Zootal wrote:
First find out what it is. Have you checked for grubs or 28 spot
ladybeetle?

David



When I look, there is never anything there. For all I know my dogs or
cats are munching on them...You would think that with that much
damage, I would at least see some signs of what is eating it. No
ants, and we have ants everywhere, but I've never seen ants on them.
The damage is not what flea beetles do - no small holes, but big
chunks are gone. It looks like slug damage, I've seen what slugs do
to my cabbages and eggplants, but we don't have enough slugs to do
the damage I've been seeing, and there are no slime trails, and the
slugs have never yet made it past the slug pellets.

We have cucumber beetles here, but there are very few this year,
certainly not enough to do the damage I'm seeing.

We really don't have any other pests here - flea beetles and slugs do
99% of the damage to my garden. Cucumber beetles - they hate Neem,
and a good spray of neem keeps them away. Flea beetles don't like
Neem either.

Oh, and we have aphids, but there is no sign of aphids on them. The
only time aphids have ever done any damage is when they infested my
brussel sprouts several years ago.

We do have ladybeetles here, do they eat okra leaves??? No sign of
grubs, but not sure I'd recognize it if I saw it.


There are many species of ladybeettles. Some are useful preying on aphids,
scale etc and some like the 28 spot ladybeetle are leave eaters that will
destroy potatos, eggplant etc.

David