Location: Central North Carolina
I have several beds of pansies which are being nibbled by some critter. Within a couple of days of initial planting, all the blossoms were gone and signs of the tips of the leaves being chewed were evident.
About 50% of the plants were replaced and sprayed with a repellent which is supposed to be effective for rabbits and deer (the latter unlikely in this neighborhood) but the same thing happened to the replacements. The plants aren't chewed down to the ground immediately but bit-by-bit over the space of a couple of weeks.
I'd heard about a soil fungus which can attack pansies, so I covered one bed with 0.5 inch mesh net supported on poles. That one bed is in much better shape than the others, which are by now chewed down almost to the ground.
I look out at the beds several times each day but never see any critters about, not even birds on the ground. (I've got a couple of potted sedums which were gradually pecked away by birds over the summer.)
Any ideas?
Regards, Charles Sullivan