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Who's Munching on my Helenium

februarysgirlfebruarysgirl Posts: 835
in Plants
I've just done my early morning walk around and noticed that something has been feasting on my Heleniums.



Any idea who the culprit could be?

Posts

  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    Slugs and snails love them, although I fine they mostly go for the foliage.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Weevils can sometimes eat them, so it might be those, but the foliage looks ok, and as @KeenOnGreen says, that's their usual target. 
    Birds maybe? Sparrows sometimes nibble flowers, although it's usually yellow they go for. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Something has probably munched it at bud stage causing the exaggerated chomped effect as the flower opened, could it be earwigs? They do that to my rose buds, never noticed it on the heleniums though. 
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
    I've caught slugs and snails live in action, in broad daylight, munching on the buds of my livingstone daisy and dianthus.
  • februarysgirlfebruarysgirl Posts: 835
    I've caught slugs on the foliage, those damn great Spanish ones.

    There's other things that I've found. There's this where something has made a tight web on several of the buds and petals but when pulled apart there's nothing in them.



    There's also this which is more munching!



    I looked up their known pests and beyond slugs, there aren't really any. Last year, aside from slugs on the foliage, there was no damage at all. No idea what's happened this year.
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