What's eating my pansies?

Snowshoe Sam

Planted some pansy plants yesterday both in pots and flowerbeds.

This morning I noticed that any of the open flowers in the beds had been eaten almost completely or had a bite taken from them

It seems to be only the petals, the leaves don't look to have been touched. Also only the flowers in the beds had been chewed, not the ones in pots.

What's the most likely culprit?

Sam

looksee

Birds love primrose and pansy flowers. If the flowerheads are mostly gone, and any remaining bits are jagged looking I suggest it is birds. Slugs tend to make rounder holes.

You could put a few twigs into the ground and make a net of sewing thread over them.

Rancid

looksee wrote: »

...
You could put a few twigs into the ground and make a net of sewing thread over them.

On more than one occasion I've had to carefully pick and clip thread from a bird's feet when they were tied together and totally entangled in thread.

looksee

Rancid wrote: »

On more than one occasion I've had to carefully pick and clip thread from a bird's feet when they were tied together and totally entangled in thread.

Oh goodness, I would not want that to happen, though its not something I have ever seen in a lifetime of gardening.

Sonnenblumen

looksee wrote: »

Birds love primrose and pansy flowers. If the flowerheads are mostly gone, and any remaining bits are jagged looking I suggest it is birds. Slugs tend to make rounder holes.

You could put a few twigs into the ground and make a net of sewing thread over them.

Shame on you LOoksee to suggest harming birds to protect pansies!:mad:
OP if it is really upsetting try planting alternative bedding and let live an already endangered birdlife in our garden. Chances are, slugs & snails etc are more likely to cause more damage to more flowers/plants more of the time.

looksee

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Shame on you LOoksee to suggest harming birds to protect pansies!:mad:
OP if it is really upsetting try planting alternative bedding and let live an already endangered birdlife in our garden. Chances are, slugs & snails etc are more likely to cause more damage to more flowers/plants more of the time.

Oh for heavens sake Sonnenblumen I was not suggesting harming birds, it was just a suggestion to discourage them.

Snowshoe Sam

Well, last night I covered the pansies in the beds with a little plastic and this morning......the ones in pots were munched instead!

Have a suspicion my culprit may be rabbits - we have seen a few around over the last week or so and I've heard they are fond of pansies and violas...

I suspect bunnies rather than birds as anything on the window ledges has yet to be touched.

I plan to fence off the beds today with some mesh wire and see how that goes...

OP if it is really upsetting try planting alternative bedding and let live an already endangered birdlife in our garden.

If my fencing does not work, I guess I'll be following Sonnenblumen's suggestion and replacing my pansies...

Thanks guys!