What bugs are eating my Sweet Potato Vine?

[amberdawn723]

I bought 4 ornamental sweet potato vines and over the last 2 weeks they have become the meal of some bugs! It's driving me mad! Almost all of the leaves are full of holes and many are also missing huge chunks! Some leaves have been eaten so much that they are practically gone now. The only bugs I have seen on and/or around these plants are roly-polys (pill bugs), medium sized black ants, and some really tiny winged bugs. Any advice?
I will post pics tomorrow (too lazy to go get camera and upload right now)

 

[sunflower3]

I'd look for a caterpillar, it's probley what is eating your plant.

 

[RonsGarden]

Head out after the sun sets!
You will probably find snails and or slugs!
You can either pick them off by hand, or use a beer bait trap! Use a shallow saucer of bowl and pour some beer into it. The beer attracts the slugs and drown!

 

[Crabbergirl]

I like the beer trap myself. However if you would rather try Escargo or Pyola. It is an organic product forund at Gardensalive. Use the link above to support Gardeforums.com

 

[amberdawn723]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I completely meant to check them last night to see if I could catch the critters in action, but totally forgot about by the time it got dark. Hopefully I'll catch them tonight. Here's a few photos just to show what I'm dealing with:

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

that looks like slug/snails ...the beer traps work well alsoyou can get a bag or crushed oyster shells and go around the plants ...this cuts them up as they drag over...you can get a 50 pound bag at your feed store for very little...also crushed hazle nut shells work....I use the oyster shell as it will also add some calcium to the soil ...

 

[amberdawn723]

Well I finally managed to check my sweet potato vines out at night....and no slugs or snails or any evidence of their existence. But lots of pill bugs, some ants, and a cockroach were amongst the vines.

When we bought this house back in August of last year we had a cockroach infestation and didn't know it til we were moving in at night time! It was awful and oh so disgusting. We stopped moving in and fought them hard. We used foggers, sprayers, gels, etc and we finally managed to rid the house of them. Then moved in and got through fall and winter.

In the past few months we've been finding the (increasingly) occasional dead/dying roach in the garage and the rare one in the house. Going to definitely fog the house again soon.

Anyways, when I was outside checking the vines I caught a live one right at the roots of my Bougainvillea which is situated right around the vines. Killed it with my bug sprayer, then proceeded to check the rest of my plants just out of curiosity. Found about 10 or so roaches amongst my plants and in the grass. EWWWWW! I sprayed the crap out of them without regards to my plants. Hopefully I didn't damage them too bad.....but roaches just plain have to die! So, my question is, do some cockroaches eat plants? I'm fairly certain these are the Smokey Brown Cockroaches due to their size (huge!) and dark color. I have the hebbie gebbies now just thinking about them. Yuckity-Yuck! I WILL buy foggers tomorrow. Must do! EWWW! Sorry if I grossed anyone out....I know I don't like to hear about bugs especially roaches.

 

[RonsGarden]

We're lucky up here!
No Cockroaches except in appartment buildings! When we lived in an appartment we were constantly plagued with them! Grossed me right out!
The closest pest we have that can survive our winters are earwigs!
Nasty little beggers! They even come indoors!
They may be your problem!
They will eat holes in foliage plants!

 

[GardenBear1]

7 years ago when I bought my home it was full of Cockroaches and lots of other bugs, I called to have the house sprayed, the guy showed me where the roaches were laying eggs in the flower bed out side the kitchen he said they would eat any thing,I removed all the plants from arouind the base of the house before the sprayed so far I've had no roaches

 

[jade4147]

How to get rid of roaches and I know it works! Haven't seen one in years since we did it
There is a cheap and very effective method. Buy a box of Borax laundry detergent and sprinkle the powder around your baseboards , under sinks, etc. You can even put it in your cabinets with food and dishes because it is completely non-toxic. This makes it great if you have pets or children in the house. The roaches get the borax powder on their legs and bodies and carry it back to the nests. Not sure exactly how it works - but it is lethal to roaches. This really does work. I always do this at the first sign of a roach in my house and have never had any problems with infestations

 

[abarker]

Whats eating my Sweet potato vine?

Hello,

I as well have a sweet potato vine (green) that I noticed is getting eat up by something! I am new into the plant world, just have recently purchased many different flowers . However i`m upset that my sweet potato plant has holes all over it and in some places chunks are missing. I have never seen any bugs on it or around it and I have watched for them in the evenings. I have seen a couple roaches but not near the plants. Any help you could offer would be great! if I don`t do something about this soon i`m afraid I will be buying another one.

 

[Bradeen]

I have no idea about the topic before but after reading the posts on this page i feel good and know had good knowledge
about these thing and wanted to know how can we save out sweet potatoes from these bugs.Can any one tell me
some tips for this purpose.

 

[Randy]

I don't have any idea. That's a crop that doesn't do well in our colder climate.