Plant Stems Cut Near the Ground: Cutworms or Rabbits?

A seedling toppled with its stem severed right at the soil line is the classic signature of cutworms, night-feeding caterpillars that curl in the soil by day. Clean 45-degree cuts a few inches higher point to rabbits, while stems gnawed through at the base — often with the plant left uneaten — suggest voles or, less often, squirrels.

Most likely causes

  • Cutworms — seedlings felled at the soil line, plant often left lying beside the stump
  • Rabbits — smooth angled cuts 1–6 inches up, tops sometimes eaten or carried off
  • Voles — stems gnawed at ground level near dense mulch or grassy cover, tiny paired tooth marks
  • Squirrels — stems bitten through and dropped, damage scattered and seemingly pointless

Compare the possible causes

Possible cause Key signs When it happens How likely
Cutworms Young plants cut cleanly at or just below the soil surface, usually at a slight angle, with the severed top often left lying next to the stump Overnight in spring and early summer, hitting transplants in their first two weeks Very common
Rabbits Stems clipped with a single smooth, angled cut 1 to 6 inches above the ground, with tops eaten or missing and round droppings nearby Dawn, dusk, and overnight year-round; young spring growth and winter scarcity are the peaks Very common
Voles Stems and small woody plants gnawed through at ground level with fine, paired tooth marks, usually close to dense mulch, groundcover, or tall grass Year-round, but most visible in early spring after snow melt reveals winter damage Common
Squirrels Stems and flower stalks bitten through and simply dropped, often several in a morning, with damage that looks random and wasteful Daytime, most often spring and fall Less common

Visual clues to check

  • Note the cut height: at or below the soil line points to cutworms; 1–6 inches up points to rabbits
  • Inspect the stem end: a single smooth angled slice means rabbit; a chewed, whittled end with fine grooves means vole; a slightly ragged soil-line cut means cutworm
  • Check whether the plant was eaten: a felled but uneaten seedling is classic cutworm; missing tops suggest rabbit
  • Dig gently in the top inch of soil within a few inches of the stump, looking for a C-curled gray caterpillar
  • Look for runways: narrow trails pressed into grass or under mulch nearby point to voles
  • Watch timing: damage appearing overnight suggests cutworms or rabbits; midday damage you can witness suggests squirrels

The causes in detail

Cutworms

Cutworms are plump, dull gray or brown caterpillars up to 2 inches long that hide an inch under the soil by day and girdle or sever tender stems at night. The wasteful pattern is the tell: the plant is felled but barely eaten, because the caterpillar chews through the stem to feed on it at ground level. Scratch the soil within a 4-inch radius of a fresh kill and you'll often find one curled into a tight C.

Rabbits

A rabbit's cut is so clean it looks like pruning shears, and it typically sits higher than a cutworm's soil-line cut. Rabbits usually consume what they clip — if beans, peas, or young tulips are disappearing top-first with neat angled stubs left behind, a rabbit is the leading suspect. Fur snags on nearby fencing and pea-sized round pellets settle it.

Voles

Voles are mouse-sized rodents that travel in shallow runways under grass and mulch and rarely venture into the open. They gnaw rather than slice, so the stem end looks whittled, with tiny tooth grooves about 1/16 inch wide, and they'll also girdle the bark at the base of young shrubs and trees. Finding 1- to 2-inch-wide surface runways in nearby turf confirms them.

Squirrels

Squirrels sometimes nip through tulip stems, tomato stems, and flower stalks and abandon them — behavior that may be moisture-seeking or simple curiosity. Because they work in daylight, they're the easiest suspect to catch in the act. The damage is scattered and rarely repeats nightly the way cutworm or rabbit damage does.

When to worry

  • Several new transplants cut down on consecutive nights — one cutworm can kill multiple seedlings, and there's rarely just one
  • Gnawing on the bark at the base of young trees or shrubs, which can girdle and kill them if it circles the trunk
  • Vole runways spreading through beds and turf, since populations can build quickly in mulch-heavy landscapes
  • Repeated rabbit clipping of newly planted perennials, which can exhaust small plants before they establish

What to do now

  1. Protect each seedling with a collar — a toilet-paper tube, cut cup, or foil ring pushed an inch into the soil stops cutworms cold
  2. Hunt cutworms by hand: check the soil around fresh kills, and patrol with a flashlight two hours after dark during transplant season
  3. Delay mulching right up against seedling stems until plants are established, since mulch shelters both cutworms and voles
  4. Ring vulnerable plants or beds with 2-foot chicken wire, buried a few inches, to exclude rabbits
  5. Pull mulch back 6 inches from the trunks of young trees and shrubs and keep nearby grass mowed to remove vole cover
  6. Wrap the lower trunk of young trees in hardware-cloth cylinders before winter if voles or rabbits are active in your yard
  7. If gnawing has circled more than a third of a young tree's trunk, call a certified arborist promptly to assess whether it can be saved

What not to do

  • Don't replant into the same spot without checking the soil for cutworms first — the next seedling often meets the same fate within days
  • Don't set poison baits for voles in open beds where pets, children, or wildlife can reach them
  • Don't pile mulch into a volcano around stems and trunks; it's a highway and hotel for the very animals doing the cutting
  • Don't blame insects automatically — spraying won't stop a rabbit, and the cut itself usually tells you which it was

Think you know the suspect?

These animals commonly cause this clue — see their full sign profiles:

Frequently asked questions

Why would something cut down my seedlings but not eat them?

That wasteful pattern is the cutworm signature. The caterpillar chews through the tender stem at the soil line to feed on it there, felling the plant in the process and leaving most of it untouched. Squirrels do something similar in daylight with taller stems. Either way, the plant wasn't the meal — the stem was.

Do cutworm collars really work?

Yes, remarkably well for such a simple fix. A cardboard tube or cup collar pushed about an inch into the soil and rising 2–3 inches above it physically blocks the caterpillar from reaching the stem. By the time the plant outgrows the collar, its stem is usually too thick for cutworms to bother with.

What's the difference between vole damage and rabbit damage?

Scale and technique. Rabbits make one clean, angled slice with their large incisors, usually an inch or more above ground. Voles nibble and whittle with tiny paired tooth marks right at ground level, and they stick close to mulch or grassy cover. Voles are also the more serious threat to young trees, since they girdle bark at the base.

When are cutworms active during the year?

Damage peaks in spring and early summer, when overwintered larvae are large and hungry just as gardeners set out tender transplants. That timing collision is why the first two weeks after transplanting are the danger window. By midsummer most cutworms have pupated, and pressure drops sharply.

Related yard clues

Plant Damage What Is Eating My Tomato Leaves at Night? Tomato leaves that disappear overnight are most often the work of tomato hornworms, cutworms, slugs, or flea beetles — and if whole branches are gone, rabbits or deer. The size of the bites, whether there are slime trails, and how low on the plant the damage sits will point you to the culprit, and a ten-minute flashlight check after dark usually confirms it. Read the guide → Plant Damage Bark Stripped From Trees: Squirrels, Deer, Voles, or Birds? The height of the damage tells you the most: bark gnawed at ground level is usually voles or rabbits, shredded bark from 1 to 4 feet up is deer rubbing their antlers, and stripped patches on upper branches point to squirrels. Neat horizontal rows of shallow holes are a sapsucker's work — and any damage that circles the whole trunk (girdling) puts the tree at real risk. Read the guide → Plant Damage Flowers Eaten Overnight: Who Raided Your Garden Beds? Flowers that vanish overnight are most often deer or rabbits, and which flowers were taken narrows it fast — tulip and hosta blooms nipped off whole point to deer, while low plants clipped at a clean angle point to rabbits. Petals riddled with ragged holes but still attached usually mean earwigs or slugs working after dark, and shredded rose blooms are Japanese beetles feeding into dusk. Read the guide → Plant Damage Leaves Chewed From the Edges: How to Read the Bite Marks Leaves eaten inward from the edges are usually caterpillars, grasshoppers, or — if the edges show neat crescent-shaped notches — adult weevils feeding at night. When whole leaf sections or stems are missing, the cut itself is the clue: a clean angled snip means rabbits, while ragged torn edges mean deer. Read the guide →

Still not sure? Compare with these clues

Yard Holes Holes in Flower Beds Overnight? Meet the Night Shift Flower beds dug up overnight are almost always animals hunting food, not making homes: skunks and raccoons dig for grubs and worms in the soft soil, squirrels bury and retrieve nuts, cats use loose beds as litter boxes, and across the South armadillos root through beds nose-first. Each leaves a different style of hole, so one careful morning inspection usually names your visitor. Read the guide → Yard Holes Tunnels in Grass: Mole or Vole? How to Tell in Seconds Tunnels in a lawn come in two distinct styles: raised, spongy ridges you can feel underfoot are mole feeding tunnels just below the surface, while flat, worn trails clipped into the grass itself are vole runways. Moles hunt worms and grubs under your turf; voles eat the grass and bark on top of it — so telling them apart decides everything about what to do next. Read the guide → Animal Droppings Small Pellet Droppings in Yard: Rabbit, Deer, or Squirrel? Small pellet droppings scattered across a yard are most often left by rabbits, deer, or squirrels. Rabbits drop round, pea-size pellets in loose clusters on the lawn, deer leave larger oval pellets in concentrated piles of 20 or more, and squirrel droppings are barrel-shaped and scattered under trees. Where the pellets show up — open lawn versus garden edge — is as telling as their shape. Read the guide →