What Animal Pest Eats Bean Plants?

Deer

• Deer forage a number of plants and trees including vegetables, aquatic plants, fruits, nuts and grasses. According to the University of Massachusetts Extension website, most deer especially like lettuce, beans, peas, squash, pumpkins, and strawberries. Deer damage is evident by the tracks that the animals leave in the ground. Deer tend to tear plants as they feed and do not make clean cuts like other bean-loving animals. Fencing is one of the best ways to keep animals off properties.

Rabbits

• Rabbits are destructive to a number of crops and other landscape plants. Rabbits like to eat green, succulent vegetation. They feed in the early evening and continuing well into morning. The vegetable crops the most preferred, as cited by the University of California Extension website, are beet, beans, broccoli, lettuce, peas and carrots. The animals use their incisors to make clean, 45-degree cuts in the plants. Fencing is among the most commonly used long-term management strategy for keeping rabbits out of gardens.

Woodchuck

• Woodchucks, commonly called groundhog or whistle pig, feed during the early hours of the morning and evening. Woodchucks are herbivorous that feed on a large variety of grasses, legumes and vegetables. As cited by the Pennsylvania State University Extension website, their preferred food includes peas, soybean, beans, carrot tops, clover, alfalfa and grasses. Woodchuck damage to crops like beans is often extensive. The animals can be discouraged from damaging gardens with fumigants and gas cartridges. Fencing is the most permanent woodchuck control method.