Something ate my dill!

9 years ago

Last night, everything in my garden looked normal. This morning, the dill is almost completely demolished. I did find this little grub next to it, but have no idea what it is. I've also had slugs, but after adding diatemaceous earth, those seem to be gone. Ideas?

Featured Answer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

9 years ago

That looks like a firefly/lightning bug larvae, to me. If so, it's not responsible for the plant damage. Those larvae are predatory critters.

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Comments (7)

petalique
9 years ago
Maybe something like a "dill pickle eater" has wiped out your dill. Plant more. I love dill! Wonder if there is a weavil-cam on the market.
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dbarron
9 years ago
Dill is a host plant for tiger swalllowtails...there could have been a caterpillar in the neighborhood.
petalique
9 years ago
Dbarron, Good point. Plant more dill. Love those swallowtails.
theparsley
9 years ago
Dill is a host plant for black swallowtails, not tiger swallowtails. A popular plant for those of us in the Butterfly Garden conference! But though these fat little caterpillars eat pretty fast I don't think they'd have eaten a whole dill plant overnight...and you'd have seen the culprits.
dbarron
9 years ago
Yeah, only way that'd happen is if they ran out of host and found this one suddenly or it'd been 2 or 3 days since you looked at it. Ok black..not tiger...my bad ;) anyway a lovely butterfly.
andreap
9 years ago
Last year my neighbor said she saw our resident rabbit(s) eating her dill. I plant mine among my walking onions, which are supposed to deter rabbits. So far so good this year, but I have seen no rabbits, possibly due to the coyotes and foxes I hear are out there at night. You might want to try cages.