First off…Forgive me if I'm not posting this in the right place...
I have 2 Datura…One is D.inoxia , and the other is D. metel. Both of them seem to be being attacked by leaf miners, and just today I found my D.metel with badly eaten leaves. Is this a common problem with Datura or Brugmansias? I'm quite the novice with this plant, and just wondering if others have this same problem. Or if I may be doing something wrong.
Any and all comments are much appreciated! Thanks!

Tara, a couple of weeks ago I had 'something' eating the leaves of my brugs, too. I went out at night with a flashlight one night and caught them in the act. I had both some sort of green caterpillar, and a couple of very energetic snails that were climbing all the way up those huge plants to get at the nice new leaves! The plants are inside the pool cage, too, so I have no idea how the caterpillars got to them!

i just went out at night for a few more nights, and picked them off by hand.

Leaf miners, well by the time you see the damage, the culprits have already flown away, so start in early summer with a mild soapy water spray routine to prevent it next year.

Thanks Elaine. I've not seen the snails up here on my deck, though I know for sure that we are certainly not lacking in them. The green caterpillar, on the other hand, is one that I saw last evening! Don't know what kind it is, but it was tiny tiny, munching like crazy on the backside of a leaf. I guess I'll also be going out for regular checks!

Leaf miners… Mild soapy water spray…Just a regular dish soap? I hate the thought of using anything "cidal" in my yard.
Thanks again!

terrafirma said: Mild soapy water spray…Just a regular dish soap? I hate the thought of using anything "cidal" in my yard.

Be sure it's soap and not detergent.I use Murphy's oil soap from Walmart or "Ivory".

Yep, about 1/2tsp. dish soap, or even liquid hand soap works fine, to a quart of water in a spray bottle.

I asked the entemologist at our Extension office, Dr. Santana, about the soap vs. detergent question a couple of years ago and he says it doesn't matter. They both cut through the waxy coating on the insects' bodies and cause them to dehydrate and die. It's such a mild solution that as long as you have something that dissolves that wax it will work. Use whatever liquid dish soap you have.

Interesting, though, in this article it says soap will leave a scum when used with hard water, while detergent won't. Still we use so little, it probably won't affect the plant.
http://www.ask.com/question/wh...

Just don't spray any soapy solution when the sun is going to be on the leaves. I burned a brug pretty badly one time doing that!

Glad you caught the caterpillar, keep an eye out. Some of the ones I caught were over an inch long, they can do some serious damage in one night!

Great! Thank you both, JT, and Elaine. Good info. and I will have to be much more diligent with these two!

An update to my Datura metel dilemma…Yesterday afternoon I found the culprit!!! A tomato hornworm was defoliating the D.metel. I never would have dreamt that this could be the culprit, but lo and behold, that's what it was! He had eaten one whole flower bud and at least a half dozen leaves! Needless to say, he is no more!!!

terrafirma said:An update to my Datura metel dilemma…Yesterday afternoon I found the culprit!!! A tomato hornworm was defoliating the D.metel. I never would have dreamt that this could be the culprit, but lo and behold, that's what it was! He had eaten one whole flower bud and at least a half dozen leaves! Needless to say, he is no more!!!

Sometimes you can't win for losing. Sorry about your metel.