John

It's probably a hungry rabbit even though they don't usually go after pepper leaves unless they are very hungry. An insect would be unlikely to tear it off at the stem, they would just leave a torn up leaf for you. Turtles also display this pattern but I am not sure they like pepper leaves either, and would be hesitant to go up that high. It you have a devoted hose line, there is a great deterrent to all animals. its a highly powerful and noisy sprinkler head with a motion detector that goes off when an animal gets near your garden and scares the heck out of them when it goes off. (not so noisy that it is likely to wake you up). When I was living in an area with herds of deer around us, it was the only thing that worked, even better than fencing. Good luck. PS My wife and I do the puzzle every day and she can't access you reviews on her phone app, so I share them from time to time as I did today. She enjoyed your review today immensly as did I. This was a very difficult puzzle, even if you figured out the theme. Thank you for your work!