Why can't it be deer or rabbits? They are the most common. So are mice and rats and groundhogs and squirrels and chipmunks.

But without a picture of the type of damage done it is all just guesswork. Slugs and such, Japanese Beetles and other pests usually don't eat the whole leaf.

Dave

Thanks Dave. How can deer or rabbits get in the small mesh fence? The whole area is covered with this fence including over the top. It's very sturdy and looks undisturbed. I can see perhaps mice are small enough to get in but other pests don't eat the whole leaf off they just damage the leaves with holes and such. I never knew that mice would eat plant leaves.

Karen

Sorry for the duplicate post.

If the whole area is covered even over the top then other than mice it has to be something already inside or comes up from the ground, right? Voles or slugs?

Examine the fence carefully tho and make sure something hasn't found a way in. I have had rabbits chew through the nylon fencing and ground squirrels can sometimes squeeze under it if it isn't tacked down tot he ground.

Some of them are very smart if they want in badly enough.

Dave

PS: you might also look for leaf cutter ants but the odds are slim

Thanks Dave, I'm just sick because they were so beautiful until this started. When do Voles come out? Night? How do you catch or manage them? For slugs we could put some beer in a lid in the dirt and see what happens.

Thanks for your advice and suggestions

Karen

if you can manage to protect the leaves, they (and their stems, and young vine tips) are edible and nutritious. grasshoppers can eat a big chunk out of them, but not the whole leaf. i'm betting it's a groundhog- they can can climb fences ! is your fence stretched tight? a loose wobbly fence might deter them. for mammals, i like to mark the perimeter with human urine ( but no splashing the plants ! ) which i apply frequently, especially after rain. urine has also been shown to be as good as commercial fertilizer for tomatoes. but i wander.....good luck !

A couple of years ago my SP leaves were vanishing too and I caught a groundhog in the act. After surrounding the SPs with wire fencing the GH still dug his way in and stayed as he also dug a burrow well hidden under the leaves. GHs are lazy and don't travel far for food so he just made himself at home. The only reason why I found him was that the leaves were continuing to disappear even though I had a secure perimeter so I got in there and hunted him down. He thought he was in GH heaven, I made sure that was his destination.

I was wondering about the leaves on my sp vines also. My deck is about 29 inches off the ground and the planter is about 20 inches high. The green vine touches the deck making it easy for an animal that climb up the 2 steep steps to eat but it looks like only some of the top leaves (its hard to see in the picture) on the purple spv have been chewed off. I don't know how a groundhog could get to those. What could be eating those?

roxy, a groundhog wouldn't skimp on the stems, looks like a bunny? I have 2 bunnies now and as long as they nibble on the sweet potatoes leafs and stay away from everything else they're ok. My SP vines are out of control and are taking over so some pruning won't hurt mine. But as other posters have said, another possibility is rodents of some type.

I measured in my deck is 24 inches off the ground. First step up is 13 inches. The pot is 22 inches high. The green fine trails down to the tech which if I am OK get on the deck with the easy to get it to VINE. The purple VINE does not trail down the 13 inch pot. It looks like just sell used at the top of the plant I’ve been eaten. I thought possibly a deer because it would be the right height to eat the leaves on the top. It’s just that we seldom ever get deer in our backyard playing on the main road. Once this winter we saw their foot prints come in the back gate, and turned around When they saw there was no other way out and Went back down the driveway and down the main road (Warwick Avenue).

Just saw Groundhog eating the leaves. What will it do to the plants if he eats most of them. John

I have the same thing and it's driving me crazy. I've done all the sprays. i think that it is a groundhog but there are some fines that are 6 ft off the ground but it just doesn't seem like they could reach. see the missing leaves on that vine behind the cactus?

You can see there's only a few left at the top. I have many Vines like this and they can almost entirely be consumed in one day.

I live in Brooklyn NY, my sweet potatoes were doing great, then I started noticing holes in in random areas of my garden 4in in diameter and pretty deep assuming rats, do to construction near by, but I also came out several nights to only catch rollie pollies on top of leaves of many of my plants eating huge holes in sweet potato leaves and my small herbs but it wasn't enough to make an entire patch of leaves on a disappear, so from reading this thread my case may be mice or rats, rolly pollies definitely devoured my small basil plant down to the stem,