Mark, I'm guessing gopher or vole. We have both here (and moles too), but the cats (and one cat in particular named Moose, who is no longer with us) keep them mostly under control, or at least out of the veggie garden. Every year the moles and gophers try to move into the sandier soil (not so much the clay) under the pecan tree, and the cats kill them relentlessly. Voles (aka meadow mice although they look more to me like a squared off hamster or rat) are harder to control because they can live in the woodlands and the pastures and 'visit' just long enough to do damage before they retreat back to the wilder areas. The only tomato plant I've lost this year was lost to a vole who nibbled all the way around the stem, not severing the stem but leaving it too damaged to survive. If you have gophers (or moles), the best way to protect plants is to line your beds with quarter-inch hardware cloth, which is an expensive solution. There are some gopher traps and poisons and such, but I don't know if any of them are effective. Since we have cats, I've never tried them. With voles, I suspect baited traps might be the best way to kill them if you don't have cats or small dogs that will hunt them and kill them. Sorry to hear about the loss of the tomato plant and good luck fighting the pests. It is nice to see you posting. You haven't posted in a long time! Dawn

Its not the height of the fence that deters the deer, its the fact they can't see what is on the other side, or at least that is what the deer tell me. I've seen deer jump over cars before...but in my experience the only reason a deer will over something they can't see through or go around is because they are in danger or trapped somehow. I have a friend whose garden is in the middle of tame deer central, where the deer are so plentiful and afraid of nothing human related they will come up and beg for food like a dog, and he keeps them out with a 4 foot fence inside of another 4 foot fence. of course, ymmv. Just my opinion and we all have them... I am still confident that what ate the tops off of 3 out of 18 tomato plants was not a deer. I just hope my 3 half eaten plants make it to set fruit, that's all. Happy gardening to ya'll.

I do have Japanese beetles, but they are bothering my roses and bramble patch and haven't been spotted on my orchard trees at all. Whatever it was got the top half of my filberts since I posted. Maybe it is deer? I just don't get why the stems are still fine. I'll put some netting on in case, because that works with my deer. I'll use a more general-purpose insecticide for it, too. The beetles are probably about to find the orchard this year anyway. I like to try spinosad first if it's a kind of caterpillar, but I just don't know what this awful pest is.

mblan: Funny indeed. This year I had a strange thing happen to dahlias. I plant three bulbs on top of a 3 foot high old oak stump (hollowed out a bit with some soil mix). It is next to our front sidewalk. One day all the new growth where neatly chopped off. We do not have deers. Groundhog would not dare (I think) to go out in the open in the front and climb up a stump and just eat these leaving alone all the tender new growth at ground level. So my theory is that the Robins stole them for their nests. They do frantically pick various dry plant materials. And they love moss too. Plus any twine in the garden.