Help pants are being eaten!!

[Thunderhorse]

So i planted my plants in the garden a couple days ago and they were looking pretty awesome until I came out one morning and one of them had all the leaves eaten off and another one had one of the biggest leaves with a little bite about the size of a quarter of a penny. anyway i came out this morning and 5 pants are eaten 3 may be able to recover but im not counting on it, none of my other plants have been touched and I have a wide variety ranging from broad leaf to skinny. Anyway i live in alberta, canada so we dont have any tobacco moths, but we do have a moth that will eat the canola plants, which look remarkably like the small tobacco plants. Im thinking its the moth eating them maybe? Or do you have any ideas? Its odd to me that the only thing thats getting eating is my tobacco seedlings, I dont want to see all my weeeks of work go to waste. It also only happens at night.

Any solutions or Ideas would be appreciated I only planted 25 plants and im down to 20 now so sooner than later would be awesome!

Thanks guys!

 

[Grundle]

Could it be slugs?

 

[Thunderhorse]

perhaps but there are no trails, I guess its been raining though? I guess it wouldnt hurt to treat them for slugs.

 

[BarG]

CUTWORMS!!! Dig down an inch at base of stalk and see what you find. I aint figured them out yet, they crop the leaves off and they will be laying right there, uneaten. Upper leaves is caterpillers,worm types, grasshoppers for young seedlings to name a few.

 

[Thunderhorse]

Nope its not cut worms, they are eating starting at the tip and working their way in, On top of that they arent eating the other plants and 3 years ago I had that problem and I did a very umm frowned upon proceedure to get rid of them... some pretty heavy chemicals that arent allowed anymore lol had it for treating barley before they found out it wasnt safe to handle. anyway I havent grown anything in the patch since for that very reason, tilled a month and a half before planting as well as last fall, and have done the tests and its clear of them lol also the soil should be free of the chemical now so no worries about that.

 

[BarG]

Try this site here for pests and save for reference. http://www.ipmimages.org/browse/AreaSubs.cfm?area=62 Its been posted a couple of times but is very helpful.

 

[deluxestogie]

Suspects: slugs, earwigs, crickets.

Bob

 

[FmGrowit]

It sounds like slugs to me. Use a pie pan with a little beer in it as a trap until you get the right treatment for them.

 

[Chicken]

id suggest a 12 guage, shot gun,

just go to shootin,,

 

[Jitterbugdude]

It's probably slugs. Alberta is probably still pretty cool and slugs would be one of the first critters to come out

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Sounds like slugs. Leave some bait out and the next morning you'll have your culprits.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

He's already left bait out, unfortunately the bait he used was tobacco...

 

[Jack in NB]

I've had similar problems. Planted June 8 - 10; lost 10% by day 2. Applied Wilson Earwig and cutworm bait - a pelleted form of Sevin (5% carbaryl), no further damage. Replanted with some spares this morning, but some of the plant stems are still evident at ground level, and I'm waiting a week to see if they recover. Found 2 cutworm carcasses.

 

[Thunderhorse]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I ended up going and getting myself some insecticidal soap of somesort that the greenhouse suggested. I never did find out what the culprit was though but two doses of the soap and bye bye whatever it was haha
sorry it took so long to respond, Work has been insane!

 

[BigBonner]

I would think tobacco worms or grasshoppers.