Is this a molehole? If these are moleholes and we have lots of moles here, what are the implications of that? It has been surprisingly difficult to grow stuff here, seeds almost never seem to sprout (could they be getting eaten by moles?) and it would go a long way toward explaining why carrots never seem to make it to maturity. Still, tomatoes should be OK because they're above the ground and I don't think moles stand on their hind legs and eat low hanging tomatoes --- or do they? I don't have a clue about them. I'm not going to kill them. It's a recreational garden so it's not that important if I can't grow carrots.
more likely field mice or voles. Moles tend to eat living things, like the bugs (worms, grubs etc) in your garden, a good sign if you have them as it shows the biological diversity in the garden.
Thomas and all--agree these are something mouselike...we have all the four legged critters here in Surrey... Moles inevitably throw up a mound of soil around any hole they make, and only harm plant material by "accident" as they burrow around looking for worms and other meat. Regarding tomatoes, our greenhouse has been feeding the rodents all summer, with munching of our tomatoes sometimes to the point nothing but the stem and hollowed out skin are left for us. Did trap one rat in there, but still some nibbling happening. Deer mice are the usual victims of traps in the greenhouse, tho I know there are field voles (preferred by our cat) and house mice also. Like you, I prefer to live and let live when it's not something important, and there sure have been lots of tomatoes to go round this summer!
I saw something on TV about the star-faced mole and how quickly they can feel around and detect worms and bugs and stuff with that funny looking, star-shaped appendage on their noses --- their main food for sure is insects and worms (not plants), but I didn't know ordinary moles ate that way, too. Guess I've seen too many Bugs Bunny cartoons where the mole eats a whole row of carrots, making them rapidly disappear one after another. Well, that's good to know, the fellow that owns this place that I'm renting a suite from wants to poison and trap everything, but I'll let him know the truth about these guys. If there was some reason we HAD to eradicate the moles, well fine, but in this case we don't have to. Even if the poison only gets eaten by the moles, who's to say that the mole won't stagger out of it's hole to die and get eaten by an eagle or someone's beloved pet dog or cat --- poisoning can have unexpected results. So, whatever is happening to this bean plant, http://members.shaw.ca/cyberhun/ill_bean_plant.jpg isn't the result of mole damage?
