What is this sunflower pest?

[Tyra Trevellyn]

Does this sound familiar?........ Sunflower leaves (plants aren't yet blooming) are being eaten by something that is NOT: slugs/snails, rabbits, birds, groundhogs, leaf-cutter bees. Large irregular pieces missing from the outer margins of the leaves (some leaves are almost gone by now). There is nothing resembling teeth marks or chewed-off/pecked-off bits, and I don't believe it's a warm-blooded muncher at all. The only other detail that looks a bit odd is that on a few of the leaves I notice dime-sized dark spots that seem wet or oily.....just one per leaf on the leaves that have them....but this could be something else entirely. This all started a day or two ago, and the damage is progressing very fast to defoliation, I fear. I see absolutely nothing munching the leaves during the day.

So, does this sound like grasshopper damage? I've seen only one in my yard this summer and normally this area is fairly free of major grasshopper populations. But this is the wild and weird Northeast this year....

Any ideas? Thanks and best, Tyra nNJ usa z7

[Pelvis Popcan]

It's possible it could be fungus. If you see dark spots on the leaves that's a tell-tale sign.

I spray all my plants once per week, one week with Sevin insecticide, then the next week with Ortho Garden Disease Control.

The Ortho Garden Disease Control used to be called Daconil, for some reason they changed the name. The active ingredient is Chlorothalonil, just make sure it contains that.

Sevin has always been Sevin. It contains Carbaryl which kills more bugs, mainly the leave boring ones that the Ortho chemicals don't. It also is quite harmless to most birds and mammals in small quantities, although I'd still wear a respirator and gloves when applying a lot of it. It *will* kill fish so if you have a pond nearby with fish in it, cover it with something like plastic paint-dropcloth.

[e-mail] (Tyra Trevellyn) wrote:

[Pelvis Popcan]

By the way... read my post above titled "Wind just destroyed months of time and effort" regarding what happened to my sunflowers. :(

[e-mail] (Tyra Trevellyn) wrote:

[Tyra Trevellyn]

Thanks for your ideas. There may be some kind of fungus on the leaves (I usually see signs of powdery mildew late in the season on sunflowers). However, the real problem right now is whatever is consuming the leaves as described. I need to identify that before I can take any measures.

(Sorry to hear about the storm damage to your plantings.)

Best, Tyra nNJ usa z7

[Tyra Trevellyn]

Bill, Thanks for your suggestion, but there are no Japanese beetles hereabouts, amazingly enough (we seem to have most everything else!). However, I 'm going to do a light soap spray on one or two of the plants just to see if whatever it is might find the spray itself distasteful. Since I can't see anything on the leaves, I doubt if I'll be destroying any insects that way. At this point, I'm figuring it must be some night feeder and I'll have to do the late-night flashlight search tonight.

I still think grasshoppers might be a possibillity, but I've yet to see more than that one a week or so ago.

Thanks again and best, Tyra nNJ usa z7

[Beecrofter]

Put a few pans or trashcan lids of water with a drop of dish soap in thewm under the plants and overnight the feeding insect will drop into it and drown. My bet is on Asiatic beetles.