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Skeletonized leaves #870722

Asked May 30, 2024, 10:31 AM EDT

I’m seeing multiple different types of flowers and veggies in my garden with leaves that are being eaten. I do have some brassicas that I’ve been pulling green caterpillars from but that is not my concern. My potatoes and sunflowers are being skeletonized like crazy but I haven’t been able to find any thing on them. I also have seen generally eating of the leaves on my cucumbers, melons, squash, beans, basil, and lettuce as well, but it doesn’t look skeletonized, just fully eaten leaves and green material (I believe this is due to my leaf mulch being very thick and isopod populations being out of control. I’ll attach a photo of the potato issue and the sunflower issue, as well ans a photo of the damage on the bean sprouts. Our gardens are organic, we do not use any chemicals or pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Thanks for your help!

Kent County Michigan

Expert Response

Hello Mikey,

It appears as this damage could be caused by possibly slugs, beetles or caterpillars. My guess is more towards slugs; as you are not seeing any pests when you are out looking during the day. You could try looking at night with a flashlight and maybe you could catch the culprit in action. The best time to catch them is usually around 2 hours after sun down; which you can hand pick them off and place them in warm salt water to kill them. I have also had good luck with setting out beer traps; bury a tuna can and fill with beer and place near the plants that have been affected. 

Here is a pretty good article on some different solutions for dealing with slugs:

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/how-to-stop-slugs-eating-young-plants/

You may also want to check thoroughly under the leaves for any eggs, which may give more signs of what the actual pest may be, so you can better deal with the situation. 

Thank you for your question, Replied June 03, 2024, 9:44 AM EDT

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