What animal would have gone up on my deck and nipped the stem of my beautiful green pepper plant, laboriously grown from seed?

Hmmm…maybe Milo going for something green?
Otherwise, well…squirrels are not out at night, deer don’t usually climb the deck stairs, at least over here. Gophers and Voles don’t climb tables, neither do rabbits. Yes, maybe a Raccoon, Possum…Skunks don’t really climb either.

It’s a mystery!

I do have a resident possum…I see it waddling around on the gravel outside my basement sliders all the time.

Would it have the dexterity to climb up on a chair and then onto the table? It looks so clumsy and loutish; they are the road kills most of the time around here.

Yes..I had one that could climb the shelves in my garage to get to the cat food 5 feet off the ground! When surprised he would just leap into the air, hit the ground running. They are quite clever!

Curses.. I don’t think my lower back and I could face a possum in a Havahart tomorrow.

I vote for chipmunk.

They’ve cut our pumpkin plants straight down in past years.

Were the plants on the ground or in raised beds? Did they eat any of the foliage, flowers or fruit or was it simply an act of wanton distraction?

All of the above. A few plants were in raised beds. A few were near our home in the ground. And a couple were in pots. (I was experimenting in our yard, trying to find where we’d produce the best results).

Two plants in the ground kept being uprooted. Apparently our resident front porch area chippy felt these were too close to his home. I put the plants back in the ground, watered them in and waited to see what would happen and when it was happening.

The plants in a raised bed in our front yard (past our driveway) were all cut down. It looked like a knife had been used a they were sliced clean. I also had beans. The beans had been nipped, but the plantings were left.

The potted plantings were being used as seed storage areas for a backyard chippy. He only bit off leaves (apparently to have a better inlet to his storage).

I figured out it was the chipmunks during a week I decided to sit and have iced tea in my front yard instead of the side of my backyard where I usually sit.

That’s disheartening. They are too fast for Milo to catch and they are also everywhere…too many to try to trap. Plus, I am surrounded by 60 acre as of woodlands that I do not own…they are probably breeding like chipmunks just over my boundary markers.

Where do you live? Do you have dogs? It is frustrating, isn’t it? When my sister built her house, she had the builders install a serious fence around her huge garden. But now that her third and last dog has died, the animals are getting in. There is one giant rabbit; and of course the fence never kept the chipmunks out.

The squirrels often nibble off the tender tops of my baby sunflowers and avocado seedlings :/
I’ve found this helps.

We allow nature to take care of all of the rodent populations for us @gailcalled. If we lose the chippys, our mouse population increases. We have witnessed the chipmunks kill mice that enter their territory.

We feed the squirrels. The squirrels keep the chipmunk population in check. And so on.

Our property is just less than an acre across the street from a large park with a creek. Our yard attracts a lot of wildlife. The village we reside in is known for having a rural feel just minutes from the city.

We have three dogs, and none of them catch any chipmunks or squirrels. Our Sheltie does chase the chipmunks away from our front porch area ;)

With plantings, we’ve found that a border of thorny plantings helps cut down on small visitors.

Deer. I have them precision mow a row of plants exactly snipped off like they were cut.

@gailcalled I’m sorry to hear of your loss. FYI: When you mentioned “possum” above I think that you you meant to say Opossum. which are mean and nasty and more closely related to the Tasmanian Devil

Possums are cute and sweat tempered marsupials the live in Australia.

Anyway Black tail deer come up on our back deck frequently looking for a treat. One can wipe out a whole season of hard work in one feeding. I protect our plants with wire fencing.

Next time try some chicken wire.

Good luck!