The culprits eating your plants at night in Australia are usually slugs, snails, caterpillars (like armyworms), earwigs, slaters (woodlice), or weevils, with slugs/snails leaving slime trails and caterpillars/weevils/earwigs chewing holes and hiding nearby, while possums or rats might take bigger bites, so a night-time torch inspection helps identify them by damage and droppings.
Among the most commonly encountered garden pests, snails and slugs damage plants by chewing leaves and young shoots, and decimating new seedlings. They are often active at night and after rain.
Clues are in the mouthparts
CHEWERS – things like caterpillars. These make irregular holes in foliage or stems that can look like window panes, or they can even remove entire leaves. PIERCING – like mites and stink bugs cause discolouration, mottling, dead spots, curled leaves with holes.
Leaf holes from slugs and snails are common in many types of plants, including basil, hosta, hibiscus, cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. These pests do most of their damage at night. A nighttime stroll with a flashlight will help confirm your hunch is right.
How to protect your plants from being eaten
How to Get Rid of Pests with Homemade Pest Solutions
Here are the most common culprits who are eating your leaves and what you can do about it. Leafminers are larvae of flies, sawflies, and beetles that feed on leaves and causes discolored blotches or wiggly lines. Leafminers particular like columbine, mums, citrus trees and tomatoes.
Vinegar can sometimes be effective; however, using vinegar for pest control is generally a short-term effort to control pests since it is not effective as a long-term treatment against serious pest infestations and will not keep pests completely away from your property.
In the process, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. No light, no photosynthesis. However, like us, plants respire nonstop, day and night, continually taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide as they “burn” stored carbohydrates to fuel growth and the many metabolic functions needed to sustain life.
10 most Common Plant Pests
Adam Steinbrenner, University of Washington Plants "know" when insects are eating them and take defensive measures.
if you spray dawn dish detergent on plants, it will break down the wax layer that protect the leaves. Instead of using dish washing detergent like Dawn, find some Castile soap, it is made from Olive oil and Lye (KOH), This type of soap contains Potassium Hydroxide, which is actually beneficial to plants.
If you see plants with wilted, drooping leaves or with small yellow spots, look carefully for tiny, soft-bodied insects in groups along the stems or under the leaves. Aphids, whiteflies and squash bugs have mouthparts like a microscopic straw.
PICK OFF THE CATERPILLARS BY HAND
Once you spot tomato hornworms, often the best way to deal with them, especially if their numbers are small, is to pick them off your plants by hand and drown them in a pail of soapy water.
Leaf miners are damaging pests that tunnel through leaves, reducing photosynthesis and weakening plant growth. Their feeding patterns cause visible leaf damage, lower crop quality and can open the way for secondary infections.
During the process of respiration, the plants release water and carbon dioxide as waste products. Water is lost in the form of transpiration and guttation. At night plants release carbon dioxide and uptake oxygen.
English Ivy (Hedera helix) is the plant known for removing a significant amount of airborne mold, with studies showing it can eliminate around 78% of mold spores and 94% of fecal particles in 12 hours in sealed environments, though real-world effectiveness varies and it's toxic if ingested, making other options like Peace Lilies and Snake Plants popular for general air purification.
Plants do not feel pain because they don't have a brain for any signals to be sent to. Imagine if a human didn't have a brain; they could get cut, but they wouldn't know and there wouldn't be anything to tell that they are in pain...so technically they would not be in pain.
Soapy Spray
Mix 1 tablespoon of biodegradable dishwashing liquid with 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in 1 litre of water. Spray over the foliage of plants, particularly on the underside of leave where the pests often live. This will keep for 1 month.
Broad-spectrum Sevin Insect Killer Concentrate or Sevin Insect Killer Ready to Spray kills aphids, squash bugs and other listed sucking pests. Then it protects for up to three months. Once sprays dry, people and pets can reenter treated areas. Rasping-sucking pests like thrips cover leaves with tiny feeding holes.
Fencing is the most effective way to protect your garden from pests and keep unwanted visitors out. A fence that's two to three feet tall will work for most rabbits, although persistent ones may try to burrow underneath. To deter them, extend the fence about a foot underground.
6 Ways to Stop Deer from Eating Your Outdoor Plants
Second only to slugs and snails in the “chewing holes in your leaves” category are caterpillars: the larvae of moths and butterflies. As with slugs and snails, you are likely to notice the damage before you see the culprits.