Question
My sister called me this morning from Oklahoma City with a  plant question.  she lives in an apartment complex, ground floor.  her neighbor has planted marigolds in a window box and they have recently planted morning glory seeds there also.  now, something is eating them..morning glory seedlings gone, larger marigold plants gone..nothing left.  She wondered if it would be birds..i don't have a problem like that with birds here on the farm in north central Arkansas, and i wondered if it could be chipmunks or pack rats or such or even cutworms.  she said they don't have chipmunks or pack rats there and she didn't think it was cutworms because the whole plant is gone. the birds they have there are mainly sparrows.  Any ideas what could be happening.  The plants my sister has in the ground two apartments down are doing fine.

Answer
Years ago, I had a rooftop garden in the heart of Brooklyn. Mid-spring, I planted, and I awoke at the crack of dawn each morning to head upstairs to watch the sun rise and plan the day surrounded by shrubs and sprouts.

The first year was very educational.  I learned that even in Brooklyn, the birds love a breakfast of sprouts.  Not even the tuberoses were safe.  These bulbs would break through the soil, and each morning were eating to the ground, down to nothing.

Back then, I chased them with mothballs.  Today I would do it with a cat, instead -- safer, and greener, and more effective.

Birds are my first guess.  Mind you, the slugs have devoured most of what used to be Petunias at my Long Island home this spring.  But they'll come back.  Slugs are clearly not the problem here -- unless you are using pots, in which case you ought to check carefully under them to make sure you did not import any snails or slugs inadvertently to the window boxes.

These might also be deer.  I don't know where your sister lives, whether there are deer in the back yards, but in communities where deer are a nuisance, all bets on the window boxes are off; the deer will patronize them with impunity.  Trouble is, Morning Glories are not on their menu.

If the whole plant is gone, roots and all, it sounds like deer to me.

Of course, I could be wrong.  See this report about stick-fingered plant-loving suburban Chicago thieves:

articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-23/features/ct-sun-stolen-flowers-20100523_1_gardeners-plant-flowers

'...No one tracks how many flowers, bushes and trees are dug out of the ground each year by fly-by-night landscapers, con artists looking to make a fast buck and home gardeners too lazy or stingy to pony up for their own plants.

But at Chicago-area greenhouses and garden centers, plant people tell of numerous plant theft incidents, some strange (The Pilfered Palm Tree), some silly (The Black Market Petunias) and some just plain sad.

"It's sort of like stealing candy from a baby, or picking on a little old lady or someone who's disabled," Spinner says of plant pilfering.

"Steal hubcaps (if you have to), you know? But leave flowers alone."'

They're called "Greedy Gardeners".

Wish I could be more helpful.  Let me know your thoughts,

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER