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What creature can be strip-eating only the leaves from our Rhubarb plants?
We moved the rhubarb plants into a raised bed but the leaves continued to be eaten with large, wide bites from the leaves but not the stalk. We put up large holed wire mesh round the bed and munching stopped. Recently the mesh was removed , We thought problem solved. It has started again. Do rabbits or possum find rhubarb Leaves irresistible? I thought they would be poisonous to mammals.
11 February 2021 11:05 AM
Hi,
Slugs eat rhubarb leaves but the mesh would obviously not stop them, so it is something bigger. Possums will also eat the leaves and seem to survive the Oxalic Acid they contain. Birds such as Pukekos will also eat the leaves. You could try setting a possum trap and see if that is the culprit. All the best.