Please help me save my Butterfly bush. It is getting ravaged by something and I can't figure out what. As you can see from the pictures the leaves are being eaten and they are turning black. I searched and searched for aphids and haven't seen one. I observed a couple of slimy snails or slugs the other day. However I question whether they can devour a plant as fast as is happening. Just in case though, I placed snail and grub bait around the plants.

The other problem, perhaps related, is that the plants wilt horribly in the hot afternoon sun. I have mulched as heavily as possible. That hasn't helped the wilting very much. I have had to water them every afternoon to aleviate the wilting.

I have read several places that Butterfly Bush is drought tolerant, but these ones sure don't seem to be.

Also many of my other plants are getting eaten, and it always seems to start near the ground and then spreads to the uppermost leaves in a matter of a couple of days.

This is the second year for my Butterfly Bush, and I had the same problem last year also.

I brought in about five thousand ladybugs last year, but that didn't seem to help.

Also here in Ontario we are not allowed to use chemical pesticides in our gardens anymore, so the only fix is to use, non toxic non polluting, natural solution.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

Dragonfly9703

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