[Clarebelle]

Hello everyone,

Ive had a look in the greenhouse this morning and found that something has been at my seedlings but I'm not sure what it is. I have some elderberry tree seedlings in pots and some of them have had the leaves nipped off, mostly at the stem but some half way through the leaf, pretty cleanly. But the leaves are just left on the soil, not eaten.

I have a pot containing about 8 cherry tree seedlings which have all been plucked out, no evidence remaining that they were there except the little hole the roots were in.

My cucumber and melon seedlings have all been eaten down to the root.

I also have various other seedlings, a bit of everything, which have been left alone. This all happened last night so I'm assuming there is only one culprit but it could be different things i guess.

Any ideas what pests have this sort of MO? The strangest thing is probably the cherry trees being gone completely, roots and all with little disturbance around the hole they were in. And also the elderberry's, the main stems are intact but one or two have had every leaf nipped off and the leaves are just lay there on the soil.

[Fleecewife]

Sounds a bit mousey to me - they love their greens    And where there's one mouse there are several, so they could easily do that much damage in a night.  I'm not sure that the cherries fit the MO though.

[DavidandCollette]

Any sign of bird droppings?

[Marches Farmer]

Sounds mousey to me too.  Bait or trap as they'll keep returning.

[Clarebelle]

I did think mouse to begin with but the way some of the leaves were ripped looked birdy, no sign of any droppings at all.

Would mice just leave the leaves on the ground without eating them?

[Fleecewife]

I did think mouse to begin with but the way some of the leaves were ripped looked birdy, no sign of any droppings at all.

Would mice just leave the leaves on the ground without eating them?

Yes.  But so would birds.  Because your plants are in your greenhouse I didn't think of birds, but if they can get in then it's a possibility.
Look out for other signs, such as entry points for rodents and for birds