benali
Senior Member
Posts: 138
Joined: Wed May 22, 2013 2:40 pm
Location: Zone 5b

What animal bit these cukes?

Hi,

I've attached photos of a 5 inch cucumber that was eaten by some kind of animal.

The usual suspects for where I live are squirrels, mice, rabbits, or woodchucks.

Which do you think it was?

The only other clue is that this animal did not eat the nearby yellow squash.

Thank you for your help.
Attachments
cuke_eaten_2.jpg
cuke_eaten_1.jpg
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applestar
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Posts: 30551
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Huh. I have similar pests but haven’t seen this kind of damage.

I don’t think it was woodchuck— this looks like a smaller animal gnawed on it.

Questions —

1. Was the cuke growing on the ground or hanging from trellis?
2. Did you find it still attached to the vine or detached/pulled or chewed off?

I think if my area, I would suspect voles. (dark/slate gray, larger than mice— about size of chipmunks— short stubby tail).

I don’t have rats in this area, but that and another animal in warmer climate area — roof rats? fruit rats? I can remember … had been mentioned by folks in a floridians I think California too? … might be a possibility?

PaulF
Greener Thumb
Posts: 915
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:34 pm
Location: Brownville, Ne

Another suspect may be squirrels.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

My suspect are birds or a rat. It looks similar to the kind of damage I see on papaya. That being said, I did find some bird damage on my eggplant but instead of eating out a hole like a rat would, they pecked all over the eggplant



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