Something is eating our memorial raspberry plant

[Rabid Renaissance]

We put a cat down a couple of months ago, and we planted him in the yard of our new-to-us house that we're getting ready to move into, under a baby raspberry plant that a friend gave us. Within a week of putting the plant in the ground, something had eaten most of the leaves off. Since then I've been trying to spray it with a soap solution and that kept the leaves on the last stalk.

But today, 2 of the last four leaves fell off and there were 4 or 5 baby banana slugs were crawling all over around under the bare stalks that are now pretty much all that are left of our baby raspberry. This is the first time I've seen any organisms anywhere near the struggling plant.

What's are the most likely culprits of what is eating the raspberry leaves? The slugs? Bugs? Or what? How do we keep whatever it was off of this plant or whatever we replace it with once it dies for good?

The bare stalks are still green. There are about 6 stalks in total and none of them taller than a foot and a half and none of them thicker than a chopstick. Is it even remotely possible that the 2 remaining leaves will keep this plant alive till next spring? Or should I just write it off?

[Solfy]

Could be a bunny or a groundhog munching on the leaves.
It might life through the winter depending on how robust the roots are. No way to tell for sure other than wait and see if it comes back next year.

[Rabid Renaissance]

My description sort of sucked. The munching appeared to be more like a bug or hungry caterpillar type munching to me. Little pin holes, then bigger holes, then no more leaf. I only have circumstantial evidence against the gang of baby slugs. We don't have groundhogs here (NorCal) and I think we're too far into town for bunnies. We do have quite a few gophers. But I suspect some thing or group of things was taking lots of little bites as opposed to munching down whole leaves at once. I will keep my fingers crossed that it throws out some new greenery in April.

[Solfy]

I see. In that case, I think you're on to something with the slugs. They come out mostly at night to do the bulk of their damage, IME. Then they slither off and hide under rocks all day.

[GreyCloud9]

Information on deterring slugs, if you want it.

[Rabid Renaissance]

We definitely have a lot of slugs. I was just reading 13 ways to stop slugs and got intrigued with the idea of raising egg-laying ducks that could roam the yard and eat them. We have been pondering a small chicken coop, but ducks could work. In all of my country-fried years I've never seen anyone raising ducks for eggs.

Apparently you can train chickens to eat slugs too.

There are other houses in town that have chickens, and while we're worried that our neighbors might hate the noise, it can't be much worse than the small artisan cheese factory next door with its constant traffic of tanker trucks full of milk.

[the lone cashew]

Snail and slug culprits typically leave some sort of latticework behind, like on this hosta pictured below.


Which can also resemble damage from leaf eating beetles (of which there are many)..


Which can also resemble the work of caterpillars.


One can often id the specific insect or caterpillar doing the damage by the pattern they've left behind, esp whether they have generally eaten from leaf edges (for example, grasshoppers and crickets do this) or from the center of the leaves.
To do this though you really need to have the pest id narrowed down since as you can see from the examples, damage patterns vary.


However if there are no lattice patterns and the entire leaves are gone - including the leaf stems - you likely have something larger causing the problem, like a small mammal.
If it's rabbits, you should be able to spot some pellet droppings near your plants.


If you could post a couple pics, might be able to narrow it down for you.

[Jaledin]

I am sorry about your plants. A friend is studying to be a botanist -- if I run into him and we both have time, I'll ask him what he thinks. He also has experience growing plants of his own, so he might have a clue.

But first, "hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! hey you over there! You a yankees fan? Yeah? Phhhhhhbbbbbbbbbbbbbttttttt you suck! Mets all the way!"

[Rabid Renaissance]

Unfortunately all the leaves are gone now. I've only been doing weekend warrior renovation projects trying to get ready to move in, so I've only been able to observe it once a week since we planted it.

Whatever it is hasn't been leaving enough leftovers to analyze. I did seem to defend one stalk's worth of a half dozen leaves for about a month by spraying it with diluted soap, but they eventually flanked me there too.

[the lone cashew]

Btw, Rapid Renaissance, I did see your description about the complete loss of leaves, took the opportunity though to include a little more info.

Raspberry canes grow as a biennial but the roots are perennial so although it does not sound like the plant had much chance yet to become well established, there's still hope that it will come back.

If it does regrow and you think it might be worth the effort, a small hoop of chicken wire around the plant(s) will keep the rabbits away. I use a perimeter of chicken wire around this garden pictured below, but I also have two dogs on patrol, keeps the rabbits on a diet mostly devoid of my garden fruits and vegetables.






I've also used this product Deer Away® in other gardening situations to repel pests like deer and rabbits.
If you don't want to mess with the chicken wire, it might be worth a try.