rampant blight ?

[wildflax]

Okay so the plants that have this THING get all crinkly and shriveled after it gets spots and have holes on it -- not same effect as Japanese Beetles; I've seen some elongated black beetles with yellow stripes on a few of the plants that are affected. Any ideas anyone?

[Chris_W]

Those spots look like insect damage to me - especially the spots on the Canadian thistle. I think it is from a small beetle, like a cabbage beetle, that does it. I've even seen this on hostas and then found the little buggers running away from me when I go to look...

I would recommend using a systemic insecticide to try and control these bugs, then hopefully the new growth will be free of damage.

[pauhaus]

Oh man, I'm glad you posted this. I have this same thing going on with my plants too. When I look under the leaf there is a small red beetle that is the culprit, almost looks like a potato beetle but red. I squished a bunch of them this year. Seem to really like the daylily inner leaves. I've never seen them around here before.

[anitamo]

This is damage from the four lined plant bug. They must be very busy beavers lately, because a lot of people are complaining of their damage...and some are seeing this bug for the first time ever this year.

[Chris_W]

Yup, that's the critter. I've seen them in reddish colors (the young ones) and the black and green ones (adults), however I've also been seeing something similar that is all black. When you go near the plants they run to the backside of the leaf. They've been getting progressively worse over the past few years, but this year lots of people have been complaining/asking/bringing me leaves.

[kHT]

You are not alone back there. We found what appeared to be a start of this and what we did was cut the plant back to the soil, remove it all and put out sevens. The plant had time to make a come back and is blooming now. This area is on the property line so all we can do is treat our side and hope for the best? Best of luck!!