What did this to my poor squash?

[KenK]

 

[Dchicken207]

Squirrel I would bet

 

[KenK]

I wouldn't rule that out but given where they where would think rats are more likely. I want to think it is a deer but the bite marks seem too narrow, they seem to wide to be a squirrel or a rat.

I'm going to move one of them to where a deer can't reach it and see if it gets gnawed on any more. Busted the worst one and put in in the chicken coop and they aren't very interested.

 

[southerndesert]

Rabbits will do that....

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
That's what I was thinking too.

 

[maizy'smom]

That looks to me like the work of a woodchuck, ground hog, marmot, or my favorite....satan. They were the bane of my existance a few years back. Even living and breeding under my kitchen/mud room. Could not keep a tomato, herb, morning glories, anything...except foxgloves...they're poisonous! I trapped them with a have-a-heart and then relocated them. Also, coincidently, the massive road improvements that had disrupted all the local wildlife, has since been completed. In fact, much of the 1/2inch hardware cloth that we used in building our coop was left over from the protective hoops we used to protect our plants during the woodchucks' reign of terror. Try spraying your veggies with a "tea" made with red pepper flakes. You'll need to reapply each time it rains, but it's non-toxic and may be enough to put the beasties off your eatery. Good luck!

mm

 

[patman75]

Woodchuck, deer maybe hogs.

Woodchuck is my top choice.

 

[KenK]

No woodchucks or marmots in these parts. We do have a few rabbits but I probably see deer 1,000 times per each rabbit sighting. There are deer tracks all around and you can see where they have eaten all kinds of other vegetation right next to the squash.

I planted these on the outside of the garden fence and just let them run down through the now waist high grass. Nothing bothered the vines. I discovered years ago that deer won't touch a gourd vine, hoped they would leave these alone and they did. The vines anyway.