Mysterious muncher? Sounds mysterious indeed! Do you see bite marks? I just picture matching them to a mouse or a large cricket or something like that.
It is gorgeous!

3 or 4 buds had chunks removed which affected the petals and lips. I'm thinking squirrel??? Or slug although I didn't see any other slug evidence. The squirrels have been really busy raiding the bird feeder so I'm guessing they are starving.

Two other possibilities: Palmetto bug, aka Wood roach or a Lubber grasshopper.

That's a beauty, Lindsey. Congratulations.

Jim

Beautiful, Lindsey! I didn't see any bites.

Just wonderful, Lindsey. All those perfect flowers in such luscious colors. Rum punch with cherries??

If I had to bet, I'd say grasshopper was probably your mysterious muncher. There have been more of them around this fall than I've ever seen before. We've had problems at the school garden, and I've even had a couple show up in my garden, too. I have lots of birds around though, so they don't last long here.

Cold weather coming along the end of this week should shut down a lot of the insects for the winter, let's hope! I've got 4 days with low's in the 40's on my current forecast starting Saturday. Now, where the heck is the down comforter?? Grow lights and hanging racks all set up in front of the living room windows for the wimpy orchids, too.

I've got seedling heat mats set up on the deck for tender tropicals. Most of the orchids are already in the house. We always seem to have a real nasty cold spell in early December then it is usually warm again by Christmas. Let's hope this year follows the same pattern.

Elaine and Alice, we are predicted to get down to a balmy 37 F in the morning. By Friday morning, it will be 32 F and for the following 8 days, it will be freezing or below every night (two nights of 22 F). It'll take a bit more than heat mats for me.....

It will be in the 30's here also but I have a protected corner on my deck and between that and the few degrees the mats provide, I am good, it has worked well for years now. Some of the tropicals are just too big to move indoors.

Yeah, I hear you about size. 30's is one thing. low 20's is quite another.

Time to move south......

Not working out so well, at least not so far, Alice.

If it's grasshoppers or roaches that did this, they sure are stealthy! Only this one plant , this one spike. I have an army of anoles here and I don't think much gets by them.
I've received my heavy duty plastic sheeting to enclose the bench area , but am still waiting on the grommets. A quick n dirty job with the staple gun is my next best option.

I am having a terrible time with squirrels chewing on my camellia buds again and I have seen them take a bite or two of the buds on other plants. Could you have pesky squirrels?

Around here the Squirrels aren't that neat, they would just totally destroy the bud.
If that were me, I would set up the mouse trap.We have one of those Havahart traps in a small size which traps them alive, after they get a nice chocolate cookie with some peanut butter on it...... I am not even going to talk about that mouse which Klaus managed to trap 20 times in the attic. But you might picture a chubby and very chipper little fellow in the morning in a fluffy nest of chopped up paper towels, which had been placed neatly underneath the trap to protect the attic floor. Subsequently the mouse had some pink nail polish on its belly placed there by me to see if it was indeed always the same guy. It was! Also one might be amused to see tiny foot steps leading into the garage on a snowy morning. They can find their way back home from surprisingly and increasing distances. "The food and lodgings are awesome, but the walk back is way too much exercise" !

In the meanwhile here is Lc Miss Wonderful

Coelogyne Golden Bug
Normally the blooms display with the dorsal downwards, but I flipped it up to get a better look.


And there is the Papilionanda Pink Fairy with some additional blooms and showing the plant

Vanda Peddler's Velvet Gold opened some more

Ursula, you are much too kind - and I will leave it at that.

Miss Wonderful is wonderful indeed.

Yes, I agree...a regular mouse trap is just fine with me. I once had an elderly cat that could no longer catch mice..and I had one in the kitchen. So one day, I set the trap and in the middle of the night...by my bed, I heard that un mistakable sound of the flapping loose trap.. I turned on the bedside lamp and saw my very proud cat sitting there with the mouse (and trap) in his mouth. . . thinking 'Who Says I Can't Catch Mice?!'
Although , I love your pink nail polish approach , Ursula...very scientific!
and speaking of love, your Coelogyne Golden Bug is really nice, what gorgeous markings on that lip!

In my opinion, that bud damage is either some type of slug or a snail of some kind.
A bush snail can be ruled out perhaps because they are fairly small. The biggest I ever saw of those was one the size of 1/4 of a coffee bean. However a snail the size of an English garden snail (Lima bean) could be the culprit.

In that case, some Apple slices placed around the plants might catch the culprits.

Lindsey, very funny!

Especially if those slices have cinnamon and sugar with them inside of a flakey crust. You won't catch a snail or slug but I will be eating the pie when the sun rises!!