Hello,
Ever since my plant has been growing ive been finding little holes in the leaves and now there big holes in the leaves. Does any one know what is eating them?????
Birds are little deliquents. When you put out a feeder that is just an invitation to them to sample everything your yard and garden have to offer (nincompoops)! Have you tried spraying the leaves of your sunflower with 100% Concord Grape juice concentrate? You can place it in a spray bottle and mist your plants with it. There is a compound in Concord grapes that tastes terrible to birds and they won't eat them. Try that and see if it works for you. It washes off easily, so you may need to add a Tablespoon of vegetable oil or liquid soap to it to get it to stick to the plant. After it rains or you water your garden, you may want to re-apply. This is the only thing I can think of that would repel the birds and not harm the bees. You can also tie strips of tin foil to the remaining leaves of the sunflowers. The flicker of the tin foil in the sun as it is being blown by the breeze tends scare off birds.
Also, if you need to protect your fruit trees from the little theives, you can mix up a garlic spray and spray on your fruit. The garlic masks the smell of the sugars developing in the fruit and so the birds don't smell that the fruit is rippening, and they tend to leave it alone. You can make this spray by mixing one part liquid soap with 100 parts boiling water.
Steep a few crushed garlic cloves in the mixture overnight, then filter.
Add to a plant spray bottle and spray your fruit trees. You can use this on your fruit trees weekly to deter birds and other fruit eating insects. The fruit won't absorb the taste and it washes off easily for eating. Another bonus is that this tends to have an antibacterial nature when the garlic is mixed with the soap preventing disease or fungal attack. You can add some cheyene pepper powder to the mixture and spray your garden with it. Wasps will bore into your plants and eat your leaves as well as ants, snails, earwigs, and any other bug that finds greens delicious. They don't like the capsacin in the hot pepper and will leave your plants alone. I don't think this will harm the bees either since they don't eat the plant. I just wouldn't spray it on the flower itself, just the stalk and leaves just to be safe. Another place you could check is with your local Agricultural university extension service. They should have a master gardener on hand that can answer questions and help with these type of issues.
I am so glad someone else brought up this issue. I went out and sat quietly in the garden this a.m. and sure enough the goldfinches were pecking at the leaves on the sunflowers. How ungrateful. I fill 2 "socks" with thistleseed daily for them. The plants are blooming all the same, though one wonders how the plant can survive. And why only sunflowers? There's plenty of other leafy things all around that look fine.
The finches have been eating my leaves but I now have about seven plants with great large flowers on them. The whole thing looks strange because here are these tall, about 3 1/2 ft, stalks with flowers on the top but no leaves. Every day the finches feast on the leaves but as yet no bees.
I had two volunteer sunflowers from last year's seed come up in early spring. I had holes in the leaves
and I took a leaf to the garden center to see if they knew. Their best guess is that if we have butterflies, the catapilars will be eating the leaves. I have yellow and red breasted finches that also seem to dine on the sunflower leaves. I suspect they are eating the bugs since I don't have any pesticides in my garden. I have over 100 sunflowers in my garden and these volunteers are the first to flower and have holes in their leaves. I had to plant some of my sunflowers several times because the crows would eat the seedlings just as soon as they sprouted. I finally covered the seedlings up with white cloth until they were a little bigger.
Well I put out snail bait, then I sprayed for ants and went out at night to see what I could see. The leaves keep getting bigger and bigger holes and on some plants all the leaves on the bottom part are gone. I set up a spotting scope to try and see what the birds were going after. Such a Revelation!!! The birds were eating the leaves. They were "Lesser Goldfinches" and they having a feast. They were not eating bugs off the leaves but the leaves themselves. I'm not sure if I will be able to participate in this Great Sunflower Project as there lots of Goldfinches in the area and the plants may not make it. We will see.
I have the same problem and thought it was snailes but after much snail bait I concluded it was something else. I started to notice a large number of finches were coming to the plants and picking something off the leaves. When I looked close I saw ants but I didn't know ants eat leaves. I also have large holes in some leaves, some leaves are almost gone. I hope we both get some good advice.
I don't know what part of the country you guys are in, but here on Lake Erie (North Eastern part of the US) I've had some issues with Japanese beetles occasionally eating the leaves. It's not their favorite, so I've been able to control them without chemicals, but they've decimated some of my other plants.
Japanese beetles are metallic brown/green and are kind of the bumbling idiots of the insect world. They fly into things and are slow-moving.
I've read that in mid-Western areas there are sunflower moths that can do severe damage, so keep your eyes open for anything that's hanging out on the plant.
I live in San Jose, CA and saw a bird pecking at one of the sunflower leaves the other day. When I went out to check, I noticed holes in several of the leaves, on the part closest to the stem. I guessed worms of some sort were eating the leaves and the bird was eating the worm. However, I also have a lot of yellow jacket/wasps flying around and landing in the same spots on the leaves so wondered if the wasps are getting something that is being given off by the worms or whatever is eating the leaves.
Bird/Insect Repellant
Birds are little deliquents. When you put out a feeder that is just an invitation to them to sample everything your yard and garden have to offer (nincompoops)! Have you tried spraying the leaves of your sunflower with 100% Concord Grape juice concentrate? You can place it in a spray bottle and mist your plants with it. There is a compound in Concord grapes that tastes terrible to birds and they won't eat them. Try that and see if it works for you. It washes off easily, so you may need to add a Tablespoon of vegetable oil or liquid soap to it to get it to stick to the plant. After it rains or you water your garden, you may want to re-apply. This is the only thing I can think of that would repel the birds and not harm the bees. You can also tie strips of tin foil to the remaining leaves of the sunflowers. The flicker of the tin foil in the sun as it is being blown by the breeze tends scare off birds.
Also, if you need to protect your fruit trees from the little theives, you can mix up a garlic spray and spray on your fruit. The garlic masks the smell of the sugars developing in the fruit and so the birds don't smell that the fruit is rippening, and they tend to leave it alone. You can make this spray by mixing one part liquid soap with 100 parts boiling water.
Steep a few crushed garlic cloves in the mixture overnight, then filter.
Add to a plant spray bottle and spray your fruit trees. You can use this on your fruit trees weekly to deter birds and other fruit eating insects. The fruit won't absorb the taste and it washes off easily for eating. Another bonus is that this tends to have an antibacterial nature when the garlic is mixed with the soap preventing disease or fungal attack. You can add some cheyene pepper powder to the mixture and spray your garden with it. Wasps will bore into your plants and eat your leaves as well as ants, snails, earwigs, and any other bug that finds greens delicious. They don't like the capsacin in the hot pepper and will leave your plants alone. I don't think this will harm the bees either since they don't eat the plant. I just wouldn't spray it on the flower itself, just the stalk and leaves just to be safe. Another place you could check is with your local Agricultural university extension service. They should have a master gardener on hand that can answer questions and help with these type of issues.
I hope this is of help to you and good luck!
leaf skeletons
I am so glad someone else brought up this issue. I went out and sat quietly in the garden this a.m. and sure enough the goldfinches were pecking at the leaves on the sunflowers. How ungrateful. I fill 2 "socks" with thistleseed daily for them. The plants are blooming all the same, though one wonders how the plant can survive. And why only sunflowers? There's plenty of other leafy things all around that look fine.
in re leaf skeletons
Same problem--a little grey bird drops by every day to feast on the sunflower leaves
WHAT IS EATING MY LEAVES
The finches have been eating my leaves but I now have about seven plants with great large flowers on them. The whole thing looks strange because here are these tall, about 3 1/2 ft, stalks with flowers on the top but no leaves. Every day the finches feast on the leaves but as yet no bees.
eating leaves
I have goldfinches that eat the leaves.
eating sunflower leaves
I had two volunteer sunflowers from last year's seed come up in early spring. I had holes in the leaves
and I took a leaf to the garden center to see if they knew. Their best guess is that if we have butterflies, the catapilars will be eating the leaves. I have yellow and red breasted finches that also seem to dine on the sunflower leaves. I suspect they are eating the bugs since I don't have any pesticides in my garden. I have over 100 sunflowers in my garden and these volunteers are the first to flower and have holes in their leaves. I had to plant some of my sunflowers several times because the crows would eat the seedlings just as soon as they sprouted. I finally covered the seedlings up with white cloth until they were a little bigger.
What is eating the leaves
Well I put out snail bait, then I sprayed for ants and went out at night to see what I could see. The leaves keep getting bigger and bigger holes and on some plants all the leaves on the bottom part are gone. I set up a spotting scope to try and see what the birds were going after. Such a Revelation!!! The birds were eating the leaves. They were "Lesser Goldfinches" and they having a feast. They were not eating bugs off the leaves but the leaves themselves. I'm not sure if I will be able to participate in this Great Sunflower Project as there lots of Goldfinches in the area and the plants may not make it. We will see.
Leaves with holes
I have the same problem and thought it was snailes but after much snail bait I concluded it was something else. I started to notice a large number of finches were coming to the plants and picking something off the leaves. When I looked close I saw ants but I didn't know ants eat leaves. I also have large holes in some leaves, some leaves are almost gone. I hope we both get some good advice.
I don't know what part of
I don't know what part of the country you guys are in, but here on Lake Erie (North Eastern part of the US) I've had some issues with Japanese beetles occasionally eating the leaves. It's not their favorite, so I've been able to control them without chemicals, but they've decimated some of my other plants.
Japanese beetles are metallic brown/green and are kind of the bumbling idiots of the insect world. They fly into things and are slow-moving.
I've read that in mid-Western areas there are sunflower moths that can do severe damage, so keep your eyes open for anything that's hanging out on the plant.
what is eating my leaves
I live in San Jose, CA and saw a bird pecking at one of the sunflower leaves the other day. When I went out to check, I noticed holes in several of the leaves, on the part closest to the stem. I guessed worms of some sort were eating the leaves and the bird was eating the worm. However, I also have a lot of yellow jacket/wasps flying around and landing in the same spots on the leaves so wondered if the wasps are getting something that is being given off by the worms or whatever is eating the leaves.