Pests in my garden

This is the second year in a row for this behavior in my raised garden beds. I will plant lettuce, spinach, parsley and within a day or so, the entire plant is eaten. I have searched for bugs but can find no evidence of any. I put a 2 foot barrier around the beds thinking rabbits were the culprit...no footprints in the soil. Literally, today I went out in the AM and things were good, by afternoon, all gone.
Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

 

I suspect deer though I have caught opossum, raccoon and rabbits eating plants and stealing veggies. Rabbits are pretty easily stopped by a 2' high fence and I've never seen opossum bother climbing over but a fence that short is hardly noticeable to a deer.

Before I built my maximum security prison garden with permanent fencing. I had good luck with electric fencing. Just a few strands of wire was all it took and it was visually less obtrusive than a traditional fence. And, after you get shocked once or twice you learn to turn it off before working in the garden.

 

thanks, but NO deer unless they can fly....back yard walled in high (7 feet)....crazy trying to figure this out.

 

Just guessing here, but crows and sea gulls will eat just about anything.

To determine if the problem is larger than a bug, trowel some fine sand around a few plants so any foot prints, be they animal or birds will show up. If the plants disappear and there are not tracks, it will be an insect. Even a mouse will leave tracks.

Once you pin down the source of the problem, you can select the proper action.

Bud

 

Try to determine if the entire plant is eaten or pulled out and taken away. Large birds are notorious for this. Maybe drape some vinyl/plastic mesh over the area and see if anything changes. Insects don’t eat entire plants, especially that quickly. You would see some insects anyway.

Also consider moles, gophers, voles, rodents in general and keep an open mind about rats too. Rats will travel a long way from where they are living to get food. They may not feel safe living at your place, but safe enough to feed there and return home. I think you guys in Cal have roof rats-they are very capable of climbing, leaping, etc.

Is this happening after dark or during daytime or both? Good thing to know. Keep us posted.