What is eating the leaves of my plants? - Ask Extension
For a couple of years, I've noticed that the leaves of several of my plants including coneflower, dahlia, shasta daisy, hydrangea and now small tomato...
Knowledgebase
What is eating the leaves of my plants? #871246
Asked June 03, 2024, 9:47 AM EDT
For a couple of years, I've noticed that the leaves of several of my plants including coneflower, dahlia, shasta daisy, hydrangea and now small tomato transplants are being eaten by something. Last year I tried Neem oil, but the amount of damage was to great it seemed. I have about a dozen of these flowering plants around the garden.
This year, I put out small tomato plants that I started from seed. Of the 10 tomatoes, 5 were eaten down to the stem. The were small plants and grown from organic seeds from Park Seed. I had the flowering plants eaten last year but not the tomatoes.
I read about a flea beetle that targets new leaves so could that be the culprit? I put out the yellow sticky stuff to try and see what came out of the plant and have included a photo here. But if these are good insects I do want to trap them
I'm stumped and prefer to not use chemicals. But what can I do?
Thanks for your help.
Wayne County Michigan
Expert Response
This looks like it could be a variety of different things and it is probably too much for us to try to solve it all via this platform. I can tell you that flea beetles chew holes in leaves but they do not usually consume the entire leaf. Cutworms (Order Lepidoptera, Family Noctuidae) are more likely to consume larger portions of the plant. Cutworms are nocturnal and you may not realize they are there unless you look for them at night, or go digging in the soil for them. I cannot identify the insects on the yellow sticky card. The photo is just not high enough resolution for me to see the characters I would need to see. I would recommend that you identify specific issues that you would like help with (e.g. bugs eating my coneflower) and submit those as separate questions to AskExtension. Our experts can then help you with each of these issues one at a time.