get yourself some diatomaceous earth to put around the base of your plants. this will deter slugs, as to them it's like sliding across broken glass.

and depending on how old your plants are, yes, they can recover. I cut a plant down to the soil line because I had 2 in a pot and wanted to only keep one. the one I cut down grew back. so all hope is not lost, but it is definitely a setback.

Thanks. I'll try some DE. Anyone else have thoughts?

I would guess they WILL recover. I have seen many destroyed plants come back. I dont think it was any kind of insect that ate your plants but an animal of some kind. It is hard to tell what exactly. Dog, cat, squirrel, rabbit, deer, coon, etc... Could be any. My guess is that it is happening at night so it might be tough to catch the culprit and until you find out what it is, it will be tough to figure out a way to deter them.
Bruce

My guess is deer.

I'm sorry to hear that. They should recover though.

Stoney

Three more got chewed up today while I was at work. Aaagh. Can't be deer. Our neighborhood is too built up. Has to be squirrels, domestic critters, or birds. I just put hardware cloth cages around the survivors. Hopefully that'll do until I figure out the culprit, and come up with a long term plan. Whatever it is, it's leaving my (much larger) tomato plants alone.

Maybe rabbits. It makes sense they are going after the younger, more tender plants, whatever "they" are. Chicken wire cages might be a solution. Just too bad you have to go through that much trouble to grow a pepper plant.

I simply don't understand why wild critters cannot be partial to plants such as "CRABGRASS".
Bruce

I know. Plants everywhere and they gotta pick on *my* peppers!

Rabbits are possible, although with all the cats and dogs in the neighborhood, I'd be a little surprised if they were so bold during the day. In any event, hopefully the cages will do the job for now, and maybe the critters will lose interest when the plants get big enough.

Hoping they pull through for ya... And that you catch the little bandits!
And Bruce, wouldn't it be great if all the little critters just ate the grass - I got plenty of that crap!!

Jay

I was going to say rabbits too, but if it's happening during the day too, then probably not. Do you have groundhogs? Agreed that chicken wire cages might be your best solution. If that first reaper that was attacked was eaten down below the lowest leaf node, recovery might be very difficult.

The hardware cloth cages are working. No further damage today.

The reaper was eaten below the first node. Fortunately I planted another reaper. I may go ahead and get a hab seedling from the store for that pot. One Thai sun is completely gone. The other two gnawed plants (purira and Thai sun) have the first leaf node intact. I won't give up on them.

If your bandits are vegetarians (squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, etc.) placing a few small containers or bowls of Blood Meal around your plants usually scares them away... blood odor and vegetarians don't mix ;-)

You can try trapping whatever it is. If it is a rabbit, should be pretty easy.
You could also set up a camera and see who the culprit is.
In any event, that sucks what happened.
We get all kinds of wildlife in my area including deer and bear but I found the only culprit so far to be mocking birds stealing my smaller peppers. I have netting up now.

Stoney

@ottawapepper: So I've read. I may give that a try. But I'm keeping the cages until the plants outgrow them! (I'd try more, uh, aggressive measures, but it's a townhosue neighborhood and the neighbors might get upset.)

This post was edited by matt_in_va on Fri, May 16, 14 at 20:23

I work a swing shift and get home about 11pm pst.
The first thing I do is go check on my babies.
The wife thinks I'm nuts but we do love our plants.

I think they will bounce back too Matt.
Is there a way to get them off ground level?
There is always that possibility also as I am pretty certain it's something with four legs and not a bird.

Stoney

Rabbits will hop up into a pot and chew seedlings and drip emitters off when it's too dry. This is how I take care of the problem with birds and squirrels, and the occasional 'coon. These are 'mater plants.

Is there anything special I can do to help the damaged plants recover?

Is there anything special I can do to help the damaged plants recover?

TRAPS, TRAPS, TRAPS>

Then how about spraying the plant with HOT pepper sauce ?

They have special fencing material called rabbit fence.

Only time will tell Matt. I know it's a tough thing to look at but as long as the roots are intact and not disturbed, they should recover in time.
I personally wouldn't add anything to them, just water and cage them too.

Stoney

>> Then how about spraying the plant with HOT pepper sauce ?

Great logo!

Good news. This poor little gnawed-up Thai sun is attempting a valiant recovery.

Looks like it will recover Matt..no worries. I can see little shoots forming.

Stoney

Yep. It'll be way behind, but it looks like it has a good chance.

To determine who is (was) eating your plants, you might try a game camera. They're fairly inexpensive. Motion activated, battery powered, night-vision (sorta -- actually just IR sensitive with an IR illuminator I think), made for outdoor use... Your culprit is sure to be captured on film (not real film, of course).

This post was edited by johnpo on Sat, May 24, 14 at 14:18

Some liquid fertilizer higher in Nitrogen would give your plants a boost.

Late last season a rabbit ate my whole bed of beans, a little every night. It did not matter much because the beans were not producing other wise I would've trapped it.
You wonder why with so much greens around and they eat your crops ! The reason is your crops are more tender and tastier.

My hero! A month ago I doubted this little guy would make it.

Cool!

Good job! Yep...peppers are tough little boogers.

Kevin