I think Moles are carnivores, that mostly eat earth worms, so it is probably not them. Besides, you would know you have moles, because they make mole hills.

Could it be craw dads? They’ll do that. They don’t have to live in a body of water.

They can also live in holes in the ground, close to the water table, and dig their way up to the surface for a meal. We had exactly that happen to us. Darned thing came up in my row of broccoli, and the stupid bugs ate my baby broccoli plants one by one. If it’s a crawdad, it will leave holes with a mound of mud next to it.

Could also be a gopher.

No, no molehill. But they do leave a very uniformly round indentation, about 2 inches in diameter, where the plant once was.

Gophers do come above ground, but I think you have rabbits.

I was thinking maybe raccoons, rabbits, or squirrels, but there are more possibilities.

My guess is rabbits. I have one who eats my ivy. Also, some critter was eating my hostas earliery in the year – deer, rabbits or squirrels.

@snowberry I think I live too far inland for crawdads, plus it’s very dry here. And there’s no mound of mud next to the hole.
The indentation is perfectly round, almost as though made with a paper cup, or cookie cutter.
And I think a rabbit would eat much more than one small pea plant at a time, and would probably not leave a perfectly round indentation. I wouldn’t call it a hole, as it’s only about half an inch deep.

@2davidc8 I lived in Southern Indiana. There was no lake or river nearby, but we did have a high water table. Crawdads regularly would work their way up through the soil to get at my garden plants. They came right up in my vegetable garden, and when a plant disappeared, there was always a crawdad hole nearby. I couldn’t believe it either. A mole could come up under a nearby bush or plant, go to your garden, snack and leave.

Another possibility is…aliens!

Moles and gophers are too small to eat a lot.

Can you setup a camera and catch them red-handed?

moles, voles, and gophers

I would suspect the neighbors. The disappearance of your plants, tops and all would lead me away from any tunneling animal. I think a few turns of a pitchfork around the hole will quickly confirm the nature of the culprit. Get one of those “have a heart” traps and I bet within a few days.

But speaking of gophers, last Friday, I drove to my favorite sandwich shop for a crab/shrimp sandwich and decided to dine in a setting befitting such exquisite delight. So I went to the hidden pond in McClaren park. There’s a big heron there that frequents the place, and when it’s there, you can watch it hunt and CATCH frogs and even the smaller turtles. I reached the park and sure enough it was out this time strolling the grass. This time it walked up to within 5 feet of my picnic bench which was rather unsettling. I was just concluding that the impudent bird might have plans for my sandwich when it stopped abruptly and went into its striking pose that I’ve seen before. And sure enough the head shot out on that long neck and came back up with a GOPHER stranded but wiggling in that scissor bilI. I would never have thought it likely but there it was, a gopher, its limbs churning wildly with the heron apparently unconcerned at the struggle for escape. And then, as if in a ballet, that elegant neck gracefully elevated that big pointed head til the bill reached toward heaven. Then an unbelievably quick and masterful flip not even a magician might summon, and the gopher vanished without a trace. The only giveaway that the gopher ever existed was now the huge lump in the lethal neck.

Well, I transplanted the remaining surviving plants into containers. They all survived the transplant, and I’ve not lost any in 2 weeks. So, I don’t think deer, raccoons, rabbits or squirrels or rats are to blame, or I would’ve continued to lose them.

Don’t anybody bother checking my link to an instructional video.

@Patty_Melt sorry. We just had a wedding, and I have been very busy. I didn’t check your link. I will in a day or two. And thanks for the link!