Bugs are eating little circles in my plant leaves. What are they? How do I get rid of them?

Question

P.S. I've never seen the bugs, only the holes they leave.

Answer 1

Hello

Ok so you have random hole's showing up in your leaves. If they are in the being punched out and not eaten from the edges in then its most likely slugs It's not Aphids because you would always see them on the plant. If you rarely see any insects on the plant but more hole's popping up it's slugs. They are nocturnal insects that crawl up the stalk of your plant and on the leaves and back down into the soil before morning. Iron phosphate sprinkled around the plant on the soil usually removes them. Or Ortho's Bug Geta. You can also try leaving a coffee saucer out over the night with beer in it. The slugs are attracted to it and will crawl in and drown. In the greatest death possible in my opinion :). Other then that rapping pure copper around the base of the plant will kill them because when they crawl over it they will shrivel up and die. Good luck

Greenman

Answer 2

Bugs That Eat Plants

Answer 3

Aphids are sucking insects......are you seeing what might be the left-over pierced hole? They don't go thru the whole leaf and are extremely tiny. Another thought and relative is the psyllid. Both cause a stickiness from their poop. Control by dusting with limestone or diatomaceous earth.

Tiny holes through the leaf may be flea beetles. You should be able to find a tiny shiny beetle. Control is either diatomaceous earth or rotenone.

If the holes are nearly perfect and a bit larger (up to dime size), those are leaf cutter bees. They are helping themselves to your leaves to use in their nest. Since they don't eat the leaf and can cut a leaf in seconds, there's no way you could apply a pesticide against them. We are having a severe loss in pollinating insects which will affect food availability world wide, leaf cutter beeds should be protected.

If the holes are from the edge in and maybe even somewhat square, those are weevils that live in the soil during the day and feed at night. You have to attack the soil below the plant. Try diatomaceous earth on the foliage, soil treatments take more toxic chemicals.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Bugs are eating little circles in my plant leaves. What are they? How do I get rid of them?
P.S. I've never seen the bugs, only the holes they leave.

Answer 5

Leaf Eating Insects

Answer 6

Sound like Leaf Cutting Bee's (Megachile spp.), they usually go after rose bushes, trees and shrubs.

They cut circular pieces of a uniform size from the leaves margins. These pieces are used to build their nests.

Unless they do a lot of damage, I'd leave them alone as they help pollinate the garden. The plants recover easily, it just looks bad for now until the bee's are done with the nest. If their persisitant just swat them when you see them on the plants.

Answer 7

Could be slugs. The easiest cure I've found is.......rinse and let eggshells dry, crush them up and sprinkle around the base of the plant. Slugs used to leave big holes in all of my hosta, after I started with the eggshells, they seem to stay away. I read that the jagged edges hurt their bellies so they stay away from it.

Answer 8

It sure sounds like aphids, but any garden center will be able to help you with the proper remedy, just take the leaf along with you in a baggie.

Answer 9

Good question, I have the same stupid bugs and I don't know what they are either.

Answer 10

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tammysrecipes.com%2Ffiles%2Ftomatohornworms3.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tammysrecipes.com%2Ftomato_hornworms&h=202&w=400&tbnid=BpJIN00MxA7GpM%3A&zoom=1&docid=51DOCpFCiRowAM&ei=h3U8VIu1G-bOiwK_kYHYCQ&tbm=isch&client=safari&ved=0CBwQMygAMAA&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1957&page=1&start=0&ndsp=15