Hello all,

For a few weeks I’ve been trying my darndest to grow sunflowers, corn and peas, but they are continually eaten/pulled out as they emerge from the ground. I live in Southern California in a dry area where we don’t have any deer, so I just wanted to rule that out right off the bat.

The sunflower seedlings I tried to grow were eaten/pulled out immediately upon sprouting, so those were gone aside from two that I put chicken wire cages around to protect them, yet one of them was still murdered through the cage soon after that. Last year I had a rabbit problem when growing sunflowers and putting temporary cages around them completely prevented them from being eaten, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year. The sunflowers where planted within my gated garden, which has a 3 foot chicken wire fence around it with an underground barrier, but they were planted otherwise in the open (not in garden beds).

I also had corn, peas and melons growing in two separate garden beds which have been recently lined on the bottom with single pieces (no overlapping pieces) of new 1/2” hardware cloth that are securely attached to the wooden beds. I have lined the sides of one bed with 3’ chicken wire on all sides that is heavily stapled and secured in place, and the other has been lined with hefty plastic fencing (also securely attached with many staples). Neither of the caged garden beds seem to have any holes chewed through them, so I’m guessing that whatever is eating my vegetable seedlings might be small enough to fit through the holes. Finally, I have also securely attached bird netting to the tops of each caged bed, so that there are no holes or insecure spots. My vegetables are basically completely caged up and are additionally inside of a gated garden, which leads to my confusion about what could be eating them.

At first I thought it was rabbits after the sunflower seedlings disappeared, but since the vegetables inside of the caged-in beds are disappearing as well, I feel like it can’t be rabbits, not to mention I carefully inspected the garden all over for any holes that critters could have used to burrow in. I have not seen any gopher or rabbit holes, no holes to speak of at all, although I’m sure it’s not impossible for me to have missed something. I also feel like it’s unlikely to be birds and at first thought it couldn’t be gophers, given that the beds are lined all the way around, although I suppose it might be possible for a gopher to climb over the edge of the garden bed (which is a little over a foot high) and slip through the 1” chicken wire fencing.

The same pest is getting into both beds as both have the same kind of damage. The seedlings that are killed are always either completely pulled out and laid to the side or else the tops are bitten off, seemingly at random. I’ve included photos of the beds as well as some of the damage done by whatever pest is getting into my garden. As you can see in the photos, one of the beds has some partly-grown corn plants in it. The only reason these survived is because I purchased them that way at the hardware store when they were only slightly smaller than seen in the photo. I really want to grow some corn from seeds though, as I want to grow a different variety. I would settle for growing them indoors until they are big enough to not be uprooted or eaten, except whatever has been eating my plants has recently taken to eating my partly-grown melon plants as well (also pictured) and those seem like they should be big enough that nothing would want to eat them anymore, leading to even more confusion.

The damage and small holes around the seedlings remind me of gophers, but if that’s what it is then how are they getting in and how can I keep them out? And why are they biting off the ends of my melon plants?

If anyone knows what is eating my seedlings/melon plants and how to prevent it, please let me know. I really want to be able to grow this stuff, but every single seedling is killed without fail as it comes out of the ground, and I’m running out of time despite the long growing season around here.

Thank you.