Acer rubrum leaf damage

I have some Acer rubrum (Florida Red Maple) the I repotted earlier this month and they are leafing out. Now the issue, something is eating the leaves off at where they attach to the tree. I dug around in the soil looking for caterpillars without finding any. I do have squirrels, would they eat young leaves, or use them to line nests? The trees were living under a scrub oak; I moved them to a bench that isn't near squirrel central.

Billy
I have watched many animals eat new buds on mapels and many other plants, even yaupon. Deer, tree squirrels, rats, possiums. It's thier world we only live in it. Moving it was probably the best solution.

Mitch

Are the leaves gone? Or is something just cutting them off and leaving them lying on the ground?

Mitch Thomas wrote:Billy
I have watched many animals eat new buds on mapels and many other plants, even yaupon. Deer, tree squirrels, rats, possiums...

Mitch.

Yep, me too...I often see squirrels in the trees around the time of bud burst and flowering. Not sure if they're eating the leaves, flowers, buds, or some combination.

Gotta git wonna dem motion activated game cams....catch'a lil varmint inna act!

-Jay

I had a mama squirrel chew off buds and new leaves from my Trident Maple forest during the early Spring last year. I could tell that she was nursing babies. I believe that she was looking for any quick/easy nutritious vegetation. She tasted other maples but preferred the Trident.
Todd

JimLewis wrote:Are the leaves gone? Or is something just cutting them off and leaving them lying on the ground?

Both

I had leaves being severed at the stalk on my winter garden. At first I thought it was cut worms but the leaves were being carried away from the plants and most of the leaves were not eaten only nipped off right at the stalk. Anyway, I later spotted a squirrel from the upstairs window in the act of chewing one off and leaving it on the ground near the plant. Which led me to live trapping 3 and relocating them to another area a few miles from the house.

I'm in north Florida. So far my Acer Rubrum hasn't been hit by the remaining rodents in the trees in the yard...knock on wood.

I moved the trees to a section of the yard less frequented by squirrels (not under Oaks) and have had no more problems.