
I have been growing African violets for about 40 years. One of the oldest plants I had with me, perhaps the last 30 years has been Granger Red and White Strip. I learned to propagate chimera African violets using tissue culture methods with this hybrid, and as I moved from one state to another to a new job, I made sure this was part of the collection I would bring. I currently had only this one plant of Granger Red and White, it was health and growing. I really enjoyed it and it was important to me. Then the other day I went down to the basement of my home (where I grow my violets) and found this! (image below) Click on the images to enlarge.

The Grangers’ Red and White Stripe was in pot (A). Pot (B) and (C) had two other chimeras and were spaced further apart. All 3 plants were in a white plant tray on the 3rd level of a growing shelf that was about 5 feet off the ground. The plants were totally gone only some leaves were found in the tray. As I typically check on my violets once ever 2 to 3 days, and based on the amount of curl of the leaf debris I expect this occurred 3 days prior. The plants were gone down to the soil. But roots were still there indicating they were perhaps eaten, stem and all, down to the soil-line of the pot. This was really upsetting to me. I will probably never be able to replace it. I lost it forever. I noticed with the spilled soil from the knocked over pot there appeared to be mouse droppings (Arrows point to some of them). Do mice eat African violets?
I was totally unaware if mice or some other creature eats African violets. I was also very frustrated with the concept that there were mice in the house. I initially just assumed mice did this damage as the droppings and the quantity of mice droppings inside this plant tray (arrows).
I then started a web search to find out if in-fact mice eat African violets. To my surprise there were not many articles on this. Actually only found 4 articles and the links are below. After a week of mouse traps and close surveillance including putting one trap in the plant tray where the Granger Red and White was, I was able to remove 4 mice. The traps are now are vacant and I am assuming I got them all. But will keep a few traps going for the next month just to make sure.
Below are the links I found:
https://www.optimara.com/doctoroptimara/diagnosis/mice.html
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1658933/mystery-animal-eating-my-african-violet
https://www.violetbarn.com/blog/best-of-violetsfun/more-of-mice-and-men/
https://thegrowingleaf.com/do-mice-eat-african-violets/
As you will see in the links above, mice do eat African violets (leaves and stems), apparently they enjoy eating the ones I enjoy growing the most. As you will see from the above links, African violets are listed as a non-poisonous plant, according to the National Capital Poison Center: Poison Control – Washington. Also African violets do not appear toxic to either dogs or cats, hence one can assume it is not toxic to mice. Over the decades I have had my plants attacked by fungus, bacteria. I guess I need to add mice to the list.