Just a few days after posting pictures of my plants in pots,
I went out for the morning watering and found devastation. Some time in the past 24 hours, all of the
plants in one pot had suffered damage and a few were completely defoliated.
What was earlier a healthy Liatris leaf is now just a dried
twig. Just a speck of green left on this
leaf and a tad more on the plant in the background. I’m not sure that’s enough to keep them
going.
The best of the young Prairie Dock had already produced
three true leaves. Now it’s nothing but
stems.
No leaves were left untouched. I checked periodically throughout the day,
but found nothing disturbing the plants.
I already had a good idea of what creature had done the damage and was
sure the assailant wouldn’t return until dark.
I checked the plants shortly after full dark and found a
Yellow-striped Armyworm munching away.
As with so many other animals, the Armyworm prefers my pampered pot
plants to anything else around.
This is a common find in many crop fields and vegetable
gardens where this species can occur in enormous numbers. It only took one night and one Armyworm to
lay waste to my seedlings. I guess I’ll
have to add caterpillar fence to my arsenal of potted plant defenses.
