This year a number of my tulips have had their leaves or flower stems broken or chewed through by something. Does any one know if this is likely caused by cutworms or by rodents or birds (or cats)? The broken stems are just left lying on the ground without much apparently being eaten (see photo). Although there is a slug on one leaf in the photo I'm sure he isn't the culprit as I've been dealing with slugs for years and never seen this type of damage. I dug around the soil nearby but found no sign of grubs. I've sometimes had cutworms before, but never on bulbs and could usually find them in the ground near the chewed plants. A couple of websites suggested putting broken eggshells down to discourage cutworms; does this work? Another mentioned Epsom salts, but I don't know if they are supposed to work as a powder to irritate the skin, or by dissolving into the soil (which I suspect would happen quite quickly in rainy Vancouver). Would they be likely to damage the tulips or other nearby plants?
Looks like perhaps whatever it was, was going for the nectar in the developing flower. I'd guess something fairly large, such as rats or raccoons (or maybe even deer), rather than an insect or other invertebrate.
deer, raccoon, skunk, rabbits; even neighborhood cats or dogs running around, would cause that kind of damage. i had similar damage to some of my iris and liles last year...we have all of the above in the area, so, no way to know what did the deed...was a one-time deal though and all the plants still ended up flowering.
dt-van. My guess would be deer. They generally love tulips or will just taste and spit it out if they don't. We call them "Rats with hooves". Get up really early in the a.m. or stay up late and watch. You just might get a big supprise! barb
