Can you take a picture of the damage?

Hi pixie lou,

I'll try to get a good picture of it tonight.

We've never had one attacked. i'm wondering if skunks were digging for what's UNDER the pulmonaria in the soil.
mindy

Here are a few pictures...

And this is what's left of Pulmonaria 'Moonshine'. I just planted it this Spring and it was a healthy, full young plant.

Hi mindy, we do have a local skunk I often see, but the roots of the plants aren't disturbed. Would a skunk dig up the soil?

The plants look like a pile of collapsed leaves when the evil critter is done. The leaves seem cut off right at ground level. Last Fall many of my Pulmonaria were attacked the very same way and are still recovering this Spring. So lungworts are a particular favorite. And last Fall it was most likely the same creature that next attacked Hosta 'Guacamole'. It was newly planted last Spring, grew well, and even popped out a lovely flower scape, --and then was reduced to a pile of cut leaves too. It's bad enough to lose plants in late Fall when everything is winding down, but to lose them now... All of the plants seem to recover but it takes a long time.

Any thoughts?

Now that is just rude!! I have never seen damage like that before. I have had a lot of skunk damage which is always limited to digging something up in search of meaty grubs. I have also had wayyyyy too much rabbit damage which is limited to what they eat. Deer of course wouldn't be bother at this time of year with your sweet little Pulmonaria.
If I recall correctly other on this forum have had the same type of damage and I believe it was either squirrels or chipmunks. Sorry for your loss.

good LORD leslie. What kt said.

Now that you've had this horror for 2 years, it's time to take control. You DO have the bigger brain, after all.How about a cage over it til june or something, using landscape staples to secure it?at night. (skunks only come out at night)or a have a heart trap.(don't worry; they can't get their tails up high enough to spray you in a have a heart trap.)
mindy

Dreadful! It doesn't look like skunk damage to me either, as when they disturb plants in my experience they dig the whole thing to see what is under it. And it doesn't look like voles who eat the roots. Wood chucks will shred plants, but usually to get them down to ground level, and they typically eat more than was eaten of your plants.

If it is squirrels, would sprinkling hot pepper flakes or tabasco over your new plants until they have settled in discourage the little buggers?

I have to admit, the sympathy you all offer cheers me up quite a bit. --It was such a lovely little thing. (Tear drop falls...) I'm living in fear that my 'Guacomole' will be next... I fence in most of my shrubs to protect them from deer, but the thought of fencing in perennials --not the prettiest garden design! Still, I could put a cage over the damaged Pulmonaria just to help them recover...

Doesn't it seem spiteful, though? That's exactly the impression I got from the carnage. Some evil little thing just did it out of spite. (If it's a chipmunk they're not as cute as they look.)

And nhbabs, if you look really closely you'll see spots of cayenne pepper. --But I later read that if it gets in the animals eyes it can be very bad. So now I'm feeling guilty as well!

Thanks very, very much to everyone for feeling my pain.

I'm wondering if deer tried to browse it and didn't like the hairy leaves.

I had this same type of odd damage to some hostas years ago--pre-deer. I called the town animal control officer to come see the damage to analyze the problem and lend me a hav-a-heart. His idea? A jealous fellow-gardener ripping apart my plants in a tantrum. It was so ridiculous that I still laugh when I think about it.

ha!hysterical. sexist comment: that's a man for ya'.

Gosh - I have no idea what did that. But I'm guessing some juvenile delinquent animal.

I was out in my shade garden yesterday. Some juvenile delinquent took a chomp of one of my lily plants. The stem was all frayed - almost looked like a not so dry wooden branch that was snapped in two. Then I noticed the tops of a bunch of primrose had been had been nippeed off. At least my creature had the courtesy to remove his damage. I'm guessing it was the wood chuck.

I would rule out voles too. are there any roots? My voles leave the hosta leaves but the roots get eaten. The leaves are usually laying neatly on top attached to nothing. Yours looks like an above-ground disaster.

I often have crows tearing up my grass to get at something underneath. That's what this reminds me of. Some bird pecking at the leaves to find a tidbit.

Hi everyone,

It is very strange. No root damage, and no digging. It is as runktrun said very RUDE, and definitely a juvenile deliquent, pixie lou. It's just some evil critter that chops leaves and flower stems off at ground level and leaves them in a pile for me to find. I'm still thinking it's a squirrel that's irritated that I'm planting in its acorn larder. The animal seems to like attacking Pulmonaria more than anything else. Nothing else has been disturbed so far this season. I still have a couple of untouched Pulmonaria so the animal doesn't really seem to be seeking them out, just destroying them when it comes across them.

Ginny, I also wondered about deer because Hosta 'Guacamole' was so torn up last Fall and it seemed too much damage for a squirrel to do. But a hungry deer could devour both beds in a single night. --If it's a deer, I should just consider myself lucky, I guess. (And at least it's not a crazed, jealous fellow-gardener! Ha!)

I'm now afraid of causing permanent harm to the animal if I sprinkle cayenne pepper on my plants, but nhbabs mentioned red pepper flakes and tabasco... I may invest in a dozen shakers of red pepper flakes at the Job Lot.

It couldn't be slugs, could it? (An army of slugs. Shudder.) I just happened to see some young slugs on daffodil flowers. I doubt slugs could be responsible for so much damage on one specific kind of plant. Still, time to put the beer traps out...

Try sprinkling with hot pepper flakes. Many mammals find them unappealing. It would need renewal after rain. Don’t use Tobasco or similar because the vinegar might create problems.

Rabbits have a habit of cutting off leaves at the ground, with a nice and neat cut, laying them out to admire them, and then deciding not to eat them. I've had rabbits do this to my hostas. Infuriating.

This happened to me too. Almost exactly. I have a lot if chipmunks and squirrels. One leaf left. I put toothpicks around it in hopes to help.

Hmmmmmm.....we have an over abundance of chipmunks and squirrels and I've never seen this happen to my pulmonaria. I really hope I didn't just jinx myself........

Squirrels have decimated THREE pulmonaria plants of mine. They like to gnaw on the leaf stems, then strew the leaves all over my yard. I've interrupted them when they're sitting in the pulmonaria plants. Repelling pest sprays and red pepper have not worked, so I just covered the plants with netting.

Next year, everyone, try putting the repellent on very early, as soon as the foliage emerges. I did that after two years of losing the juicy new tips of dozens of small hostas. I bought the repellent in late summer or fall so I had it ready to go in spring.and applied on one of the early spring forays into the garden.

Two that work are 'rabbit scram' and 'liquid fence'....

What about groundhogs? they do this to my plants. Any sign of a groundhog? skunks dig for grubs that often reside near roots , voles eat the roots.

This was a 13 year old post but the mystery was not solved or reported to us, though i people were still commenting 2 years ago. any new ideas?

i have since used ”planskydd” and it has been very effective against rabbits.

i didnt appy it to yews last fall so they were again eaten to the quick.

if they are still viable and push out new foliage this season i will spray them in late fall and cross my fingers that deer will be repelled.

Plantskydd is certainly repellent to the human nose for a day or two after application.