'Munching' or nibbles sounds more like rabbits. IME, deer will take hosta down to just the short stubs of the stems....not a leaf left in sight!

Well, many of the leaves are munched-off in entirety...just leaf stems remaining. All the flowers were munched off the anemones, just remnants of stems were left on these, which are a short variety (White Swan maybe? Not sure, they were here when I moved in, flowers never got tall).

my experience with wabbits.. is they snip off leaves.. decide they dont like them.. and then walk away .... sheesh ...

pix might get you better opinion ...

in suburbia.. rabbits ignored the monoculture lawn.. and hit the veg bar.. known as my flower beds ...

when i moved to 5 acres ... with a lawn that would be better called a mown horse pasture or mown wild flower field.. or better yet.. a collection of mown weeds ... lol ... i tend to see the rabbits browsing that salad bar.. and ignoring the plants i planted ...

also ... watch for animal droppings ... near the affected area ....

ken

That sounds like deer mxk. I have heavy predation and when the deer eat Hostas they leave "celery stalks" behind. For the first time they ate most of the flowers of Anemone 'Robustissima'. Depending on your ground you should see hoof prints if it is deer doing the damage.

I'd agree with all leaves removed and only stalks left, you are probably dealing with deer. Some plants - like hosta - they eat all the foliage. With other plants - like the anemones and with hydrangeas - they just nip off the flowers or buds.

In addition to hoof prints, check for scat. Deer are always leaving 'presents' behind when they visit my garden. And they visit often!

In my experience, a rabbit cuts off the stem cleanly whereas a deer chews it off. I believe that deer do not have lower teeth which accounts for the ragged edge to the cut off stem.

They sure can nip off hydrangea blossoms and the tops of other plants very cleanly!! My snapdragons this season looked someone had taken a hedge trimmer to them......right before they were ready to bloom!

And I think if you do some research you will find they have a full compliment of lower teeth as well as uppers. Front incisors - both upper and lower - are quite sharp.

Thank you! I did the research and find that I was wrong. They have lower teeth, but no upper teeth. Sorry for the wrong information. It is most noticeable on shrubs .When rabbits snip off the young blueberry plants. it is a clean. sharp cut, whereas the deer leave a shredded stub when they eat off the tops of our viburnums

or it could be groundhogs. They eat as much as my deer.

Well, I pulled into the driveway this evening and who do I find underneath the pine trees? A family of deer, that's who !#!*!# . Also caught two of them underneath the scrub apples I have on the edge of the property - which doesn't really bother me, as long as they eat the apples and stay the heck out from my gardens! (they have like 100 apples just sitting there on the ground waiting to be eaten -- what could be better than that! UGH!)

I have 3 plus acres a orchard with apples everywhere. What do they eat???? everything and the apples. I get so discourage sometime. I dreamed of having enough land so I could garden without running out of space.

I have ended up planting more on the patio than in the gardens if I really want to see something that I purchased that is special. All the spraying, fence, dog, shock treatment contraptions I have purchased and they still manage to eat something I longed to see grow or bloom. It is either deer, groundhog, rabbits and just this year after 4 yrs I discovered that Turkeys love Lily buds. I did not get to see one lily bloom in the gardens this year. Turkeys ate them all.

Noticed more damage this morning - they got hold of my "Fama" scabiosa (which was blooming beautifully - Ugh!) and my newly-purchased "Samobor" geraniums, which were still in pots.

Why are they out in full force all of a sudden? I didn't notice damage to any great degree all summer, just a little in spring and I put out some deterrant (which I'm sure washed away by summer). Is there something about fall that causes them to browse more? I remember someone saying to make sure to get the repellant down before the fawns start browsing or they will "remember" the area and repeatedly hit it up for dinner, so I've been doing that the last couple years. But why now when winter's just around the corner? There's still plenty to eat out in the woods, it's not like they're starving.

They are getting ready for winter. They eat more in my gardens early season and Fall. Some yrs they do not touch my Hostas until September this year they ate my hostas in July.

mxk3, what are you using for a deterrent/repellant?

Animal Stopper or Deer Stopper by Messina (they're pretty much the same). It's in a red container. I use the spray or the granules. It's smells quite nice, it's a blend of herbs, and it seems to work well, so far at least.

Thanks. Moving next spring to a larger, more rural yard, which I am afraid will have a deer presence.

A family of deer, that's who !#!*!#

==>>> seems like moving to more acres has increased your propensity to cussing ... lol ....

i think the same thing happened to me .. but i cant !#!*!# remember ... lol ...

ken

"seems like moving to more acres has increased your propensity to cussing ... lol ...."

Nah, I usually just try to keep a lid on it, in polite company, at least; actually, I swear *less* since moving out to the country!

mxk3(Zone 5b SE MI)

Noticed
more damage this morning - they got hold of my "Fama" scabiosa (which
was blooming beautifully - Ugh!) and my newly-purchased "Samobor"
geraniums, which were still in pots.

--------------------------------------

Yes imagine my surprise when they ate my geraniums. They are suppose to be deer resistant. They could not resist.

I know nothing about it -- but -- wouldn't deer leave tracks?

Not necessarily, not if they're traipsing across the grass.

If they bend the 6' metal fence, it's deer. (Grrr!)