What is eating my Striptease?

[Kittenann]

Does anyone have any idea what may be eating my Striptease? I never see anything on it during the day or an night when I am out slug hunting. I have seen a few earwigs in the garden but not on this hosta.

[Chris_W]

Hi,

It is most likely cutworms or some other caterpillar - I'm sure it is right around there, but might feed from the back of the leaf and could be the same color so you might miss it.

Or it could be a leaf cutter bee, however they usually make more of a circular patch, but if it was taking out a lot of pieces you can end up with elongated cut-outs.

I would spray the hosta and the soil with a liquid insecticide in case it is a caterpillar.

[Noreaster]

Yep, I agree. Virtually all the damage to my hosta this year (before the hail, anyway) came from cutworms or some kind of other caterpillar. I'd find them when I went out hunting for slugs. Sometimes I caught them in the act, and sometimes I found them on the lettuce I put out to trap the slugs. Cutworms fill me with murderous rage because they cause so much damage in such a short period. I had a ton of them this year. The cutworms I have feed on the leaves, they don't cut the petioles at the base as I've read they do (hence the name?)