HELP!! pest cutting flowering stems
 

Hi. I am new to this group and tried doing a search, but could not
find anything to match my problem. I am in East Central Indiana & have
a great little patch of purple coneflowers in front of my home. For
the last couple of years, several of my flowers have gotten cut off
about 2 to 3 inches below the almost opened flower. I have not been
able to see any critters other than Japanese Beetles, and this does not
match the damage that I have researched that they do.

The big problem is that my mother-in-law has admired my coneflowers and
so we dug some up (at the worst time...mid-June) to put in her
flowerbed. Well, now she not only have those coneflowers being cut of
at the stem, but also some flowering cabbage and some petunias! And of
course it is probably at the fault of my "gift"!!! Can anyone tell me
what may be causing this, IF I can get rid of it, and if so, HOW??!!
She wants to dig up and destroy all of the plants we moved (several!!)
but I told her it probably won't help since whatever it is has
obviously moved about 30 yards to her petunias.

By the way, my batch of coneflowers only have about 3 stems cut this
year (out of several hundred) and look great. I suppose the stress
that the moved plants were under may have made them more susceptible??

I hope someone can help me out--Thanks for reading!!
Julie

Julie Hi. I am new to this group and tried doing a search, but could not
find anything to match my problem. I am in East Central Indiana & have
a great little patch of purple coneflowers in front of my home. For
the last couple of years, several of my flowers have gotten cut off
about 2 to 3 inches below the almost opened flower. I have not been
able to see any critters other than Japanese Beetles, and this does not
match the damage that I have researched that they do.

The big problem is that my mother-in-law has admired my coneflowers and
so we dug some up (at the worst time...mid-June) to put in her
flowerbed. Well, now she not only have those coneflowers being cut of
at the stem, but also some flowering cabbage and some petunias! And of
course it is probably at the fault of my "gift"!!! Can anyone tell me
what may be causing this, IF I can get rid of it, and if so, HOW??!!
She wants to dig up and destroy all of the plants we moved (several!!)
but I told her it probably won't help since whatever it is has
obviously moved about 30 yards to her petunias.

By the way, my batch of coneflowers only have about 3 stems cut this
year (out of several hundred) and look great. I suppose the stress
that the moved plants were under may have made them more susceptible??

I hope someone can help me out--Thanks for reading!!
Julie


hi julie. i dont know what kind of damage u are talking about in your coneflowers other than having some stems taken off and the damage done to your mil place.
what i would do is take a flashlight and go out at night and see if u can find any critters or bugs having lunch in that way u might be able to find the pest that is chewing things up. otherwise keep a really close watch off and on during the day and early evening and see if u can find anything even a little remote from what u normally have in your garden.
if u can post a pic that might also be a help to us. cyaaaa, sockiescat.

HELP!! pest cutting flowering stems
 

"Julie" wrote in message ups.com...
Hi. I am new to this group and tried doing a search, but could not
find anything to match my problem. I am in East Central Indiana & have
a great little patch of purple coneflowers in front of my home. For
the last couple of years, several of my flowers have gotten cut off
about 2 to 3 inches below the almost opened flower. I have not been
able to see any critters other than Japanese Beetles, and this does not
match the damage that I have researched that they do.


Do you have deer or squirrels in your area? If it's deer eating them, the cut off stem will be ragged. If it's squirrels, the stems are usually clean cut.
Good luck!
Suzy O, Zone 5, SE Wisconsin.


The big problem is that my mother-in-law has admired my coneflowers and
so we dug some up (at the worst time...mid-June) to put in her
flowerbed. Well, now she not only have those coneflowers being cut of
at the stem, but also some flowering cabbage and some petunias! And of
course it is probably at the fault of my "gift"!!! Can anyone tell me
what may be causing this, IF I can get rid of it, and if so, HOW??!!
She wants to dig up and destroy all of the plants we moved (several!!)
but I told her it probably won't help since whatever it is has
obviously moved about 30 yards to her petunias.

By the way, my batch of coneflowers only have about 3 stems cut this
year (out of several hundred) and look great. I suppose the stress
that the moved plants were under may have made them more susceptible??

I hope someone can help me out--Thanks for reading!!
Julie

HELP!! pest cutting flowering stems
 

Thanks for the 2 replies. I don't think I described my problem very
well, but I have found the culprit. It is a little black weevil of
some kind. I didn't think they would cut the stem--actually, it is
more like girdling the stem I have discovered after spying on the
little buggers. They seem to girdle it for some reason, then the
flower falls over but is still barely attached to the plant. They then
go up to the actual flower and bury their faces in it, sucking nectar I
assume. All you can see is their dark metallic little "butts" sticking
up in the air. I hand picked several today, sprayed some directly with
insecticide.

Now I wonder if they are laying eggs in my stems and if I should burn
the whole patch in the fall??? I'll do some research...

thanks again!