Oh Brandy! I am so sorry to hear of this! :( I hate to blame everything on Voles,but it is a real possibility they are your culprit! They have never hesitated to climb into my potted plants and help themselves,I have lost many plants due to their enormous appetite. Maybe it could have been slugs or snails? Pillbugs? I don't know if these bugs do consume bulbs,but they could have done in your plants! :O

I do feel your pain,I have been in your position before and it really does stink!

If you want, send me a list of what you lost,maybe I can help you replace some of them! I really wouldn't mind,so please, if you want to try to replace them,let me know,I would be glad to help if I can :)

So sorry brandymulvaine. It really does hurt when you lose what you've been nurturing for so long! I had a similar painful experience this year with seeds that I had saved so carefully from my plants last fall. I opted to save seeds in open cups so they could dry. I must have had 48 different kinds of poppies, larkspur, chinese houses....just everything you can imagine! They were all set out in styro cups in a metal shed which was dry and warm. The perfect environment to let them naturally continue to dry. Well I forgot about them as soon as the gardening came to a halt in November. When I trudged through snow in January to get the seeds to WS I was shocked, stunned, and utterly heartbroken to discover that rats had found a way into the shed and had devoured all the seeds over the winter, one cup at a time. With each dining experience the rats left droppings and urine in the bottom of every...I mean EVERY cup! My disgust was matched only by my despair. But the story has a triumphant ending. The nasty creatures also chewed a huge 4" hole into a heavy cardboard canister of gopher bait that I'd had for years. I think it was strychnine(sp)laced and you can only guess what I found as I traced the grain around on the floor. YES!! dead rats!! That's what they get for messing with MY WS plans! Don't give up brandymulvaine, just chalk it up to dealing with mother nature's thugs. I don't have much to offer in the way of replacing what you've lost but I can certainly feel your pain. Good luck to you.

Thanks for your understanding-it's nice talking with people that understand :-)
On the plus side I have alot of 4in pots freed up now-
It was somethig large, vole,rat, or ground squirrel.
There were tunnels in the dirt under the lattice I had laid down to keep the rabbits out. Most pots had been hollowed out and packed with leaves like a little furry body had laid there. It wasn't like mice though who leave bits of fur and soft things. I'll look in the morning for droppings. Thanks again-I feel better. My plan of action, Identify and attack!! -B

Yep! Thats exactly what you do,a little detective work and you will nab the culprit! :) Good luck,keep us posted on the little criminal!

I've seen pillbugs mentioned several times in this forum. But unless I was taught wrongly, they eat only dead vegetation. You'll find them particularly if you use wood to surround your bed or wood chip mulch.
Not your culprit.
My horticulture instructor finally ID'd my enemy as the slugs I NEVER see!
Sally

Sally :),I know that is what I was always told about pill bugs,but after seeing them mauling my seedlings I knew that wasn't true,I removed my wood chips where they are bad years ago,and they still hang around,just not on as large of scale as they were one year,that year I had nothing grow to any bigger than one set of true leaves because of them in 2 areas.I had to get chemical on them that year,nothing else worked,and believe me I tried every suggestion I had at the time! Also I found them burrowing into a perfectly healthy,very much alive Lupine root,they did that in too. They ate all of my perennial 4 get me nots also,so the myth that they are harmless to your plants is just that, a myth, at least at my house,if I had not seen them with my own two eyes I wouldn't have believed it either! So don't trust them for a second! :)

Good to know, Thanks!

I do feel for you!

BTW Pillbugs(the ones that curl when disturbed) and Sowbugs are what are known as facultative feeders. This means they will and do eat both decaying matter and small tender shoots, seedlings and soft new growth on young plants. Will also eat soft fruit that lies on the ground. They have up to 3 generations per year and have a lifespan of about 3 years. I doubt too that these are what ate your plants because they don't pull plants out of the pots/ground!
Voles and or field mice or both I would suspect as well; especially if you piled it on last year before the first hard freeze. If you do it sooner mice/voles are looking for nesting sites and your nice pile of leaves could look pretty darn inviting! I live next to a wheat field on one side and a empty weedy lot on the other. We have gazillions of field mice and voles! For that reason I always wait to lay down much after the ground is frozen and rake it off in March. Gives less hiding places for other ickies like slugs (active at 40F) and earwigs too :D

I'm thinking they were meadow voles -now that the snow is mostly gone I can see their tunnels. Has anyone had any luck getting these things to go BUH-BYE??
-B

No, Brandy, hate to say it but they were my real nemesis last year. Prior to that they were not a problem. I suspect that my heavy use of organic material as mulch does make things comfy for them.

I tried spring traps: caught and beheaded a beautiful cardinal. They ignored the bated havaheart trap. My husband put out sticky traps and caught a robin (which eventually did free itself). D-Con (under an upside down flower pot and staked) did seem to help some, but can be questionable and dangerous outside.

They also were digging up an area where I planted my Yvonne's Salvia. Following Linda's suggestion I tried Linda's advice to use chicken wire and it seemed to work, so I'm going to try that in some areas again this year. Place chicken wire flat on the ground and stake and staple to the soil. (You can use cut up coat hangers to make staples). When planting out I clipped a wire here and there as necessary to plant a small hunk of seedlings, sticking the wire ends down into the soil around the seedlings. The voles didn't bother that area for the rest of the summer when they were upending plants in the rest of my yard.

This seemed to work, but it takes FOREVER to do and plant out. I'll probably do this again this year in some area.

Karen

Voles don't make tunnels, they're like field mice - sorta. (Moles make tunnels. Google for different strategies.) I have a wooded lot and lotsa voles - only reason I tolerate the next-door cats using my cutting garden as a litter box. Although I use chicken wire against them too!
Sally

Voles do make tunnels, they just don't stick up like the mounds that you see with moles.

Here is a link that might be useful: voles, tunnels

Voles DO make tunnels under the cover of tall grasses and mulches. They often take advantage of old mole tunnels to get around too! True story :D

Here is a link that might be useful: Voles

{{gwi:378871}}This looks just like the "tunnels" or runways that are in my yard!! I put down bait, but not sure if I want to leave it out-I worry about the environment. I'm going to put down used kitty litter on the other side of the fence, maybe they'll go back out to the ditch. Does anyone know what happens if a cat eats a poisoned vole?
-B

Here is a link that might be useful: voles

Yep! Voles! Little jerks! I tried kitty litter for them and to be honest it had no effect,neither did human and animal hair. I have not seen a sign of them since I put down coffee grounds in one area,coincidence,I don't know. but there were regular paths going through there that I have not seen since! :)

I am pretty sure I heard if a kitty eats a poisoned vole it can make kitty sick,but that very well may be a myth. I would have to look into that one more if you are concerned. I thought of killing them also,but I just didnt have the heart even though I loathe them some days,just want to try to get them to surrender and leave,end the battle that way! I am still giving the egg spray a shot,I will let you all know if it is effective with voles....little monsters!

brandy: If it's one area you could try to chicken wire as I mentioned above. It's really the only thing that seemed to help me last year. Problem is my beds are islands here and there, irregular shapes, so I can't do it to all my beds.

I would gladly kill the little !@#$%s if I just knew how. I'd appreciate any suggestions. BTW, I use coffee grounds in my garden all the time, have for years, and I actually thought the grounds might be attracting them!

Karen