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.

I have bought the standard orange marigolds from the six-pack at Home Depot as well and something is eating them leaves first and then right down to the stem. I have been using marigolds as a pest barrier for over 25 years and have never seen this happen to marigolds. I don't have slugs as none of my hostas have been treated and not one leaf has been touched nor have I seen a single slug in any of my gardening here in 4 years. i'm at a loss to know what is happening. What is the soap solution recipe? I might as well see if I can save the rest. I have to wonder if it is a tiny worm doing it b/c i can't find anything else. If it was a rabbit and we do have rabbits, they wouldn't nibble the leaves in such tiny increments, they would just munch it down. No, this is something very small doing this.

I'm in Alabama and I had a very similar problem on my Don Juans. Late night and early morning I found 2 types of bugs, a small green caterpillar (tobacco bud worm?) and a small orange black caterpillar. I sprayed all my roses with 1/2 gallon water/ 1 Tbsp Orthonex Insect and Disease control and haven't seen anymore bugs, the new buds look fine.

Rose slugs, aka sawfly larva...gross! Pick 'em off and squish 'em, or pitch them way far away into the yard. Keep an eagle eye out for more, and check the undersides of your leaves, too. They can be quite small. My husband and I would tag-team the roses...he would spot, I would squish. Eventually we got them all, or most of them. Now that it is hot and rainy we are dealing with a host of other tiny critters that move infintely faster than the rose slugs. *sigh* Just can't WAIT for the Jap Beetles to show up! :o/