My friend in N. Ca is beside herself. She is sort of a newbie so she often seeks my advice when problems arise. Some critter or critters have been eating all the newly formed baby cucumbers but 1 was left alone till it grew a little. Then something took a bite and left. I told her to protect any future cukes with a physical covering that wasn't airtight. That didn't work. I then suggested she scatter cat poop in the area, making sure they do not have contact with the soil. So she put some on plastic sheets. She texted me today to say that the cukes were untouched last night hurray! But all the cat poop was gone . I've read that rabbits eat poop but usually their own.
Anybody have any ideas as to what critter this might be?

Dogs.

Coyotes

My dog can't wait to fine out of the cat box. It's disgusting, and I don't let her, but sometimes she's too quick. Gross!

Her garden is fenced in so her own dogs can never get in. She has 2 and they are house dogs always with her at night.
There are no foot marks around the plants and the cukes are on a trellis. So it has to be a smallish critter. She claims no rabbits should be able to get in unless they can climb the tall walls. Hmm the mystery continues...

Well, cat poop did solve her problem!

I thought cat feces weren’t something anyone particularly wanted in a vegetable garden, no?

That's why she put them on plastic sheets.

I just thought of another possibility: the small critter didn't eat the cuke last night cuz it saw the coyote eating the cat poop. So now she has 2 pests to deal with in her garden .
Well at least she may be able to finally get a cucumber.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:20 pm I thought cat feces weren’t something anyone particularly wanted in a vegetable garden, no?

No you don't want it in your garden. Cats can carry toxoplasmosis and are the only animal that can pass it through their feces. If a human breathes in the spores they will become infected with it. It is a rather mild condition yet it is fatal to an unborn child which is why they tell pregnant women to stay away from a cat's litter box.

Feces in garden. Gardener digging. Gardener breathing while digging. Gardener infected.

Yeah cat feces esp is dangerous. My friend is well aware, having had cats and dogs all her life. She was careful to put them around a wide circumference from the plant bed on a hard plastic sheet. She doesn't garden in the daily sense nor does she dig due to her back. She just goes out to check if there's anything worth harvesting, which is zero right now as she only has 1 tomato, 1 eggplant, 1 squash & 1 cucumber. They are mostly done producing but she's never gotten any cucumbers due to the constant eating by this unknown critter.
Her cat is now constipated so she will have no updates for us till he's regular again

Dung beetles will carry off cat poop...

My cats poop in the garden... rabbits eat stuff anyway.

Agree that whatever took the cat poop is a different critter than whatever is eating the cucumbers.

The critter is only picking the fruit? not bothering the leaves?

I had a dog that would pick green beans and not hurt the plants.
He would eat water Mellon and eat ice cubes too.

Another dog would go to the potato bin and get one potato and eat it in front of the fire place.
If he wanted another one he would go get it till full.
yet another dog would crack and eat pecans on her dog bed.
With fence I'm starting to think opossum.

[mention]stone[/mention] no leaves were eaten.
Today's update: due to the constipated cat there was no poop to comment on. And, the baby cucumber is still intact!
My friend has only 1 Earthbox and she's been growing tomatoes in it but I told her to grow Japanese cucumbers in it next year. It's her favorite vegetable and her chances of getting more than 1 cuke to eat will be a lot higher I think. I got loads this year.

My whippets are partial to cat poop. The fox poop is just for rolling in though...

Update: my friend decided to put fresh dog poop instead. No takers this time. Cuke is safe for now.
Her neighbor wondered if the cat poop critter could be a raccoon.

My gut reaction when I read the first post was raccoon, also. They eat just about anything.

Every time I see the title of this thread I get a little gut reaction too!