What Eats Strawberry Plant Leaves? (Pictures)

[Jesskahh]

I have 4 strawberry plants. They are in pots, I got them from the local Lowe's. I'm new at this whole "gardening" thing. My husband and I just bought a house and we are located basically in the middle of the woods. There's no fences on our property, and we have all kinds of wildlife. We are in North Texas, about 20 miles from the Oklahoma border.

In the last 2 or 3 days, I have noticed the leaves disappearing off of 2 strawberry plants. At first, it was just one or two. This morning, I looked, and it's pretty much every leaf. The entire plants (both potted) are just stems now.
The other 2 are in hanging pots but they haven't been touched at all.

I have noticed that after it rains, a squirrel comes and licks the pots I guess to get the water off, but he has never touched the plant itself. I've watched him for about an hour before.

It's almost like someone came with scissors and just snipped off all the leaves. They're just... gone.

What eats leaves like this?

Picture included.

 

[Chuck]

Rats, mice, rabbits, squirrels and caterpillars. Dig around in the soil and you might find the evildoer. If not my guess would be field rats

 

[SirJoe]

The most probably culprit are slugs. Slugs are nocturnal and will bury themselves during the day so they aren't that easy to catch. The fact that the strawberry plants that are hanging don't have there leaves eaten just reinforces my idea that it probably is slugs.

 

[Jesskahh]

The most probably culprit are slugs. Slugs are nocturnal and will bury themselves during the day so they aren't that easy to catch. The fact that the strawberry plants that are hanging don't have there leaves eaten just reinforces my idea that it probably is slugs.

I saw a raccoon out on my back porch couple days ago. Could that have been the bad guy?
Also, I know we have rats outside. And squirrels, and a bobcat too!
Crazy wildlife. It's much fun!

 

[SirJoe]

I saw a raccoon out on my back porch couple days ago. Could that have been the bad guy?
Also, I know we have rats outside. And squirrels, and a bobcat too!
Crazy wildlife. It's much fun!

Oh, that changes things. If you have a lot of wild life living near you it can be a whole lot of different critters that can be the culprits. i would suggest putting a some fencing around them, it might not be the most aesthetically pleasing but at least you will be able to at least taste the strawberries.

 

[FredC]

I live in Seattle and last week we were visited by deer(s) and noticed the deep tracks on freshly leveled soil. We don’t see them often but they come every year. We have some young fruit trees and the leaves and branches were eaten as well as the strawberry leaves. The strange thing is they left the strawberry flowers and young berries alone and only leaves were eaten. So deers could be the culprits.