All of this damage was done within 24 hours? If so then the only thing I know of that can do that much damage in such a short time would be a major infestation of Japanese Beetles - which you would see - or slugs. But you should be able to see them too especially at night with a flashlight.

As mentioned in several previous discussions in similar posts this past week straw mulch shouldn't be down this early in the season in other than zones 8-10 and maybe 7b and it needs to be pulled back from the plants 6-8" if it is down. That is where all the slugs and earwigs, the spring pests are hiding and thriving.

Neither of the pesticides you have used are listed as effective for slugs and IMO traps are a waste of time when an effective organic control that works quickly is available - iron phosphate bait pellets. Several different brands have been frequently discussed here recently.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Digdirt...I have seen your suggestions regarding mulch not being down early in the season, however we have been in the 90's this whole month with no rain. Would you still suggest no mulch in this situation?
Slugs....no slime trails...japanese beetles...would they be nocturnal only?

It is soil temps not air temps that determines when mulch goes down. 80 degree soil temps. In my zone that is very seldom achieved before early July and this year because of the wet cool spring it will likely be mid July. Check your soil temp.

Even then when damage is this obvious keep it pulled back fro the base of the plants, a 6" DMZ so to speak until the plants are very well established.

With mulch slime trails are often not seen and no, JB are out and about 24 hours a day. Slugs at nite.

Dave

Dave,
Thanks for the information. I pulled all the mulch away from the butternut plants. In so doing I found TONS of pill bugs and a decent amount of earwigs and one cricket ;).

I am going to go out tonight to see if I have slugs. As you said that is a good amount of damage to get overnight and in checking the plants multiple times today I have not seen any japanese beetles.

I don't have a way to check my soil temperature but I'm going to keep the mulch pulled away until the plants get bigger and until I can identify what is causing this damage.

Thanks again,

Aili

Just pick up any old cheap tube type weather thermometer, the kind with the bulb and the red liquid that climbs up the tube. Know what I mean? I have seen them at Walmart for about $2-3. Stick the bottom end 4-5" down in the soil and leave it for 10 mins or so and viola! - soil temp. :-)

Dave

Not to confuse things, but there is a nocturnal relative of the Japanese Beetle that makes similar damage. The Asiatic Garden Beetle. They can range from nuisance to real problem here, depending on the year and crop. Slugs are still the most likely nocturnal culprit, but if you go out at night and find beetles all over your plants, not slugs, there are other "bad boys". Good luck finding the culprit.

Thanks Dave and Sunni.
I just ordered a soil thermometer on Amazon. Five bucks free shipping :)
I am kind of excited and terrified to go out tonight with my flashlight. LOL!
I will report what I find when I find it :)

I agree with digdirt on delayed mulching. The only things mulched in my garden right now are potatoes and tomatoes.

You can gather a lot of earwigs by placing coffee mugs upside down around their hangouts. I feed em to the chickens.

Found these and earwigs on plants lastnight, this beetle it's black and shiny, has tints of blue and green on body. Can anyone id?

There's a new product called Sluggo Plus. It contains the very effective iron phosphate for killing slugs and snails, and also includes spinosad, an effective organic killer of earwigs, pillbugs and sowbigs. I used it on my potatoes in a container, and it worked very well. They had damage like yours and also a lot of earwigs. I eventually found very small slugs and think they were the real culprits. All the bugs and slugs have disappeared.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sluggo Plus

Oh no! Aili it seems like we share the same pest problem.I had the exact same thing happen to my eggplant and found the culprit at night is a brownish-tan beetle tried to google it and I think sunnibel is right Asiatic garden beetle was one of the possibilities the other one is "junebug" whatever that is.I squished them inmediatly and green stuff gushed out.

June bugs are huge and these are not big at all. We already had our wave of them. I googled asiatic beetle and these don't look like them at all.
Went out again tonight with my trusty flashlight app on my phone and saw more earwigs...these a holes are all over the garden fence and of course on the plants. I have decided at this point I can either wait them out and pray for the plants or I can dust everything with sevin. I haven't decided which route I will take yet. Depends on how much damage I see on a daily basis and whether or not it makes me mad enough to use the sevin.

Don't use the Sevin. You'll create even bigger problems in the long run.

I set out some yeast traps for slugs a few days ago and they catch EARWIGS, no slugs yet. I've also read about a soy sauce and oil recipe that sounds promising. Diatomaceous earth also helps. At the very worst, get some Sluggo Plus and kill 2 pests with one stone.

Good luck.

Kevin

It looks like may be a patent leather beetle or darkling beetle. Have you read the wikipedia entry on earwigs? So many things eat them and parasitize them it's a wonder there are enough left to damage anything! Although the first instinct is to reach for something destructive, have you stopped to figure out why they are so abundant in your garden in particular? There may be something you can change about your setup to help with this problem. Or, it might not, but it's worth checking into.

Itzy- if it is the size of a japanese beetle, then you've got an asiatic garden beetle. If it is larger, like the size of an olive, that's a junebug. I don't think the brown junebugs are usually a problem. I was planting some more crowder peas last week and finding some AGBs coming out, they looked almost exactly like my pea seeds!

Damage looks like Japanese Beetles to me...I am battling them on my crepe myrtles, zinnias and wild black berries. Hand picking (very easy to do - they are slow and non-aggressive) and a few pheromone bags in the yard seem to be slowing them down. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em.

The bug in the glass looks like a ground beetle. They will eat slugs. He's a good guy but will emit a noxious odor if you grab with your bare hands and frighten him.

This post was edited by LKZZ on Sun, Jun 23, 13 at 10:08

Hi-I read about an earwig trap and it sounded like a good idea. I haven't tried it myself yet. I don't remember if I read it here on this website or through something else. You take a news paper and get it wet like its been rained on kind of wet. Loosely roll it back up and put it in your garden at night. The earwigs will hide in it and in the morning you can shake it out into a bucket of soapy water or wrap up the whole thing and throw it away. I think that's worth a try.

Thanks sunni! yep, def. Asiatic Garden Beetle,but also found 2 huge balls of Japanese beetles,like 4-6 stuck together doing whatever...around 11:00 pm on my eggplants ew, I was pretty sure I read somewhere that they come out at the sunniest time of the day...it was a surprise.

Thanks everyone for your input.
Earwigs are a problem here every year. I don't know why they are so prolific...but every year at this time there is a population explosion, then about a month later their numbers decrease.
I have decided to just deal with it, all my plants are past seedling stage so they are able to withstand some damage.