next year, but maybe you will. You've still got the better part of two month of growing season left. I don't think I would fertilize though since new plants are usually over fertilized to begin with and it's a little late in the season for more. Don't forget the wire fence, whatever thought it was a delicacy will be back! Might be a ground hog too and they're persistent buggers!! Not as cute as bunnies! This is just my opinion, not the written word! Good luck, Donna
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Hi Karen, I have a terrible problem with rabbits earlier this season. February this year, I planted some 100+ roses, which became wild rabbits' favorite diet! You can tell rabbit's bit quite easily. Their teeth bit at 45 degree angle and is very clean, almost seemed like you had pruned the roses with a pruner. This article accurately described rabbit bit which can be distinguished from a deer bit quite easily: https://articles.extension.org/pages/34725/how-does-one-identify-rabbit-damage-and-what-do-they-eat In my experience they can eat the flowers, the stem or the leaves to a height they can reach. I initially thought that those thorns on the stems would have deterred them, but no. I often wake up at 6 am and just watched out from my living room window, which has a full view of my garden. I had seen them with my own eyes browsing and eating the new flowers, stems and leaves. The Department of Forestry & Horticulture of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station had done experiments on what's the best strategy to deter rabbits. See this website which discuss their methodology of evaluation: http://www.conngardener.com/rabbit.html The #1 method is to erect a fence, followed by a product called Plantskydd and #3 is the rabbit spray called Bobbex-R. My personsal experience is that Bobbex-R is very effective. I religiously sprayed onto my roses early in the season, and I think most of the time this product worked well. However, the issue is rain and the frequency you have to sprayed. I found that you have to spray way more often than they claimed in the instruction in order to maintain the bad odor, which discouraged the rabbit. Also after a rainfall, you have to re-sprayed again. This is such a nuisance during the winter and early spring when there is lots of rain. I don't know about your rabbits, but those in my neighbor are very "smart". They know that the rain will wash out the poor odor, so they would often come back to browse and taste my roses again right after the rain! The smell of Bobbex-R is terrible - a mixture of spoiled eggs and garlic, but they are harmless for your roses. In fact some people will just sprinkle garlic around their roses and claimed it worked for them. I never tried that myself though. In terms of Plantskydd, I tried that too, and it is OK but I don't think it is as effective as Bobbex-R. Basically Plantsydd is bovine dry blood, with high concentration of nitrogen. You have to be careful not to apply too close to your roses, because of the high nitrogen content, which can stimulate unwanted or excessive growth of your roses. Rain also washed out Plantskydd and diminished its effect, though the label claimed that it is rain-proof which I don't think is true. I do think fencing out the roses is the best method, but if you have a lot of roses, that's a lot of work. Fortunately my roses were mostly concentrated in 4 rose beds, but the entire area is large. So what I did in the spring of this year was to get my landscape contractor to erect a continuous rabbit fence that encompassed the entire area's circumference, rather than putting individual fences around individual roses. It costed me a lot of money to do this, but in the end, I am really happy that I did. After putting up the fence, I no longer had a rabbit problem, and my roses can start growing in the spring. I can still see, in early morning, rabbit looking wishfully outside the fence, but they no longer can get in. In order for the fence to work, it needs to be 30 - 36 inches tall, and at least 6 inches deep into the ground; otherwise rabbits can burrow underground. Mine is 30 inches tall and 12 inches deep. It did not look ugly for me, because the color of the fence is dark green, so from afar, no one can really see the fence all that well. Also the fence is right behind my boxwoods which enclosed the rose beds (we have a semi-formal garden), so the boxwoods can naturally hide the fence too.
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kstrong
13 years ago
How tall is that bud? Bunnies are not all that tall, and when my Tiffany blooms, they are usually too far up for anything like that. My guess would be insects. June bugs eating blooms at night are becoming a problem for me. Go out with a flashlight after dark and have a look around.

Kathy
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serenasyh
13 years ago
gyaaaaa, you don't have Kansas bunnies Kathy, lol! They are very ambitious creatures who love destroying my giant young Lincoln canes (when they are still in the "purple phase"). Lincolns have very soft tender thorns that the rabbits love to eat too. The thorns are so soft that you can bend them and run you fingers up and down the stalk. Lincolns are their favorite roses. Eating tall roses are easy for them! They pulled down my Tiffany as well which was about 2'8" long.

However what concerns me about Aimeekitty's photos is that rabbits leave very, very clean cuts like very sharp manicure scissors or pruning shears. They don't leave ragged edges like that. And nothing will be left of the plant. Leaves will be eaten, thorns will vanish, etc. etc....Too much of that plant was left in other words. It looks more like insect damage to me as Kathy says...
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jacqueline9CA
13 years ago
I deadheaded a couple of damaged buds today that looked just like yours (top half of the bud missing), and we don't have any bunnies here at all, so I also think it must be some sort of bug damage.

Jackie
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lagomorphmom
13 years ago
Hi Aimee,
I was just taking a break at work and found this article in today's LA Times regarding earwigs being populous around here now and thought of you as they would also fit with the damage that I see (I hate those buggers!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Earwig invasion!
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hosenemesis
13 years ago
It could be earwigs. They are reaching crisis proportions this year, after a record-breaking year last year.

They eat irises, daylilies, clematis, roses- and they LOVE brugmansias- they skeletonize the whole tree.

They also eat your vegetable garden.

I hate them. I squish them with my bare fingers, I hate them so much. I have thousands upon thousands. I squish a lot.
Renee

Here is a link that might be useful: Earwig Invasion CA Forum 09
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prairiemoon2 z6b MA
13 years ago
I have no doubt the earwigs are about and doing damage, but I haven't seen them do damage to a rose bud that way and not damage the foliage. All the damage I've seen them do in my garden has been to foliage. Their favorites are butterfly bushes and tender greens in my garden. When you see foliage damage and during the day you don't see any insects that could be responsible for it, then you should suspect earwigs. To prove or disprove, go out to the garden about 10pm with a flashlight and you will definitely see earwigs if they are in your garden. I did that the other night. They were all over Bok Choy and Collard greens, they seem to love Basil and yes they are what has been putting holes in the foliage of my butterfly bush.

I carry a papercup of soapy water and just knock them into it. No squishing necessary. I was wishing I had one of those headset flashlights to have two hands free the other night. [g]

Could the damage to your buds be caterpillars of some kind?
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aimeekitty
Original Author
13 years ago
it's a short band, super short baby Tiffany. Something also ate the whole bud off my gloire de dijon (nothing left of the flower) but very few of the rose leaves on any of my roses are damaged, there are a few damaged leaves, but I think those are from snails?

I've seen 1 of something that looks to my untrained eye like something like an earwig. And I've also seen a bunny.

something is also eating my basil

and I also have a lot of snails.
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iowa_jade
13 years ago
It could also be budworms. I have tons of earwigs this year but they seem to sport and play among the petals after the bloom pops.

What do I know? I am just a chicken.

F.L.
IAGL

Here is a link that might be useful: Budworms and other friends.
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