Something eating my marigolds down to the stems

9 years ago

I have bought the standard orange marigolds from the six-pack at Home Depot as well and something is eating them leaves first and then right down to the stem. I have been using marigolds as a pest barrier for over 25 years and have never seen this happen to marigolds. I don't have slugs as none of my hostas have been treated and not one leaf has been touched nor have I seen a single slug in any of my gardening here in 4 years. i'm at a loss to know what is happening. What is the soap solution recipe? I might as well see if I can save the rest. I have to wonder if it is a tiny worm doing it b/c i can't find anything else. If it was a rabbit and we do have rabbits, they wouldn't nibble the leaves in such tiny increments, they would just munch it down. No, this is something very small doing this.

Comments (3)

knottyceltic
Original Author
9 years ago
UPDATE: It definitely wasn't slugs. It wasn't rabbits either. We still don't know for sure but we got down face to face with the marigolds that are left and now they too are getting slowly eaten. We found that if we shake the plant, a tiny white worm will drop off each plant. By tiny I mean like 1.5 mm! We have no idea what it is but it moves like an inch worm stretching out and then hind end bunching up and moving forward. If anyone has a good soap recipe we will try it but we've lost more than half of all our marigolds at this point and don't know if we can save the rest. Any help at all would be appreciated.
pandora
9 years ago
I have seen chipmunks stuff whole dwarf marigolds in their fat little cheeks and eat part of the plant.

If you see holes in leaves you might have some type of caterpillar or green cabbage worm, etc.

I've had good luck with 20-30% Listerine to water and couple drops of Dawn dishwashing soap. Mix in hand sprayer. Kills soft bodied like aphids and cabbage worms.

Good luck.
dajsnipe
9 years ago
We've lost a lot of flowers to voles and mice, for some reason they are pretty bad this year. They actually learned to eat through the stalks of the sunflowers so they can eat the seed heads.
Try a sticky trap, that should give you an idea of what's coming and going.