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Help! I just planted Bromeliads (Pink Paradise) in my outside garden in Naples Florida. From what I've read they're very hearty and animals won't eat them. Well,,, something is! Does anyone have any ideas? I've tried coyote urine. Doesn't work. Poured vinegar around the plant today, not on it. Buying Blood meal this afternoon. I feel like they are going to eat all my plants one by one.
The pattern of the chewing looks like the work of caterpillars of some kind. Lots of straight long lines and a few rows of almost perfect zig zags with straight lines. I don't know of any other kind of creatures besides caterpillars that chomp on leafy material in almost perfectly straight lines like that. Certainly not any birds or animals.
I bet if you were to push aside some of that mulch you may find them hiding curled up under the mulch during the daytime, and then they will come out at night to chow down. That mulch is so loose it would provide a perfect hiding place for them.
Anyway, look for caterpillars under the leaves near the stem, in the folds between the leaves and stem and of course on the ground under the mulch. If you can find and ID them then it will make it easier for you to determine what kind of insecticide or repellent to put on the plant.
Alternatively, you could crush a few cloves of garlic into a mash and brush the juice and oil from the crushed garlic directly onto the leaves. Most kinds of caterpillars and grubs and other soft-bodied larvae and a LOT of other animals can't tolerate the taste of raw garlic. The garlic juice will dry into a kind of lacquer and it won't hurt the plant but it is water soluble so it will dissolve and wash off with rain or water sprayed on the leaves (just like any other topical treatment will), so you would have to re-apply garlic juice after the leaves get wet.
Do NOT put vinegar around the plants. You might not get it on the leaves but if you put it on the ground it can still get on the roots and kill the plants through the roots. Vinegar isn't a particularly good deterrent to pests that eat plants anyway, some of them even like the smell and taste of vinegar. But it's good at killing plants and that is what it's supposed to be used for.
Thank you soooooo much for your help! I checked for caterpillars everywhere and can't find any. It's so frustrating. As I was looking for the caterpillars I heard something rustling in the tree just above my head. There was a squirrel staring at me. Then 2 birds started dive bombing me. Must be a next. I love wildlife, but not if they're eating my plants! What the heck???
I am going to try your garlic idea. I am also going to spray the plants with Bayer Natria insect, disease & mite control. There is a photo of a caterpillar on the label. lol
I have 9 bromeliads. So far two have this issue. I know whatever is eating them is just going to keep going.
2 years ago something was eating my croton leaves. I called a few nurseries and they said there was no way an animal was eating the leaves. I happen to look one day and caught a palm rat enjoying a leaf!
There are a lot of rabbits in my community and even thought they're not supposed to eat Bromeliads, I don't trust the beasts. I feel like Elmer Fudd! LOL
We have a couple dozen different species/varietals of bromeliads at our SW FL house...
The chewed leaves in your pic look like rabbit work: I walk early AM, often before sunrise and our community is inundated with rabbits. I often see one munching on some of our varieties and in other people's yards, doing the same.
While some/many bromeliads have toothed leaves, evolved to dissuade being chewed/eaten, a few of our varieties esp a couple same as/similar to your pic, often suffer some leaf chewing.
My 50Cts.
GL, mD
We have a couple dozen different species/varietals of bromeliads at our SW FL house...
The chewed leaves in your pic look like rabbit work: I walk early AM, often before sunrise and our community is inundated with rabbits. I often see one munching on some of our varieties and in other people's yards, doing the same.
While some/many bromeliads have toothed leaves, evolved to dissuade being chewed/eaten, a few of our varieties esp a couple same as/similar to your pic, often suffer some leaf chewing.
My 50Cts.
GL, mD
Thanks so much! Our community is also inundated with rabbits. I agree with you that they are the culprits. I'm hoping I can it make it "uncomfortable" for them to be in my yard. LOL
I am having the same problem in Sebastian Florida. Something is eating my pineapple plants down to the core, leaving no leaves. Putting mesh bags over the plants, such as fruit is packed in, has helped me. It lets the plants get all of the sun and rain but deters the nibbling. Also my melon vines are being totally consumed. Who would have thought they would eat the fuzzy scratchy leaves? Who would think they would eat the leathery and partially prickly leaves of the pineapple plants? Also after a garden project mulching over my back yard and some planting (two weeks of 8 hour or more days), my entire yard is being ripped apart by armadillos. And I mean the whole yard, literally dug up and ripped apart.
we had rabbits eating our veggies, quite a large community of them. We wondered (happily) why they disappeared and found out on nextdoor when someone posted seeing coyotes in the neighborhood.
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