Hi All,

So about a month ago, I started noticing some of the limbs of my trees being chewed off.  At the time, I found two grasshoppers in the backyard.  The damage is consistent with the grasshopper damage I sustained in the field in Texas, albeit not nearly so severe.  The grasshoppers have no persisted, but the damage has after a short hiatus.  There are some peculiarities about the damage...

• All of the damage are to limbs with the latest attack on a leaf. 
• No fruit has been damaged and there has been no damage to the tomatoes, squash, cucumbers or pumkins... all of which have ripened (the pumpkins are close) during the span of attacks.
• All of the damage seem to be in the range of 10-14" off the surface of the deck.
• None of the cuts have been clean.
• None of the containers were moved

Squirrels?
Rabbits? 

My first thought is often deer.

I can rule out deer and most likely squirrels. 

Deers would have to get their front legs on a retaining wall and poke their heads through the railing of the deck about a foot to reach where some of the damage is.  Plus, we are only talking about a limb here and there.  None of the trees had more than 2 limbs chewed on and most were only a single limb.  The damage to CdDN was hard for me to find because it was within a bushy part of the small tree and hidden by the leaves from the rest of the limbs.

Squirrels go after the fruit.  Not the trees.  The damage to Paradiso was right next to a small fig.  Other trees have swollen figs on them.  None were disturbed.

A rabbit would have had to stand on the 1 gallon containers in front of Paradiso to get to the leaf.  They were not damaged or moved.

I hope it is not the dreaded batocera beetle, or like the Malta incident ( sound like a good movie)

How much of the Malta Black was eaten? (length...)

I had my 2 figs beaten on a sprouting swollen nude, half was left (i guess the taste wasn't that appealing to the created) but the other half left node is showing signs of growth, also on another one an entire green huge fig is missing (big unsolved mystery).
The only things that walk around the figgies are Squirrels (that I know of) and deers are behind (outside) of the fences some 20 feet away.
 
   

It's not bear, raccoon, or fox. Don't be so sure it's not deer. If they could reach the plants they probably will.

You might consider a motion activated camera, they are a little pricey but well worthwhile. If it is a bird or mammal, the camera will catch it and you will be able to actions accordingly rather than shooting in the dark.

JMO

Scott 

My vote is something much smaller than a bear, although not nearly as interesting as a bear, could potentially be worse for a fig tree lover.

A twig girdler, a type of beetle that does just that.  I had a 3/4" limb on an accacia tree get totally and neatly severed, i couldn't figure it out for the life of me until I actually caught a longhorn type actually in the process of girdling (sp?) another limb.

I've been fortunate that they haven't returned.  In your case, I recommend Neem oil as a deterrent.

I've always thought one of those nature cams could come in real handy.  

James,

I had this happen on a single occasion this summer to my Atreano. It looked like the exact same scenario as your Paradiso leaf. I vote squirrels, that is the only thing it could have been in my fenced yard with a beagle around(when he's not outside of course). At my old house I had a Silver Maple tree in the backyard, I would sometimes see squirrels remove leaves and sit and eat them. Therefore I concluded it must have been a squirrel that was testing the fig leaf but in the end didn't like it. That Atreano was in the middle of the yard, in the middle of a bunch of other fig trees.  I have had squirrels dig in pots that were in the middle of the yard and amongst other fig trees also; I had a Black Walnut sprout in one of those pots this spring. I think they are just sampling the flora for something good to eat.

Maybe a bird trying to sit on the stem leave and broke it off?

The other photos look like a rabbit had a bite and didn't like it if those were close laugh to the ground

A roof rat. Yea it sounds crazy but just delt with one at my moms house. My brother finally cought it in a trap so we are sure what it was. It cut orange tree leaves and made a bed.

I had something take a few bites of my young cactus.   A possum?

Possums eat meat and fruit but not leaves and stems.

Hi James,
IMO, on your malta black, it is a deer attack . Because the cuts are so straight and large .
Rabbits would mess up the dirt for digging a hole and they make pooh around . Did you observe such things ?
I had a beast mess up dirt in two pots ... those were house sparrows bathing in the dirt of the pots.
It could as well be some rodents (rats...)  - although those beats would attack at the base of the tree and not from the upper side.
So for me, because of the attack coming from the upper side, you're looking for deers .
Buy some "harissa / hot chilly pepper sauce" and dispose some around. You could make side holes in a small plastic bottle
, put some harissa inside them and dispose some around the trees . Those beasts don't like spicy/chilly smells as they are always sniffing around nose in the wind
to protect themselves from predators and chilly smells would disturb them.
I just caught a mole on Saturday ! Keep on fighting !
And always remember : 1 alive today, 10 more in 6 months ...

On your "smith" as I don't know the missing length, it could perhaps be a bud rot. I had that on two stems ... With just no reason at all.
On a young "Dalmatie" one bud got attacked underneath by a biting insect - stem half removed or pinched on the last segment - so the bud broke and fell off .

It's hard to tell how tall the stems are, and what their diameter is. Looking at the nibble site, it could very well be a squirrel, but my vote is rabbit. I think the squirrel would have sampled the fig.  Also, squirrels like to dig in the medium, too, and knock the pots over and you reported none of that.

Thanks all for the comments. 

I went out to check tonight and just missed the culprit.  Here is the same pic as above of Paradiso.  Everything above the red line is gone.  There was fresh latex on the wound.

 
It happened while I was sitting just inside from the deck.  Any large animal would have been heard.  I searched all of the trees for insects and there were none, plus I do not know any insect which could remove so much material in a very short time (since I last checked).  I am fairly certain it is a rabbit.  Especially since it happened just after dark.  I had watered my trees on Saturday with a urine/testosterone solution, but that does not seem to deter the rabbits.

You can rule out foxes, raccoon, and bear. Cottontail rabbits can browse up to 18 inches standing on their hind legs. Jack rabbits could browse higher than that. I would find odd though for a rabbit to venture onto a deck. If you look closely at the browsed stems if it is a rodent it will show a clean cut on both sides of the twig.

I am not familiar enough with the various species of rodents in Colorado to venture a specific guess, but in general I think it could be a large rat or gopher and less likely a rabbit. You can trap just about any rodent in a have a heart live trap using a mix of oats and peanut butter. It never hurts to throw in a couple of Pieces of dried apple to sweeten the bargain.

Blood meal is a good deterrent for rabbits, but must be reapplied after a couple of rains
Let us know what you catch

Prairie dogs near by? I have a live trap if you want to try to catch it. My Kinia trap is currently out on loan to another member, but could be available if you need to adjust the squirrel population.

I do not see a lot of squirrels around here.  We are 3 houses in from a large open space leading up to the foothills.  There are prairie dogs in the field, but I thought they were only active during the day.  All of the attacks seem to have happened at night.  I remembered earlier that Barbra's dad has several traps.  I'll pick one up tomorrow, and bait it with apple cores.

What do you think about the culprit might be a cat?  Last night our cat was scratching and jumping at the back door.  I went downstairs and saw a cat running away (when it saw me).  This is not the first time the cat has been in the backyard.  We had a similar situation a few weeks ago with the same cat.  Our cat frequently bats at moths on the other side of the glass, but I was on heightened alert since I set the trap (still haven't caught anything).  I did not considered the cat a suspect.  When I went to check the freeze damage to my trees this morning, three limbs had been eaten pretty severely.

Perhaps I need cat food instead of apple cores in the trap.

I have had several limbs of fig trees chopped off as if somebody walked up and cut them with pruners. I have no idea what does that, though there are many suspects. The good news is that they grow back quickly. If its a precious tree, I'll encircle it with a roll of chicken wire.