I have young Kings 14" or so tall planted in 3 gal pots as triples. The last couple of days I have noticed something is eating them off at or close to the soil level. What ever it is they don't seem to eat any of the leaves or much of the stalk but are just cutting them off, not clean cut very rough. All of the plants are under shade cloth and watered from drip lines. I have a number of other varieties all more mature than the kings that so far have not been touched. I live in Vista CA, Southern CA and we do have rats that eat our fruit and avocados, has anyone heard of this problem. Any advice would be great....

Thanks Dave

This is one possibility that I can think of. I would think that 14 inch tall palm would be too large for these but I will post them anyway.

- Solitary surface cutworms cut off young plants at or slightly above or below the soil line, sometimes dropping the severed plants into their burrows. Because most of the plant is not eaten, these cutworms do great damage, attacking and felling new plants nightly. The black, bronzed, clay-backed and dingy cutworms are in this group.

Arachnid thanks for your reply, After my post I put out rat bait and the next day it was gone but there still were more palms eaten. By the third day and quite a bit more rat poison the palms seem to be fine. I will keep my eye on it.......

Dave