Voles? You will be able to locate their underground alleyways. Boars or pigs? The ground disturbance will be obvious. Coleoptera larvae? You should be able to find the grubs if you dig at the tuber level. Maybugs (Melolontha melolontha) grubs can do a lot of damage to any plant part underground when they're found in concentration.

Ah. Ah, well. That could be it. We have evidence of the presence of porcupines, in the form of quills in our dog's muzzle last year, but recent, because not before last year. And this animal seems to be eating the tubers from above, not below, and to be a large creature.

So, how do you stop Nature's armored tank? It would seem to be comfortably (for it) free of natural enemies.

Nik and Bart, thanks to both of you for your suggestions.

The answer to most pest problems of the larger nature, eat more porcupine. I heard it tastes like chicken.

I'm glad that TBI usually aren't on the diet for much of anything here. I've found clumps out in the woods where houses used to be. However, we don't have porcupines I guess :0

My usual suspect is deer. In early spring I sometimes find Iris rhizomes pulled out of the ground, with the leaves eaten.

Of course the real iris plague here is iris borers. I've almost given up on TBs because of those, but they are an American pest.

Porcupines souinds right. The plants don't have much foliage this time of year, and whatever it is has definitely been eating the rhizomes. Deer just eat all the young rose foliage and destroy canes and young trees, but so far, no iris problems. I don't think we have cane borers. This really is the native home of tall bearded iris; they flourish here with the greatest of ease.

Sometimes I get sick of wildlife. Something has been plowing up the woods, too--boars? badgers?--making a great mess. I presume the something has been looking for grubs or earthworms. I wish the wolves would get a move on and start reducing the deer and boar population. Even hunters have their uses.

If it was a porcupine, you probably would have seen it by now. They are solitary animals except for a mother and her young. They are slow and stupid.

Porcupines have an insatiable appetite for anything salty. Leave an axe out at a chopping block and a porcupine will come at night and chew the axe handle where it was held because of the salt deposited there from the woodchopper's sweaty hands. Human perspiration has the same salinity as sea salt.

Tie something salty, like a moistened sponge sprinkled heavily with salt, up a tree above where a boar can reach it, and if it is eaten you know you have a porcupine.

I suspect you have boar damage.

Boars take off very quickly at the least little unusual (to them), sound, scent, or motion, so you will rarely see them up close. They run like lightning, gone in a flash. They are extremely wary and smart, especially older ones. Some say they are smarter than dogs. They are social animals, especially sows and their offspring. You may have several boars doing the damage.

I suspect you are having boar damage because they are very numerous all over the Italian countryside. The only solution is legal trapping or hunting them. The type of trap you would need would be prohibitively expensive, and then there's what to do with the boar(s), that are trapped.

Hunting is the most logical option.

Moses, thanks for the input, but I believe it's a porcupine, for the following reasons. We've never seen the porcupine, but our dog came home last year with a muzzle full of porcupine quills (we had heard him attacking something an hour or so earlier in the woods below the garden), so we know one's there. And I'm pretty sure it's NOT boars. Yes, the countryside is overrun with them, and has been ever since we moved here in 2002. But we've also had irises in the garden for a decade, and until now, when we have a porcupine, nothing has touched the irises.

About hunting, it's not an option: I'm vegetarian, and have never had anything to do with guns in all my life. Might I add that getting a hunting license is, as I understand it, an expensive proposition in Italy. In the case of wild boars that are a dangerous nuisance, it's possible to call the boar hunting squad and they'll shoot them. We did this some years ago when the boars had taken up residence in the woods just below our house and were coming withing thirty feet of our front door. I was feeling insecure about stepping outside at night. That was too much. We do see them sometimes in the dusk or in early morning driving or on walks. I have wondered if I could get the hunting squad to find and shoot the porcupine, but suspect it wouldn't qualify as a pest to be eliminated.

You might wonder at my willingness to have wild animals killed when I'm vegetarian. The fact is, I realize that wild animals are going to die, almost all of them more or less cruelly, and getting shot and making a quick end is probably one of the less agonizing ways to go. So I don't have a moral problem with it. And we have an ecological problem of too many large herbivores and omnivores (wild boars, roe deer, and now, porcupines), and not enough predators to keep their populations in check.

I read up on porcupines when we knew that we had one, and learned some interesting things. Did you know that our Old World porcupines aren't that closely related to the American ones? They're an example of parallel evolution. Also, they get huge, up to sixty pounds, that is to say, half again the size of our dog, and he doesn't fit in a teacup. It's a scary thought. Italy is the only European country where they're found. Old World porcupines don't climb trees.

Well I'll be! Parallel development among the porcupines! I've read New World vultures, turkey vultures and black vultures around here, are not related to Old World vultures.

I'll bet a large live trap baited with delectables would nab it. Then it could be relocated. There are probably rules and regulations you need to follow.

Moses, I think your idea is the soundest one available; now I just need to follow up. I tend to let the fauna do as it will, but am not sure I want to lose every iris in the garden.

You sound quite knowledgeable about Italy: have you lived here before?

Melissa, if you're interested, I bought a large Havaheart trap for the badgers. I set it once, but didn't catch anything. In the mean time I'd completed my fencing and now would like to sell it, if possible. Interested? I can send a lot more info, either here or via e-mail...

Bart, thanks for the suggestion. I don't know. Getting it here (care to come for a visit)? And then, if I do catch the porcupine, what do I do with it? I need to do some research. Let me know via e-mail how much you want for the trap, in any case. Melissa

I'm working on an e-mail to you, Melissa; it's a complicated moment for me, and the whole trapping question is complicated as well. I want to apologize, too, for the fact that I didn't respond sooner to your own e-mail to me...like I said, complex period of my life,etc, etc, etc. A reason only, not an excuse for my rudeness...

Bart, don't worry about it. We all answer when we can, and when we will. I'll be happy to see an answer in my mailbox one day but am not holding my breath. I hope your life gains clarity soon. Personally I'm tired of winter.

I want to write to you in detail about my own experience, plus give you the precise info on the trap. I think it is a VERY good idea for you to do some research first. But now I've gotta go; I still have most of my pruning and fertilizing yet to do...

Melissa I have the same problem my iris bulbs are being eaten and have seen one porcupine. My dogs bark but don't get too near, luckily. I also live in Italy. Have you found a solution yet. I am desperate!

jennifer

No solution yet. I'm naturally slow to undertake novel activities, and have also had a lot of distractions lately.

Jennifer, where do you live? Are you interested in getting in touch? I'm in the province of Piacenza, if I haven't already mentioned that.

Melissa

I live outside of Seggiano, at the foot of Monte Amiata, province of Grosseto.

I tried putting granules around but no good, they, as I assume there is more than one have made there home on the hillside below my small house. I think catching them is the only solution as I dont believe in killing them. I presume they are also protected. Unfortunately they are systematically eating my irises. I will let you know if I find another solution. My dogs at least are keeping away from them!

Jennifer

If you want to call me let me know it would be helpful to discuss this!

IME,the only thing that can help control critters of all sorts are physical barriers, aka fencing. Trapping and re-locating them isn't really a very kindly thing to do, I realized, once I did some research on the subject.