Mystery predator nasties are going ga-ga for for Lysimachias!

[Herbsandveg]

Having brought in some Lysimachias (which are still in a pot) for the winter (I know I shouldn’t, but they’re so small that I haven’t the heart to leave them out to mercy of the elements and nasty slugs) I have a bewildering problem on which I’m racking my brains to try to figure.

Whilst the leaves were near perfect when I brought them in from the garden, virtually all of the leaves close to the top of one of the plants have been being eaten by a mystery predator either whilst I’ve been out at work, whilst I’ve been in and just not looking, or whilst I’ve been asleep during the night (which is the same, I know, as ‘been in and just not looking’ except that I do sometimes wake up and go in the kitchen during the night).

I can find myself in the kitchen due to getting a bit lost on the way to the bathroom, or sometimes by just wandering aimlessly about for reasons yet to be discovered, or as a detour when I’m off to spend a penny but suddenly start wondering again about the plants.

I haven’t seen any insects, bugs or any other possible culprits anywhere near the plants, and short of setting up some kind of night-time CCTV feed (which I’m seriously considering) I’ve no idea at all what could be causing all the damage.

Does anyone have any ideas on this one, please?

[veggiechicken]

Do you have a house rabbit, house goat (not house coat) or house cow?
I'm trying to eliminate a few possible munchers!

[Jungle Jane]

Is there a slug living in the hole in the bottom of the pot?

[cheops]

My guess is Jungle Jane is on the ball. A slug could be hiding in the hole at the bottom of the pot only making an appearance when hungry. It could even be underneath the soil in the pot and again only appearing for lunch then disappearing again. Rather than eventually lose the plant I'd carefully uproot it and check the soil. The number of times at this time of the year I have discarded a finished annual and spread the compost from the pot onto a bed only to find a few minutes later a small slug appearing and trying to escape into the distance is numerous.

[mothhawk]

I would say a sneaky caterpillar is lurking among the greenery, cunningly disguised by being as green as the plant. May only be a tiny one. I've had that happen, searched, and not found the culprit until it has grown too big to hide.

[happyhumph]

Think junless Jane or moth hawk are on the money - found a small tribe of tiny slugs under my kale seedlings when potting on at the weekend.

[Herbsandveg]

Apologies to all for the late reply, but thanks also to all for all your very interesting suggestions and answers. I'll go through the pots tonight and see what a search turns up.

Fascinating to hear that slugs can burrow under the soil. It's never really occurred to me that they can do that. I thought it'd mean they get lots of soil sticking to their slimy bits, so it just shows how little I really know!

More on this tonight!

[Herbsandveg]

Do you have a house rabbit, house goat (not house coat) or house cow?
I'm trying to eliminate a few possible munchers!

Hello again VC

I don't have any of the above living with me, but you've really got me wondering now about a goat...

Regards, very thoughtfully
Graham

[veggiechicken]

Welcome to the Goat Wonderers Club, H&V

[Herbsandveg]

More on the the attacks on the Lysimachias...

Well, it seems we might now have a couple of clues as to the culprits in the recent attacks on the Lysimachias...

When I came home on Sunday I noticed lots of very small white insects all over several of the leaves, and wondered whether these could be the cause of the recent damage.

These insects are really too small to photograph (as least with my camera they're too small, anyway) so I can merely report their look, which was very small and very white (smaller, even, than I imagine Whitefly to be) and they don't look at all worried that I'd caught them in the act, and just brazenly carried on sitting around and ignoring me.

Very, very sadly, but also almost inevitable unavoidably, a large number of these were killed or seriously injured in the resulting altercations, and despite all my attempts to evict them peacefully they pretty much seemed determined to stand their ground even though it cost a number of them their lives when they tried to resist arrest.

In the absence of any photos of the insects, I've included a photo of the damage to plants, and the fact that no new damage has occurred in the past few days suggests the cause of gen recent problems has no probably been found.

Could these be a very small type of Whitefly? I Googled 'White flies that damage house plants' and their name came up as a little bug with a lot of previous in such behaviour, so this is what I think that we were probably dealing with.

Anyway, that's about it for latest update. I really hope we've sorted the problem now, and the plants can settle down again and recover from the damage.

Any further thoughts on any other likely offenders?

[vixylix]

Keep on top of whiteflies, they are frequent re-offenders!

That damage doesnt look like whiteflies to me, although mine have only ever been on veg, not on houseplants. It looks far more like caterpillar damage!

[Herbsandveg]

Culprit found (I think)...

Really happy to announce that I think we might have finally found the culprit who was doing all the damage! I arrived home unexpectedly last Saturday (I saw 'unexpectedly' because I didn't expect myself back at the time I arrived, so neither did anything else) and found a slug having a mooch around my kitchen close to the plants.

I'm now hoping that by removing this, it might finally have solved the problem - provided there aren't any others lurking anywhere - so I'm just hoping for a trouble-free time from here with no further nasty attacks on my lovely plants. Any further developments will be duly posted here!