Hello Micah68, Thanks for the photo. I can't ID that caterpillar. But I can tell you how to take care of them: Safer Brand Caterpillar Killer. Lowe's and Home Depot usually sell it for about $10. Mix 1/4 teaspoon and a quart of water in a spray bottle. Then spray any plants that caterpillars are eating. I use it on my water lilies and tomato plants maybe twice a month. That little 8 oz bottle will last for years :-) The active ingredient is BT, a strain of bacteria that kills caterpillars, but is harmless to humans and pond critters. As for me coming across as a little harsh. Sorry, that wasn't my intent. Good luck

I had a similar problem last year; dime sized holes and for the life of me could not find the culprit. Someone on here said to check the underside of the leaves at the very edge of the holes for glass worms. They are extremely hard to see since they are clear, a magnifier would help and no more than 1/4" long, but they can sure do some damage. As a remedy I removed the most heavily infected leaves and the others I brushed the bottom of the leaves with a soft brush to remove them. Fm4

I know this is an old post, but I am a new gardener. I planted my lily bulbs in very tall 3 foot pots since I don't have a lot of yard. I get to move the pots when the sun moves since my house usually throws a giant shadow on the back yard around 3 pm, so I just keep moving them over and over, to the edge of my yard. I live in a planned community where the homes are hardly 50 feet apart. We have recently seen deer, randomly running down the street at night. Three times now my lily buds have been sheered right off around dusk. I'm convinced it is deer because the lily stalks were about 2.5 feet tall in a 3 foot pot. The stalks did not appear to be bent at all and the buds were chewed clean off. I understand now how frustrating this can be after I've put in all the effort at caring for these plants for 2 months now and now I won't see any flowers until next spring. I feel your pain Curious. The deer also ate an entire full Simpson lettuce plant which would seem entirely too much for a few chipmunks. There was probably 4 large salads worth on this plant, so I'm convinced it was deer. 20 sunflowers juvi plants had their top leaves chewed right off also. The suburban deer are being pushed out of their woods by bulldozers to build these communities, leaving them hungry and this is the karma. *sigh*. Now I am not only saddened by my plants being destroyed, but at the the thought of hungry deer and their newly born doe. Lose-lose situation. I've moved everything up to my deck and put up a baby gate. The chicken wire fencing would be a great option in my opinion except the naggy HOA would claim it was tacky and fine me. The only reason I am growing everything in pots after carefully germinating everything inside under lights and heat is because I am moving to an 11 acre farm in 2 weeks. I will take everything with me and plant it in the ground there....but now I'm down about 25 plants. *sigh* The deer are worse out there... Anyone know of any herbal concoctions that are plant safe that can be sprayed around the garden to thwart the deer off?

The type of damage and the droppings point to an insect larva and not a slug or a snail (snails tend to graze across a leaf or bud, leaving holes surrounded by undamaged leaf). Since you haven't found any caterpillars it's probably a sawfly larva or something similar. These look like caterpillars, but hide in the soil near the plant during the day. If you go out with a flashlight just after it gets dark you should be able to spot them. If there aren't too many you can handpick them & dispose of them, otherwise I'd suggest a systemic insecticide (and perhaps a preventative spray early next season before the damage gets done).