My poor sunflower seedlings are being eaten at night by something. Whatever it is doesn't seem to be interested in anything else. No other seedling leaves are being eaten, including nearby bush beans. Only the true leaves on my new Ms Mars sunflowers. I'm in the Phoenix, AZ area. Any idea what it could be and how to stop it? Only three of the six seedlings are untouched. Whatever it is seems to be systemic chewing through them, one at a time.

You might have cutworms that live in the soil and only come out at night to eat your plants. Try digging around where the sunflowers are to find them and get rid of them.

I've had what I think were probably cutworms, although I could never find them, eating my young seedlings. Since I could never find the culprit, I put a layer of chicken grit gravel on top of the soil around the plants and that did the trick. Chicken grit can be found at any animal feed store, it's usually oyster shell and granite.

Here's a picture and a link for identification.
The thread "Grub ID" in Insect and Bug ID forum
https://extension.umn.edu/yard...

wildflowers said:I've had what I think were probably cutworms, although I could never find them, eating my young seedlings. Since I could never find the culprit, I put a layer of chicken grit gravel on top of the soil around the plants and that did the trick. Chicken grit can be found at any animal feed store, it's usually oyster shell and granite.

Would diatomaceous earth be a good substitute for that? I did put a ring around each of the plants a few days ago but maybe it needs to be repeated every evening. They tore into another leaf last night. Only two remain untouched at this point!

You can try diatomaceous earth but there's a possible problem. It becomes ineffective when wet so the over night dew might hinder diatomaceous earth from working.

But now that you mentioned putting rings around the stems it reminded me that someone told me to put those little Dixie cups (with the bottom cut out) around the stems and that will keep the cutworms off.

I need to get my little Dixie cups out.

The pest is more likely slugs. Cut worms cut off the plant. sand ,diatomaceous earth, small gravel will deter them. There are snail/slug baits on the market that work well. Many folks over the years have used saucers of beer to trap them. Cut worms have to wrap the selves around the stem to cut them, so one old time trick is toke a stick into the ground right beside the plant. Any twig will do altho uptown folk use popsicle sticks. Cutworms are also easy to find. They will be under the soil at base of the plant the morning after cutting. Never had one cut a sunflower, but sunflowers are a slug magnet.

wildflowers said:You can try diatomaceous earth but there's a possible problem. It becomes ineffective when wet so the over night dew might hinder diatomaceous earth from working.

But now that you mentioned putting rings around the stems it reminded me that someone told me to put those little Dixie cups (with the bottom cut out) around the stems and that will keep the cutworms off.

I need to get my little Dixie cups out.

Ah! We have tons of Dixie cups! Good to know as I'm sure I'll need them in the near future. So between my last message and yours, I went out and did this. Hopefully it works. I also went ahead and put collars on the beans since they're nearby and maybe the lazy cutworm just hadn't gotten that far, yet.

farmerdill said:The pest is more likely slugs. Cut worms cut off the plant. sand ,diatomaceous earth, small gravel will deter them. There are snail/slug baits on the market that work well. Many folks over the years have used saucers of beer to trap them. Cut worms have to wrap the selves around the stem to cut them, so one old time trick is toke a stick into the ground right beside the plant. Any twig will do altho uptown folk use popsicle sticks. Cutworms are also easy to find. They will be under the soil at base of the plant the morning after cutting. Never had one cut a sunflower, but sunflowers are a slug magnet.

For slugs, I could try sprinkling eggshells all around each plant, right? I'll also look into the bait. I hate that they're eating my sunflowers as those are my favorite. I'd rather them eat the beans!

Cutworms just saw off the stem where it meets the soil. You find the plant laying on it's side. Timberrrrr .... That's not what you're seeing. They don't eat leaves. I agree about slugs or snails. But you'd need a LOT of eggshells to deter them. They just crawl around them. Bait is the way to go and, but at least for me, is hardly a completely successful repellant.

@DougL what is the bait of your choice?

I use Sluggo and just lightly broadcast in the bed. It seems to work quite well as I've seen no traveling pill bugs, slugs and only empty snail shells.

I've been using Corry's, which is ferric sodium EDTA. But I'm not completely satisfied with it. I spread it around, as directed, but I still have snails devouring plants. Wondering if Sluggo would work better.

I am not familiar with that product but if it doesn't work to your satisfaction, I think I would try something else.

Update: Last Thursday evening, I sprinkled Sluggo around the raised bed where the sunflowers are and have had no bites since then! One of the original 5 remains unscathed; two said their goodbyes due to the slugs, one has moderate damage that seems to be fine, and one had a LOT of damage but miraculously is growing new leaves.

Happy to say that so far, so good! Sluggo appears to have done the trick.