Oh no! How awful. We don't have so much trouble here because we are "in the country" enough to have plenty of predators. But my granny's neighbor in town has built an enclosure around his entire garden to keep the squirrels from stealing everything. 2 X 4s with hardware cloth on all 4 sides and across the top like a giant dog kennel. Apparently he REALLY loves his garden.

Probably a raccoon. We have problems with a squirrel in our yard. Our neighbor has named him Charlie. I can't bear telling her that her "Charlie" will be meeting the big tree in the sky soon if he keeps up his shenanigans.

Anyways, try the Scarecrow. Not your typical scarecrow. This is an impact sprinkler with a motion detector on it. It shoots out a pretty strong blast of water (trust me, I've forgotten to turn it before walking in front of it more than once). Our old neighbor had really good success using it to keep raccoons out of her fish pond. We used it to keep our dogs out of our garden. I've heard it also works on cats.

around here serious gardens look like concentration camps. and the animals KNOW when the produce is RIPE. they don't eat unripe produce either. that's why i quit gardening. between the deer, racoons, opossums, birds and insects it was a waste of time and money. when i considered the costs to combat all the critters it is much cheaper for me to buy from the farmers market and have all that TIME to myself.
the ONE EXCEPTION to this was when we had a 13 acres polycrop truck garden. even though we used no chemicals and manure fertilizer we grew so much produce that it was enough for all the critters, ourselves and some left over for our neighbors.

a dog does help with the larger pests.

In my suburban neighborhood, it's either raccoons or squirrels, and since the new neighbors next door moved in with their large dog, we're down to only having to fend off squirrels. And this time of year, they are busy with the hazelnut trees and not paying attention to the veggies.

Well, I was thinking about an electric fence. That's all that would work to keep our black bear out.
However, my husband discovered that raccoons are great climbers. He walked out near the garden to hear some scuffling sounds and flashed the light and noticed the little bugger more than 10 feet up near the top of the fence. Our fence in not electrified at this time. Luckily, the raccoon never did come back. We have thought of using electric fencing but it's expensive and can use maintenance frequently as the tree branches are always dropping around here. Do raccoons dig like groundhogs? Can they potentially get underneath a garden fence. So far, not.
The motto in my county: "People and Nature Together". I say, they must have been vegetable gardeners!
Good luck to you.
Theresa Nartana

Sounds like turkeys, but no matter what the pest, dog hair will ward off many offenders. Call your local dog groomer and ask for a couple of trash bags full and spread it around the base of your plants.

I ran into the same problem this summer. I managed to save most of my crop. Next summer when your corn if standing tall, place cut human hair around the perimeter. It's an old wives tale but believe me, it works. I gather the hair from local hair salons. Good Luck.