[Tom]

Hi i'm tom i am new to the site. Me and my dad have planted some cabbages last night. We did the usaul like add slug pelats, but the next day some of the cabbages have been stripped down! I have not a clue what it is! anyone no what may solve the problem! Cheers Tom!  

[WG.]

Rabbits perchance?

[Tom]

Maybe! but there was no prints left in the ground! but further up the allotment is the young sprouts, there un touched! :?

[WG.]

They sprouts will be for tonight.  Might also be slugs / snails / mice / pigeons.  Unlikely to be elephants 'cos they would leave prints  

[Tom]

Could well be. I spoke to the man next to us and he reackons pigeuns. And he says that maybe pigeuns dont like the bitter taste of them! I really hope the slugs dont have the sprouts  :cry:  but then again i put slug pellets on them both.

[Aidy]

Reckon its the flying rats, to be honest i thought they would of moved on to other things by now but we are having the same problem, usual scaring dont seem to be working for some reason, may be they got used to it. Now got the nets up and stuff seems to be growing again, well those that have escaped the CR Fly.

[growmore]

Hi Tom and welcome to the forum. The most likely culprit is pigeons. They can strip young plants like crazy. It could be other critters as folks have said - the best way is to net them  - we have a saying on our plots ' if you don't net it you don't get it!' Good luck

[Tom]

Cheers growmore! Do you think that pigeuns don't like sprouts. I ask this because they were untouched and i wondered that because of the bitter taste or something about the taste. Thanks Growmore!      

[DD.]

Pigeons like my sprouts - so it's not that. They'll even sit on top of them when mature plants & eat the tops!

[Tom]

Well thanks for the tip Dave i think i'm gonna get some bamboo sticks and place a bottle on the top to get the * away.
 Cheers Tom  :D

[DD.]

Well thanks for the tip Dave i think i'm gonna get some bamboo sticks and place a bottle on the top to get the * away.
 Cheers Tom  

Believe me - that won't work! Neither will CD's etc. etc.

The only effective way is netting.

[Tom]

Oh! what sort of netting do you recoment dave string nets or more wireing?

[DD.]

This sort of plaggy stuff....

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=20001&partNumber=117409

You can buy it by the metre from nurseries. It's a fine mesh & keeps butterflies out as well, so you don't get the caterpillar problem either.