Mystery going on at my 60 acre lake in central Indiana. I've experimented planting some border plants the past two years. My lake is very steep with some shallow areas where I planted Spatterdock and Common Northern white water lilies. The spatterdock has done great as nothing has touched it, however every single hardy water lily has been eaten down to the tuber and there is not one left, what is doing this. Litterally I had a couple hardy lilies growing among the Spatterdock and the lilies were picked clean while the spatterdock wasn't touched. Here are the potential culprits: Grass Carp, Common Carp, Red ear turtles, snapping turtles, ducks, geese. Let me know what u think.

Deer and muskrat will eat them too. I place honey locust branches around mine when I transplant them to protect them for awhile. Do your grass carp have any submerged plants to eat?

Painted turtles make short work of mine. Just eat the stems.

Red ear turtles ate my arrowhead all the way to the roots. I am using some fine mesh wire screen around them now to get the plant started. No more problems since then. Make sure you push the wire down into the mud.

If the bulb is getting eaten it is the muskrat but if it is just the stems then I will lean to snails or turtles.

Muskrats will dig the bulb right out and eat it all. They wont really eat the stems as much.

Cheers Don.

On a pleasant hot sunny day, what more pleasant place to loaf than among the lilypads. All a turtle has to do for nibblies at dusk and dawn is peck at waterlily stems and just bask a heavy meal through the heat of the day in the shade of the lilypads

What a life eh