What's eating my kale?

[ghost1]

This is the first year growing kale (dinosaur), and something is beating me to it. I'm unable to find any worms, bugs, etc., anywhere on plants. Any ideas?

[pepperhead212]

I would guess slugs, since you're not finding anything on them - they come out at night, mostly. Before planting greens, I always sprinkle a little sluggo in the area.

[Vanisle_BC]

Hmmm, @Gost1, I'm having similar problems with various brassicas. Been unable to find what's doing it. No slime trails so probably not slugs; and I've been out in the middle of the night looking for them just in case; no 'luck.' Not a caterpillar to be found either.

My damage isn't as bad as yours. Oddly in most cases one or two leaves get serious holes but then the plant gets left alone. I've never seen that before. I did spray with Bt a while back. Could it be that caterpillars did some serious eating but then expired from the Bt? But I haven't found any dead ones.

I've mixed a concoction of water with crushed garlic, sliced ginger, tabasco and some Safer's soap; sprayed it liberally in the hope of making the plants unappealing to marauders

[applestar]

Just throwing this out there — it could be that these holes were little and the leaves grew bigger. Perfectly round holes could be flea beetles, and the slug holes could have been baby slugs.

Cut off Damaged leaves and Take some pictures Over several days to compare.

[ghost1]

It seems to be the lower leaves. I'll remove them and watch plant daily. Should I use neem oil just in case?

[imafan26]

It looks like slugs and snails to me. If you don't see white butterflies in the daytime, then look after dark or early in the morning for snails and slugs. They usually come out after 10p.m. but some are still munching in the predawn when the dew is still on the grass.

I caught the culprits eating my toscano kale. It was society finches. They have stripped the stop leaves of my Lacinato kale to the ribs.

[applestar]

Yeah, I’m envisioning the baby slugs in the dawn light and misty/drizzly mornings, which are smaller than my pinky nail nestled in the pleats under the leaves.

The white cabbage butterfly caterpillars and cabbage moth caterpillars are excellently color camouflaged and hard to see especially when small. Look under the leaves for the cream-colored specks sprinkled everywhere, singly and up to a dozen per leaf (butterfly eggs), yellow wax-like smears (moth egg clusters), and bits of spiderweb-like moth pupae.

[imafan26]

You know what is even stranger is that I have Toscano and Curly Vates Kale. The Toscano gets beat up and the leaves are being eaten by the finches. But while I have seen the cabbage white butterfly on the curly Vates kale. It does not have any damage. However, the broccoli is definitely has holes from the cabbage butterfly. I don't see a lot of the worms themselves. It seems when there is an abundance of choices even the pests can be picky.