[Lardman]

Checked the apple trees today and something has been eating the bark  off the remaining branches Should I be looking for something slimy or could it be something else ? They're only tiny branches !

[Sparkyrog]

could be rabbits 

[fatcat1955]

Or Deer

[Lardman]

No rabbits the foxes ate them all  and muntjac live at the bottom of the garden and don't come that close to the house. I'd have expected anything big to have eaten the branch  - Stupid autofocus is making getting a picture difficult.

[Lardman]

This ones better..

(Anyone thinking about it there's no need for palm reading  )

[JayG]

Interesting - the edges of the chewed bark suggest the sort of rasp-shapes slugs or snails sometimes make, although I wouldn't have thought that even young bark was part of their usual diet.

If it was a small rodent I'd expect to see some damage to the underlying tissues too - it would be an extraordinarily precise job to just nibble the bark off without leaving any other marks.

(Palm reading suggests you need more cheese in your diet Lardman!)

[Ema]

Rabbits would happily chomp straight through a twig that size, it does look as if a small rodent could have been nibbling

[Lardman]

I'll set the traps again  although why they'd eat bark when there's plenty of real food elsewhere I don't know. As long as it's not some sort of vile mite or fungal decease I suppose that's something.

(Palm reading suggests you need more cheese in your diet Lardman!)

Probably, but it's currently cheaper to eat dead cow - so I am. 

[8doubles]

Squirrels are the masters of precision tree chewing !