This is highly unusual! Anyone else experience this?

I've grown foxgloves in my garden for years, and nothing has ever touched them, except on two extremely rare occasions when deer have actually eaten them. The first time, it was a very small foxglove that hadn't developed any buds yet and only had a few leaves. It was about seven inches tall and was entirely consumed.

I noticed today that a few of the stems had been chewed off of a very large one, about two feet high, that has buds but hasn't bloomed, yet. None of my other foxgloves have been touched -- by anything. This was the only one with its upper stems chewed off. I've also noticed that not all of the stems got eaten, just a few in the middle of the plant. There are still buds left on the outer stems.

Since none of my other foxgloves have been touched, and nothing has touched any of them in the past except for that one tiny one, I am inclined to think it was a very young, inexperienced deer, possibly a fawn, that hadn't yet learned that foxgloves are very toxic and taste terrible on top of it.

I'm curious as to whether any other gardeners here who grow foxgloves have had them eaten by deer, rabbits or any other creature. The digitalis in them is very poisonous, and critters just naturally seem to know to leave them alone.

 

well, you didn't find a cardiac victim (digitalis in foxgloves) nearby did you?

but seriously I have never seen or heard of any animals eating foxglove. We used to have a big farm near Vancouver BC that would remind me of being in an area similar to Concrete or Marblemount on Hwy 20 along the Skagit River - and there was a huge swath of foxglove growing wild in a cleared area of the alder forest - and the sheep / goats / deer left it well alone.

 

And that's why this is so unusual. I didn't see the animal that chewed the stems, but discovered they had been chewed off when I examined my flowerbeds in the morning. It may not have been a deer, however, the ends of the stems were ragged as though chewed instead of clean cut, which indicates very likely a deer. The plant is too tall for a rabbit to reach. I'm thinking that whatever ate that foxglove either wandered off and died far away, or got very, very ill and vomited it up. Chances are, it was its last meal ...

It had to be some creature that was new to the world and hadn't learned yet, or apparently didn't have good instincts, in which case, it wouldn't have survived long in nature, anyway. I haven't seen any carcasses, but then, I haven't gone looking for any. If it was lucky, it got real sick and then survived to learn its lesson.

Does anyone know of an insect that would chew like that and leave ragged stems? Do slugs or snails do that? They can climb, so it may have been a slug, snail or caterpillar. Cutworms sever plants at their bases. They usually don't go high up on the stems.

I haven't even seen any insect damage on foxgloves in the past -- even they know to leave them alone.

A real mystery, here.