I went out in the evening to water my new native plants and it looked like something ate almost half of my new bee balm! This photo is after I went back and sprinkled it with cayenne. I'm hoping the cayenne will be a very unpleasant surprise to whatever tries to come back for seconds. Please, friends, what ate my bee balm? How do I protect my bee balm and other native plants from the native wildlife that wants to eat them? I'm in SE Pennsylvania.
by BlooLagoon9
7 Comments
The point of planting native plants is to have plants that contribute to the ecosystem. That means letting wildlife eat them. Bee balm is pretty hardy, so some snacking on it isn’t going to do much damage.
It’s scary but it’s probably gonna be fine! I’ve had numerous plants get snacked on and they came back just fine. I think some of them even bloomed better because they were “pruned”. I say hang in there and see what happens! If anything is *not* going to be totally destroyed, I think it’s bee balm. That plant is ready for world domination in my garden lol
Me.
Bee balm is one of the only natives herbivores won’t snack on in my experience. Did I just plant it? Sometimes critters will snack on freshly planted or young plants so you can put a cage around it next time.
This was probably an eastern cottontail rabbit. They have eaten my native mint family plants (Hyssops and Monardas) in Ontario too.
Your beebalm will be fine. Native prairie plants are very tolerant of disturbance (fire, grazing) once they establish, as long as they have time to bounce back between disturbances. On top of that it is a member of the mint family which is pretty well known for its aggressive growth habits. After being almost entirely defoliated my hyssops still bloomed, and my beebalms (monardas) still bloomed even while fighting off some pretty bad mildew.
If you are concerned, consider caging your plant with something like a couple of tomato trellises stacked together to form a dense mesh or staked chicken wire etc. that way insects can still get in, but a rabbit won’t.
Remember native plants supporting native wildlife is the point after all, (but hyperabundant native species like deer, rabbits, squirrels might need to be managed for, and physical barriers might be the best option). Losing a few plants to feed mammals isn’t a bad thing, but keeping a few caged as “insect only” will probably support more diversity. Rabbits can adapt to other food sources much more readily than many of our native insects can.
Planting extra beebalm (some caged, some not) could help too if you have the space, that way losing a few won’t be as noticeable, especially if they are allowed to self seed.
While idk if it’s ever been done a more aesthetically pleasing option could involve planting native low growing thorny plants (perhaps native wild roses?) around a patch of beebalm. In this way you could maintain a natural look while still presenting a barrier? I’ve never tried this though, it might make too much shade or be too hard to make/take too long to establish.
Cheyenne and anything else you put on won’t do anything. The plant looks like it will be fine, it has the majority of the plant still intact. Even if the rabbit punched it down to the root it would definitely still grow back. Plants have mechanisms in place to deal with being munched on. beebalm spreads like crazy once it establishes itself, but you can put a wire cage over it in the meantime.
Most likely a rabbit, they like to taste everything they can find. They’ll snip off plants at the base just to leave the stem there lol. If you have anything you really like I suggest to cage it while it establishes roots. Small rodents will also chew through plants that are blocking their paths to their burrows.
The key is to have enough plants to go around so they don’t eat everything 😉 (I have 5 gardens and I’m drowning in work)
If nothing is eating your plants then they aren’t part of the ecosystem.
It’s actually good that this happens sometimes. The plant will send up more shoots that will flower a little later. Some gardeners will perform what’s called a “Chelsea chop” (https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/how-to-do-the-chelsea-chop/) to extend your flowering time or to delay the flowering time of select plants. This gives pollinators longer windows to access pollen and nectar.
If this is a new plant that hasn’t been established yet then I would cage it to allow the rest of the plant time to recover and get a stronger root system.