I live in the high desert in California. I have a beautiful flower garden made up of Vincas and Petunias. The Vincas are thriving as well as the Petunias. However something is eating my Petunias!
I think it may be Moths, but I am not sure. I have seen Moths sitting on the flowers, but I have never seen any worms or little bugs. They seem to eat the dark purple flowers more than any other color.
Does anyone know if this is possible and if so, how do I stop them?
All of my Vincas are untouched. The green leaf portion of the Petunias are very healthy, but as soon as a flower emerges it is almost instantly eaten entirely.

Help!

 

Hi mvi2000,

Most not all Moths eat Nectar, and lay eggs that turn into plant eating catapillars.

I would try Dipel, a natural worm (catapillar) killer first. Dipel is Thuricide, if you would like to do a Google search on it.

We have used this product since 1972, and sold heads of broocoli 100% worm free. For an Organic certified product, that stuff sure kept us ahead in the markets. That just 10 years ago it was realy tough to sell anything Organic, with so much as 1 bug hole in it. I guess we were thinking more about bug holes than Cancer then.

Even though you don't see them, (the catapillars) on a red Raspberry, are red & on broccoli they are green etc.

Most eat at night and go down into the cool leaves in the heat of the day, making them hard to find. By us and the wasps & yellow Jackets that eat them.

Dipel is the #1 choice for chemical growers, because it works better & is less expenseve than petrochemicals.

Marturo