deanna, I googled Joe Pye Weed bugs and it brought up posts from 9 years & 15 years ago from gw about the same thing. Even Google results says many bugs like JPW and that this is common. Says the plant will rebound, too.

I have similar damage. I have a couple Eupatorium perfoliatum (boneset) that look like your Joe Pye this year. One of my Joe Pye is chewed up, the others are untouched. Different cultivars -- maybe one is tastier than another?

joe pye was ravished???? .... i suspect his girlfriend or the hussy neighbor woman ... lol

and you aside.. is he really complaining...

oh wait.. you said ravaged... never mind.. lol

ken

ps: all green tissue continues to function.. convert sunlight into energy.. to store in the roots for next year.. so leave it be.. and you should be fine next year... the only thing that might harm that theory.. would be if you mowed it down.. and it reflushed.. using stored energy.. when it would be storing energy for next season... soooo.. ignoring it is your best option.. and if you can NOT find a bug.. there would be no use to spraying....if you find something.. feel free to ravish it.. lol ... check at night.. if you cant find it during the day...

Mine looks like that too. id be tempted to put some sluggo plus around it because it works on earwigs too. Although you'd see them this is the season of a lot of chewing night beetles that fly. Not very scientific; we called them ”june bugs” when i was a kid

Well, Ken, Mr Pye might not mind being RAVAGED, I suspect. Maybe the girl needs to be ravishing. However, I believe Mr. Pye has low standards in my yard!

It must be night bugs. I’ll try to go out and check. I would just like to know what is doing it. I don’t mind some bug damage unless it’s from something really negative like Japanese Beetles, but I have not seen any of those in my yard so far this year.

Thanks to all replies. I guess this is the year Joe Pye leads the bug menu of the day…day after day after day. Glad I’m not alone!

Dont you go out at night like Dee with a head lamp on, looking for bugs ravishing your plants? Nighttime when all the action is!

My Joe Pye looks the same, and I have been assuming it was snails/slugs. Will take a look at night.

The damage could also be caused by small caterpillars that feed earlier in the season (rather than snails/slugs or beetles). A couple websites mention plume moth caterpillars specifically. I took this photo at a public garden 6/14/23, but didn't take the time to search for the culprits

My lead suspect is some sort of caterpillar. At this poin in the season, cutting plants back by at least half to get fresh new foliage (and standing guard ready to spray BT or use slug bait as necessary) would be my choice. There may still be time for trimmed-back plants to flower by fall.

Well, after seeing all that damage just accross the pond, I had to go out and check mine. Fortunately, there was nary a hole to be seen.

tj

There was only minor damage on my patch of Little Joe in the backyard this year, but by coincidence earlier this evening I found 2 adult plume moths on the foliage (upper right and lower left). So it seems likely that the caterpillars of this particular moth were responsible.

Beautiful creature