By the way... read my post above titled "Wind just destroyed months of
time and effort" regarding what happened to my sunflowers.


oway (Tyra Trevellyn) wrote:

Does this sound familiar?........
Sunflower leaves (plants aren't yet blooming) are being eaten by something that
is NOT: slugs/snails, rabbits, birds, groundhogs, leaf-cutter bees. Large
irregular pieces missing from the outer margins of the leaves (some leaves are
almost gone by now). There is nothing resembling teeth marks or
chewed-off/pecked-off bits, and I don't believe it's a warm-blooded muncher at
all. The only other detail that looks a bit odd is that on a few of the leaves
I notice dime-sized dark spots that seem wet or oily.....just one per leaf on
the leaves that have them....but this could be something else entirely. This
all started a day or two ago, and the damage is progressing very fast to
defoliation, I fear. I see absolutely nothing munching the leaves during the
day.

So, does this sound like grasshopper damage? I've seen only one in my yard
this summer and normally this area is fairly free of major grasshopper
populations. But this is the wild and weird Northeast this year....

Any ideas?
Thanks and best,
Tyra
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