Bugs Eating Flowers & Not Leaves

[chops]

I recently planted my High Voltage in the ground around 2 1/2 weeks ago and have been ejoying the flowers that it produces.  Just the last 2 days, I noticed that something has been eating the flowers.  It reminds me of what moths would do to clothes in a closet.  I'm ruling out snails since all the leaves look fine.  What could it possibly be?    Any advice is appreciated.

[Pachrian]

Hi chops,

do you have grasshoppers in your yard? I do, huge 2 inch monsters that look almost cute when they are little 1/3 inch babies. Anyway, these guys love flowers and buds. They will eat leaves when that's all they can get, but once the buds start to show color that's all they seem to care about. I really hate killing them, but I do have my priorities

[chops]

Hi Pachrian,

I never noticed grasshoppers.  I'll have to pay closer attention.  I have seen some moths nearby though.  If grasshoppers are the reason, how do I get rid of them?

[Pachrian]

Whew, no grasshoppers, that's great news! I catch mine by making them jump into a widemouthed plastic bottle (gatorade).

If you've seen moths then I would suspect the larvae and or caterpillars to be the culprit. I've lost too many buds to what I simply call budworms and have recently come to suspect that Gray Hairstreaks are part of my problem. I say part, because I've seen different larvae inside the buds. Usually there is not much damage (maybe a little hole) to these buds, they just fall off, but occasionally the tips of the buds are eaten up.

What does the damage to your flowers look like?

[chops]

So far, the buds are fine.  It isn't until the flowers are open for about a day that I notice any damage.  The flowers have holes in them like when you make paper snowflakes. It's so annoying.  Is there anything that can be done to correct this problem?

[Charlie]

We have flower eating squirrels around here. Luckily they rarely go up on the tables where most of the hibiscus are but any pots sitting on the ground are fair game. They eat a circle around the flower so that when they are finished all that is left is the eye of the bloom plus a little bit of each petal.

Grasshoppers can eat a lot for their size. They are not very easy to kill with pesticides so I play tennis with them as the ball. Works fairly well. Sometimes they just sit there not moving on a hibiscus and you can walk right up to one and snip it in half with pruning shears. Grosses Cindy out but it is highly effective....

Charlie

[chops]

LOL!  Grasshopper Tennis! That's funny Charlie.

Luckily, I found the problem.  My husband suggested that it had to be snails since they all seem to come out at night to eat.  He found one on one of the blooms yesterday.  I figured it couldn't hurt to put some snail and slug killer around the perimeter of the hibiscus over night.  Why not?  I had one new bloom yesterday that needed to be saved.    Sure enough...I found 16 snails the next morning outside of that perimeter.  I still think it's weird that the snails never ate any of the leaves, but I'm glad my hibiscus isn't infested with any other problems.

[Charlie]

If it's snails and slugs that is good news since they are easy to control. I never liked putting the older snail baits out in the garden because of our dogs and cats but the newer Sluggo is safe for pets and quite effective against snails. It is made mostly of iron and whatever is not eaten by snails melts into the ground where it is used by plants as a boost of the iron they need.

Charlie