And I added this thread to ask about possible deterrents:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3265220/would-this-deter-animals-what-would

K.

Holy cow, Kat. That is awful and I am getting upset for you!

You grow in NYC and this happened or the suburbs of NYC? I'm from Greenwich, CT originally and I've seen raccoons do some damage there but at worst, it was 10% of what you've pictured. There's nil chance you have a bear loose in NYC...but it has to be a significant beast of an animal to do that.

Is it only the pepper plants that got pulled up? I saw the squash with Wolverine marks on it but the plant remains in ground?

I would say caging is a viable solution, but honestly, whatever did that, nothing but a steel cage around each plant would stop it, I imagine.

The utmost solution is to get a dog. A good German Shepherd in the house will definitely hear something this nasty going on outside and you just open the door and let it loose. Whether or not the dog catches the creature, it won't come back....though my dogs running through that patch to kill the creature would have likely done additional damage.

What the....hope you catch the beast. That's so upsetting.

Wow K., so sorry :(. I'll agree with others, it's some kind of foraging animal. But it's the first time i've ever seen a forager so thorough with it's destruction.

I hope you have some plants left (?)

Pretty much only a fence keeps foragers away, and if it's a ground hog, then that fence has to be sunk into the dirt, maybe up to a foot, since they would normally dig under the fence. Spraying weekly with hot pepper-water spray would help somewhat, but it's extra labor and plant leaves do not enjoy the excess moisture (disease etc). I wonder if mothballs would work since they are great for keeping animals out from underneath your porch or shed.

Take care, and good luck either way.

Steve

Invest $150 in a game camera. They take visible light and infrared pics and are motion activated. View them on your computer. Once you find out what it is, then you can take appropriate measures like trapping or wacking. Just be glad you don't have a herd of feral hogs go through yer garden...

Thank you everyone for being so supportive. I felt a real blow. I haven't gardened for quite a few years and was getting emotionally attached to my garden and working very hard on it.

I could not take care of the plants yesterday because I had a long list of responsibilities. I cleaned up this morning and replanted what I could. I had left the soaker hoses on full so the exposed roots had not dried up. Some of these plants will live but with much setback. Most plants have 50-90% broken off though. And most of the pepper that have been growing for the last 2-3 weeks are gone. So its start over with new peppers to set. So who knows if there will be ripe peppers this year.

This animal had done this once before and I had cleaned up and replanted what I could. And before I could regroup it came 2 days later and did it again. That's what hurt. I did not think I could find and put up a defense before it destroyed everything I have growing.

No bears, no deers where I live. And I don't think we have armadillos. But I have seen skunks and opossum, along with babies. They just walk past me, sniffing me as if its there place and I am intruding. And way, way, too many raccoons. There may be groundhogs but I have not seen them, yet. And though we have what seems like a million squirrels it is not those at this time. They are completely diurnal and have left these plants alone so far. (They are onto the fruit and nut trees all day long.) This animal only comes late into the night. And its a waddler as I look at the path of destruction. I am thinking it is raccoons and skunks.

It is a dexterous animal. It cleanly broke off branches instead of just crushing the plants with its weight although it do a lot of crushing. But I really don't understand why it would do so, so, so much damage when it just wanted some peppers or soil animals. An angry, hungry, teenage mammal like Marianne said.

It was focused on the peppers but it was not only the peppers. Big bites have been taken out of all the low hanging eggplants and mauled too. It had tried to dig out the eggplant-plants too and break branches but these plants were much bigger and hardier and it did not succeed it doing as much damage.

One thing I did last night to try to distract this animal was put out plates in three areas of my yard with peanut butter, cat food and cooked rice. As well as bowls of water. Everything was licked clean. and none of my plants were touched. I did not see any fresh wounds. So it did come again. I don't know if it was a good or bad thing to do. Maybe I am inviting more trouble.

I know the sentiment now why villagers kill wildlife. For me, these plants are just a lighthearted hobby, for them its a livelihood. If an animal caused this much destruction to ones livelihood its not a surprise that one would want them dead. And this coming from an unequivocally animal/environment friendly family.

I am working on fencing and thinking about a dog as has been suggested.

Thank you so much for listening.

K.

Much luck to you! Hope you can fend it off!

if you have raccoons, I totally picture a raccoon party ala "The Great Outdoors"

ROTFL!!!

Kat, that is awesome. If you can't figure it out, put out food!! Omg I laughed so hard reading that.

I would not have thought to do that but it makes sense and is hilarious LOL! Totally awesome!

Good luck!

Grace

Having a dog will just increase the possibility of damage to your garden from digging, IMHO, having been there. Identifying the varmint is step one. Here's a pic taken at night by my game cam. They can shoot videos too.

Thanks so much everyone.

Sugi......It was Marianne who kind of led me to the idea of food. She said in her case, the birds were going mad because they were so thirsty and she would put water out for them. I did notice this, but didn't make anything of it earlier: There is a spot in my yard where a hose leaks and I would put a bucket under it to catch the drips. And every morning I would find the bucket knocked and rolled over. And if not knocked over I would see fur floating in the water. So they did want water.

I still don't have a real solution but every night I put out food and water and it gets eaten.

That was the night animals. This morning I saw squirrels going for the few remaining peppers and the emerging eggplants. Now I have zip peppers. This is really sad.

Marianne: I too had visions of "the Great Outdoors" and also "Madagascar" and "Bugs Life". Remember "Where's my FOOD?!" That's the only part that gave me a chuckle. I am wondering if I am sending out a message, bring your buddies and family over.

K.

Kat,

When I was about 10, we went on a trip to Yosemite. At night, I heard scratching outside and peeked out to find one raccoon. To my 10 year old city girl self, this was adorable. Woke my whole family up and I tossed Dorito chips in tiny pieces for it.

It went away finally, but within two minutes, it brought back a whole clan of raccoons -- 9-10 raccoons! . Not so cute anymore. I remember thinking I could make them go away by making the Doritos bad--and what's worse than Tabasco, right?

Wrong.

These guys would simply scratch off the sauce and munch away approaching closer and closer. My dad put an end to that quickly and the scratching lasted for over an hour but I learned my lesson: never feed raccoons. LOL