The cuts are very clean. Almost like pruning shears. Not deer like.

This is also in the fenced area around the pool. While I think deer could jump the fence I don’t think they’d go to the trouble.

The roses in pots on the back deck and even inside the greenhouse have also been ‘hard pruned’. Whatever it is has to be something small enough to get in the greenhouse and something that can climb.

Here are photos of Jude the Obscure from October and then the end of December.

I’ve put large and small pinwheels all over, scare tape, owl bobble head, motion sensing hawk, liquid fence... We have 3 dogs and a cat that are out there everyday with us.

To top it off, a huge hawk is now making a nest in a tree 50 ft from the pool. I’ve been watching our dogs extra close because this hawk has made a few swoops on the puppy.

I’m just not sure what else to try?

A strange note:

The roses most attacked have been in pots or containers. The only roses planted in the ground that have been eaten are the Earth Angels.

Thanks yall for anything you can suggest.

Hugs!

Doubt that its squirrels, I'm betting on deer.

I'm with Steve, that looks like deer. And yes, they would jump a fence by a pool.

Thanks, but I’m certain it isn’t deer. This a picture I just took inside the greenhouse. There’s no way for the deer to get inside.

Guess you need a live cam out there see who the culprit is, I've never seen squirrels do that, may be a rodent I don't have around here :) Good luck.

LOL Thanks Steve. I’m thinking squirrel Godzilla?

We moved 4 wildlife cameras to this fenced area. Whatever it is is small enough or quick enough the cameras aren’t picking it up.

My husband normally has these cameras outside the fenced area to take pictures of the deer that visit our feeder.

Al (hubby) even bought new motion sensor spotlights AND a video camera security system. He put the spots up, but hasn’t completely installed the security cameras yet. So far I have the spots which are great, but then random holes in the drywall with wires hanging. (The outside Christmas decorations I can’t reach are still up too). ;-) LOL

Definitely a rodent, and since it's too high for a rabbit, it's probably squirrels. The give away, if the greenhouse damage isn't enough proof, is the angle of the cuts. I'm looking at your close up: deer leave blunt, horizontal cuts; rodents leave very pointed, 45 degree angle cuts.

But boy, those are some hungry squirrels!

Edit: I'm wondering if the HAWK is not the reason the varmints have attacked your roses. With the hawk moving in, the squirrels are foraging in the most protected spots they can find.

John

Moses, leave the hawks alone lol! They will scarf the squirrels sooner or later. They are good to have around :)

Dingo,

Ordinarily, yes. But a Red Tail Hawk will kill and carry off a small cat or small puppy. They will particularly harass any small enough creature they cannot kill that they find in their nesting zone.

Not far from me a hawk swooped down and carried off a woman's Chihuahua. The dog was right at her feet.

I have nothing against hawks. I like them. They are beautiful, and one of God's valuable creatures. I have no axe to grind against hawks.

When a hawk is hungry or angry they take risks they normally don't. They are super aggressive predators.

A Peregrine Falcon nesting two miles from me decided she did not like her mate and bit his head off. In another nest, a Peregrine hen decided to kill three of her nestlings, and feed them to her fourth nestling, the one she chose to survive. That was done in spite of the fat, slow flying, well fed park pigeons by the hundreds flying around her nest zone just there for her to effortlessly kill and eat.

My pigeon buddy had a Coopers Hawk attack him and thrust its talons into his bare arm. The hawk was not playing around.

Moses

Wow! Great advice. Thanks so much!

The rodents out here do seem to be quite prolific and brave. Not sure why. For years we’ve had lots of small hawks and some of the largest owls I’ve ever seen.

I think this new larger hawk is a red tailed or red shouldered, but I haven’t seen it for long enough (with my glasses on lol) to be sure. It’s definitely larger than the several pileated woodpeckers we have nesting by the creek. The hawk doesn’t stay in the tree/nest very long or often, but I’ve noticed the blob of sticks in the tree is growing.

Our dogs range in weight from 12-18pds, but my daughter’s Pom, “Spike”, visits frequently and only weighs 4. So I’m kind of in a spot because I think the hawks are beautiful and I need it because of all of the rodents. However I’m NOT interested in it going after our furbabies like a fat kid at an ice cream bar. It seems a fair solution to me to discourage this large one from putting down roots in the backyard by disturbing the beginnings of a nest. Im not sure we can throw anything into the tree because of the height, but I think we may try to treat it like harvesting mistletoe.

Peanut butter! Yes!! :smacks forehead: Great suggestion! We do have a trap. Not sure what kind of trap it is, but we used it to relocate an armadillo a few years ago. I use peanut butter on the field mice in the garage and it works great. We’ve had the big trap out back for almost a month now without a nibble, but we baited it with broccoli.

I think I’m also going to visit the nursery right up the road this week, and pick their brain on what they might do to protect their plants. Whatever this rodent is it is also eating up my Professor Sargent Camellia. :-(

I’ll keep y’all posted on what the critter turns out to be. Hopefully we can catch the culprit soon. Thanks again!

I would not be surprise if it i were squirrels as well. Even though they never ate any of my roses they ate so many things in my garden that I have developped a visceral hatred. We have a huge infestation of them in my neighborhood and more generally in Montreal. Some people tend to feed them, they overpopulate, and since they don't have any ''natural'' food left they just eat ANYTHING. Like I said in another discussion they ate my hibiscus, my rhodos and even indoor plants. Hell, they ate a whole 6 feet Draceana ! And don't even get me started with potted plants that they dig out completely to put their whole peanuts. Also, one defecated on me while I was eating in my backyard..

I tried the Tomcat rat trap with peanut butter and these buggers would sneakily set them off and lick all off. Then I bought the WCS Tube Trap. A dream ! It is a very effective and clean killing machine. No blood, quick death and undefeatable. I caught 10 in 10 days (I could not reset the trap during the day). Listen to wise Moses and don't forget to tie the trap like I did, because some coyote just took it as a to-go meal. (Coyotes, now that is another subject...)

Squirrels have done that in my yard. I have witnessed it first hand, and the cut is clean like that. They do it to my Don Juan that is on a backyard fence. This year I am going to put chili powder down. But you have to do it again after it rains. I don't want to hurt the squirrels, just deter them. They ate my camelias last year too. I saw one out my kitchen window chowing down on one.

We got one!! hehehehehehehe

While I thought they were squirrels and squirrels still may be involved, I caught a woodrat.

Of course Al wasn't here so I called my daughter because her boyfriend deals with rodents at work. I wasn't completely sure what kind of critter I'd caught to start. It looked like a small, attractive possum. Hair on it's tail, but not like a squirrel. Seemed to me like a rat, but different in small ways? Seemed like Godzilla the field mouse too.

Before my daughter Cait and her BF Nick could offer advice or come help. I started feeling guilty (I know :facepalm:). The critter seemed stressed out. It could of been because of the cold, daylight, too much peanut butter, or that my lhasa puppy was licking its toes through the holes in trap. I'm no expert. I decided to turn him out on the other side of the fence and cover him with leaves in case he was cold and if the hawk comes back. He ran off later or something got him. Not sure.

My thought process was that he's obviously only one of many, no matter what I do with this one critter I still have to deter the others, and (lol) maybe he will go home at tell his buddies our yard isn't as cool as they thought. And most importantly & seriously, putting the trap out there was really to identify the culprit animal. With where we live in the boonies/woods there's really no way I could catch or kill all the critters after my roses. I've just got to think of a ways to make them move along. OTOH Al may still be out there popping them from time to time. Another thing I can't prevent. ;-)

We did knock the beginning bits of the hawk's nest down per Moses' advice, and I haven't seen or heard the hawk since. Yay! :-)

The plan moving forward is to add cayenne pepper when I spray for black spot, drip peppermint oil about, better employ our giant aged cat, move the wood pile and make it less hospitable, and plant anti rodent companion plants. Of these in the past I have used peppermint oil in the garage to keep the field mice out of our vehicles. It seems to have worked decently? We have been handling the problem in the garage with a variety of methods, but I don't want to use the poison boxes or moth balls in the yard because of the dogs and grandbaby. And I'm pretty sure I'll be pulling up spearmint for years. -_- Planted that glorified weed all around the garage to deter mice and will NOT be planting it as a rose companion out back. And here I was thinking I wouldn't be busy in the yard during the winter...

I'm pretty sure we won't have any Professor Sargent Camellia blooms this year. :-( But hopefully we can get the rodents in check and look to next year.

I found this video that shows woodrats damaging roses in someone else's yard.

Omg, I am glad you got to the bottom of the mystery of the roses. I was curious who the culprit might be. At least it is not Godzilla...lol.

My husband and I read about what Moses wrote. It is a brilliant plan and it is safe.

Moses is right again. Hawks can be very dangerous and they don't play. Seen it up North in Michigan. I rather move them elsewhere. Don't worry, they can still see you even they move not far away...lol

Jin

How did this work out?

Better luck this year?

My new roses are growing at a glacial pace and don't look particularly healthy, so them getting "pruned" or disturbed is even more irritating than normal.

I have some light pruning that isn't my doing, as well as small holes dug around the bases of some of them. Even the evergreens in urns on the front porch get dug out.

I was thinking birds or squirrels because they are all over our yard, but am now wondering if it's mice and if you found a way to deter them.

Hi JC!

Oh yes! We had great success with a combo of Plantskyyd, peppermint essential oil, a big bobble head owl, and mothballs & mouse/rat traps in our garage and shed.

I started a new business last fall and have been doublely in the weeds since. Other than the current Japanese beetle onslaught the roses have had a fantastic start. I was thoroughly pleased to clean more rose petals than oak tassels out of the pool this year. ;-)

-Shannon :-)

We have rabbits, wood rats and lots of squirrels. Last year they completely ate my reblooming irises, sea lavender (limonium perezii), pelargoniums and any parts of my roses that they could reach. I've had to research companion plants that for the most part they wouldn't eat and planted monkey flowers (mimulus), penstemons, milkweed and sages, with pretty good success so far. For the roses I used wire cages and plastic fencing going up about 1.5 to 2 feet around the roses with again quite a good success rate. I grow a lot of old roses that get fairly tall, and basically the plan is to have roses that are at least 3 to 4 feet tall or higher. I live in the country where I depend on coyote predation (plus hawks and owls) to keep the numbers of the little guys down to a reasonable level. Having a perfect garden under these conditions is not an option, but with planting smarter in regard to the companion plants and protecting the roses to some extent we've reached a workable compromise. It's live and let live to some extent which suits my tree-hugging, animal-loving nature while I'm still able to have a garden that I love.

Penstemon 'Midnight' blooming unmolestedMilkweed, which blooms constantly and has never been touched. The sage next to it was eaten to the ground once and has not been touched since it came up again.Wire cages and a plastic one around some of the roses. When they grow larger I'll use plastic around all of them. (Enlarge picture to see detail of the cages).

What a wonder your garden is, Ingrid. All looks wonderful.