Something Is Eating My New Plants!

What’s making your plants disappear, and what you can do about it

You’ve planted bean seeds and the newly sprouted plants are being eaten before they can even develop their first set of leaves. Your marigold foliage is being stripped off the plants. The leaves of your dahlias, hosta, and [insert name of your plant here] are disappearing. It’s so discouraging because you spent time, effort and money on vegetables, annuals, and perennials only to have them destroyed shortly after they’ve gone into the garden. Here is the rogues gallery of insects and critters that are causing such problems in Cape Cod gardens, and solutions for protecting your plants.

Small Holes In Vegetable Leaves

Very small holes in many vegetables can be caused by flea beetles. They are very small, and hard to see, but are typically found on chard, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and cole crops. The best treatments are spraying first with spinosad (Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew), and after the plant is dry, dusting with diatomaceous earth (aka DE). Both of these are organic treatments. Once the plants get larger and stronger, the damage won’t be so extensive and often you won’t have to treat later in the summer.

Leaves Stripped off Stems or Skeletonized

If the foliage on your annuals, vegetables, or butterfly bush are being stripped off the stems, either earwigs or slugs are likely to be the culprit. Earwigs especially love butterfly bush, coleus and dahlia foliage, and slugs happily chow down on marigolds. Both like new annuals such as cleome and zinnias when they are fresh and tender from the growers. The solution is to spray any newly planted annual that is being eaten with Captain Jack’s. For added protection, dust these with diatomaceous earth after the Captain Jack’s dries. For gardens where the slug or earwig population is high, Sluggo Plus can also be scattered around vulnerable plants.

My Kale and Broccoli Are Turning Into Lace!

The cole crops – cabbage, broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts – are typically eaten when very small by flea beetles and as they grow larger by the cabbage loper larvae. The solution for both is spraying the plants well with Captain Jack’s. Because the leaves of these plants are slick and the spray can run off, add Turbo – an organic “spreader sticker” that holds the spinosad on the plants – to your spray tank or the bottle of Captain Jack’s. Repeat as the plants grow through the summer to protect the newest foliage.

Entire Leaves Are Disappearing From My Plants

Insects can strip smaller leaves and younger plants, but they take small bites so the foliage doesn’t immediately disappear. When large leaves are quickly vanishing, it’s likely that an animal is the cause. Rabbits are the most likely critter since they are so abundant, but deer and woodchucks could also be the cause. For protection from rabbits and deer, use Plantskydd liquid, sprayed on the foliage. You might see and smell it when it’s first applied, but after a day it disappears. It is the most long-lasting rabbit and deer repellant. I spray it on any newly-installed plant so that these critters get the message from day one that my garden is not their buffet.

How Do I Apply Diatomaceous Earth?

I use two small plastic flower pots to apply a light dusting of DE. I place one pot inside another and turn them so the holes only slightly line up…in other words, making smaller openings in the bottom. Then I scoop up the DE in the pot, and walk over the plants tapping the pot gently so that a fine mist of DE falls on the plant. Do not do this when it’s windy because you do not want to breath in the dust.

Do not dust flowering plants where bees or other pollinators are foraging because DE will kill any insect it touches. For this reason, it’s a product best used when plants are young and being eaten, but not applied wholesale over the entire garden. Remember that there are many beneficial insects in our gardens that we need to protect. In fact, as the season continues, earwigs are beneficial in gardens because they help decaying plant material break down.

Here are the products you need for plant protection from insects: Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew (spinosad), diatomaceous earth (DE), Sluggo Plus. For rabbits, come see all of the products we offer, but for the longest lasting, use Plantskydd liquid.