While the season had come to an end for many of the sunflowers in our garden, we allowed them to continue to grow in the south garden bed, so we could enjoy them a bit longer.

But that was cut short when a hungry critter decided to have a sunflower snack. The heads of the sunflowers were covered with bite marks, and a few were almost completely eaten.

Since I wasn’t sure which pest could’ve caused this damage, I asked The Organic Gardener Jeanne Nolan.

“Squirrel,” Nolan said. “Squirrels like sunflowers. Birds peck at them and take a seed. Squirrels eat part of the head and gnaw at it.”

Earlier this season, a deer was spotted in the WTTW/WFMT parking lot near the garden, so I asked if it could’ve been a deer.

“Deer typically eat the whole head,” Nolan said. “At least that’s the deer damage I’ve seen.”