What's eating my annuals?

11 years ago

I've grown many plants from seed this year (in our greenhouse) and have been planting them out these past two weeks. Plants in containers seem to be doing well, but in some beds, the pansies, foxgloves and zinnias are being decimated. This first foxglove is in poor shape. The second and third pictures are of a foxglove and pansy which look like they're just starting to be eaten. Any suggestions of how to prevent would be appreciated.

Featured Answer

dowlinggram

11 years ago

Those little holes could be earwigs but they could be other things too like flea beetles. slugs tend to eat from the edges. If it's flea beetles you should see them around your plants in the day. Slugs and earwigs feed after dark so a trip outside with a flashlight will tell you what it is. I agree the first plant looks like it has some king of fungal disease. Here is a good bait for earwigs

Bait for Earwigs.

Equal
parts of soy sauce, cooking oil and (molasses or corn syrup). The molasses or
syrup is bait to attract them--the oil doesn't allow them to crawl back out and
the salt in the soy sauce finishes them off and makes the mixture dark so they
think it is just a hole. Put it in a small container— I use those small scoops
from laundry soap and place a stone on top but you can use any small container
even the bottom of a soda or water bottle
and anything for a lid. Cover 1/2 inch of the bottom of the
container with the mixture and bury it up to the brim in the soil where you
have a problem with them. Prop a lid over it so it doesn't get diluted by rain
and so it is a nice dark place for them to hide for the day--ha. When you prop
the lid, leave a small space for them to crawl into the container. You might
have to wait a couple of days for it to work, but the first time I tried it I
used a baby food bottle and it was full to the brim with little grey baby
earwigs the next morning. I was surprised at just how many I did get. Try it.
It really works

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Comments (11)

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
I don't know what is eating your plants but the 3rd picture is a Petunia, not a Pansy. Some of the damage looks as if it could be slugs or snails but the first Foxglove has something else going on which looks more like a disease than a pest. I would suggest going out after dark and seeing if there is something nocturnal nibbling your plants.
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zen_man
11 years ago
Just out of curiosity, what are those little light-colored round things on the soil?
dowlinggram
11 years ago
Those round things on the soil looks like fertilizer to me
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
ZM, the little balls are control release fertilizer prills. Osmocote is one of the most well known brands.

I was thinking earwigs, too, or even pillbugs or sowbugs, dowlinggram.
oldbat2be
Original Author
11 years ago
dowlinggram- thanks so much for taking the time to write up that recipe. I will try this week both here and in another bed where my Queen Red lime Zinnias have been decimated.

Rhizo_1 - good call, you were spot on about the fertilizer .

Floral_uk - you're absolutely right, those are petunias. I hope it's not disease, these were all grown from seed and I've been very careful about cleaning and bleaching any pots which I've re-used. I think I did pretty well with the hardening off, too.
oldbat2be
Original Author
11 years ago
Shortly before their demise this morning, I found these two culprits:

The caterpillary one was on a zinnia and the slug? was on a foxglove. Do you have suggestions for either?

This culprit periodically pulls out whole plants that I've just planted, but he's such good company that I forgive him:)
zen_man
11 years ago
You can usually just hand pick caterpillars and wooly worms from zinnias. For slugs, I use Sluggo. It is safe around pets, like your dog. But it kills slugs effectively.
oldbat2be
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks ZM, will pick up some Sluggo today. Good to know about handpicking them. How on earth do you manage to do that by hand with all your zinnias?!
oldbat2be
Original Author
11 years ago
Slug bait out. Not sluggo; local hardware store didn't have, DH picked up the brand they did have.

I put out 9 'traps' with dowlinggram's recipe tonight; ran out of small containers and then thought to cut off the bottoms of recyclable water bottles (worked well!).

Just went out and found two of these on a couple of zinnias. Earwigs, right? I'm embarrassed to post pictures but the zinnias which I planted out, are in terrible shape.

During the day, today, I took this picture, just after picking up a flat. Lots of activity, this was all that was left, when I took the picture:

Note two earwigs? to the upper right and a pillbug ? along 9 PM. I did see one pillbug roll up into a ball, so that's why I think they're pillbugs.
zen_man
11 years ago
Hi oldbat2be,

" Good to know about handpicking them. How on earth do you manage to do that by hand with all your zinnias?! "

I do have a lot of zinnias, but today I did not see a single wooly worm on them. We did take one off of a tomato plant, but I think it was just "exploring". Wooly worms aren't very numerous and they are easy to see, so hand picking them doesn't take a lot of time. One year in the past numerous earwigs caused extensive damage to my zinnias. They worked at night. I discovered that they were living under the mulch I had provided my zinnias, so I simply removed the mulch and replaced it with sand.

That eliminated the earwig problem, and also eliminated the pillbug problem. Pillbugs don't like sand, There is also an effective bait available for pillbugs. but my sand mulch keeps pillbugs away, and it keeps earwigs away.

ZM