Peter, I have the very same thing happening now with my Lollo Rosso Red head lettuce, yesterday I got the same thing when I barely tried to move the dead leaves, I noticed the middle leaves were good, but the plant came up in my hands so easily and when I checked for root there was none, and there was no innder stem, just a frame, some some sucker ate it up. I have 20 heads and would hate to lose them all, well now 18 as two are dead.

Chelone- It seems odd in such a heavily settled area to have voles. I'll to a search and see what I can find. We have several stray cats that come around. They were avid hunters in my mess of tomatoes last year. The mice were having quite the party in there. Well, if it is a vole, at least I know what I have to deal with. Is there any specific plants that voles do not like- kind of like dealing with deer. I am just glad that they are in the front yard and not be back. The back gardens are substantially larger. Thanks- Candace

morgantown west virginia and i found it under my flower pot(lots of them) do you think they will eat all my plants what can i do?

Those are the larva of one of the scarab beetles, June bugs, Japanese Beetles etc., About this time of year those larva stop feeding and start pupating to become the May or June Bugs flitting around our lights at night or the Japanese Beetles everyone loves to hate. If your soil contains 10 or more per square foot they could well be a problem, but if the soil contains 5 or fewer per square foot they are not much of a problem. Since they are no longer eating ingested poisons will not work and contact poisons will kill off beneficial members of the Soil Food Web as well. The direct answer to your question "will they eat tomato roots" is no since the tomatoes are not planted until they have started to pupate. When the eggs these adults these buggers become hatch those larva may feed on your tomatoes roots. kimmq is kimmsr