Okra being defoliated by bugs

 My okra plants are being eaten so badly by the bugs, they are becoming
defoliated, and I'm not sure I can get them to live long enough to grow big
enough to resist this onslaught.

I've used slug pellets to stop the slugs, and it does not seem to be slugs.
Slugs leave slime trails, and the pellets have never failed to stop them
before. I see no slime trails, nor dead slugs.

I've used Neem, which works with other plants the bugs find tasty, but it
does not help.

Out of desperation, I tried some sevin dust, and not even that seems to
stop the damage.

How can I protect these plants from whatever is eating them? I thought it
was slugs because of the big holes in the leaves, but i'm not sure if it is
just a lot of little bugs eating everything that is there. What can I do to
prevent these plants from being devoured?

 Zootal wrote:

First find out what it is.  Have you checked for grubs or 28 spot
ladybeetle?

David

 

So basically if I don't snort the entire container, I should be just fine
:-P. Wow - horse manure can cause more damage than that....

 

There is no minimum dose that is good for you. Enjoy.
--
- Billy
Both the House and Senate budget plan would cut Social Security and Medicare,
while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Kucinich noted that none of the government programs targeted for
elimination or severe cutback in House Republican spending plans
"appeared on the GAO's list of government programs at high risk of
waste, fraud and abuse."
<http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/mar/28/dennis-kucinich/re
p-dennis-kucinich-says-gop-budget-cuts-dont-targ/>

[W]e have the situation with the deficit and the debt and spending and jobs. And
it¹s not that difficult to get out of it. The first thing you do is you get rid
of corporate welfare. That¹s hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The second
is you tax corporations so that they don¹t get away with no taxation.
 - Ralph Nader
<http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/ralph_naders_solution_to_debt_crisis>

 
When I look, there is never anything there. For all I know my dogs or cats
are munching on them...You would think that with that much damage, I would
at least see some signs of what is eating it. No ants, and we have ants
everywhere, but I've never seen ants on them. The damage is not what flea
beetles do - no small holes, but big chunks are gone. It looks like slug
damage, I've seen what slugs do to my cabbages and eggplants, but we don't
have enough slugs to do the damage I've been seeing, and there are no slime
trails, and the slugs have never yet made it past the slug pellets.

We have cucumber beetles here, but there are very few this year, certainly
not enough to do the damage I'm seeing.

We really don't have any other pests here - flea beetles and slugs do 99%
of the damage to my garden. Cucumber beetles - they hate Neem, and a good
spray of neem keeps them away. Flea beetles don't like Neem either.

Oh, and we have aphids, but there is no sign of aphids on them. The only
time aphids have ever done any damage is when they infested my brussel
sprouts several years ago.

We do have ladybeetles here, do they eat okra leaves??? No sign of grubs,
but not sure I'd recognize it if I saw it.

I'm going to keep a close eye on them for the next few days and see if I
can spot anything eating them.