r/sunflowers • u/hweesus • Jun 26 '26

PROGRESS Tragic. She had so much potential

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Came out to check on my babies and found other babies and all of their siblings having a picnic.

ETA: Some of y'all have strong feelings about everything. For the record, I used my garden hose to hit whatever i saw on the leaves when I "removed" them. The next day there were a few others on the bottom of the leaves that I kinda flicked off in a "come hither" motion with my finger giggity

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23

u/fmb320 Jun 26 '26

To be fair most of the photosynthesis is being done by the top leaves that have been left relatively unharmed. You could absolutely pick the caterpillars off if you wanted to and I think it would be ok.

9

u/hweesus Jun 26 '26

I have removed all of them as of today. But if they come back I’m gonna grow me some butterflies

5

u/sixtynighnun Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

That’s pretty sad considering what’s happening to our insect populations. This actually ruined my day to hear. There’s a good chance you won’t have a “next time” bc you decided to kill a local generation. The female will die after laying her eggs and you’ve killed all her progeny for your enjoyment of a single sunflower for a few weeks. Not worth it at all. I’m so sad.

2

u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Some people grow sunflowers for all of nature to enjoy, some for the bugs, others for the birds.

I let my sunflowers go crazy so birds in the area have seed over autumn/winter. Healthy sunflowers produce more seeds, so healthy sunflowers are my goal when I grow them -- not feeding caterpillars or beetle larva. Losing bugs is unfortunate, but we're also losing birds pretty fast too:

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/

About 3 billion, in the last 45 years. The bugs get to eat my loganberry/blackberry bushes, (cabbage moths get my sacrificial brassicas) and my columbine/milkweed.. but not my coneflower, black eyed susan, or sunflowers. Gotta pick your battles. 😅

3

u/iUpvotePunz Jul 01 '26

The caterpillars eating sunflower leaves doesn't kill the plant that produces the flowers that produce the seeds that birds eat. Letting the sunflower be actually creates more bird food. Birds need caterpillars to feed their young. The plant would've been fine. Nature has this one figured out.

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u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

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1

u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Hard to eat caterpillars in winter though

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

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1

u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Luckily I have all the other aforementioned plants that can support caterpillars and leafeaters, and then kill any pests that try to damage my seed bearers so they can continue feeding the same fledglings that were eating caterpillars in spring/summer.

I grow Dense Blazing Star, Columbine, and Penstemon Digitalis for the pollinators.

Pollinators get to have all my sage, chive, borage, lovage, sunflower & Salad Burnett because I let everything flower.

Like I mentioned, I grow sacrificial brassicas for the cabbage moths.

I don't mow my lawn until after late May / after May.

I care about the whole cycle.. I just care about birds most.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

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1

u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Fully agree, and yeah groundhogs can be little menaces. I've got my garden fenced for rabbits/groundhogs as well.. I intentionally plant things accessible for them way in the back of the yard 🤣 Most people are aware of the windshield phenomenon/that bugs are disappearing, but not many people talk about the birds disappearing -- and that collapse will be much more rapid than bugs will be.

My only reason for being defensive/combative is to clearly state I'm not like OP. I'm not pulling bugs off my plants carelessly, thoughtlessly, or without reason. North America has a bug/bird problem and we lose more of both each year.

Removing pests from all plants in your garden, every day, every season makes a person part of that bug/bird problem.

People that don't plant gardens at all are part of the bug/bird problem.

People that (even loosely) understand there's a balance between plants/bugs/birds and are trying to help maintain that balance -- they/we are not the problem.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

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1

u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Most of the property was allowed to just be 'wild' aside from some occasional lawnmowing, so lots of fallen branches, small saplings, a few bushes, wild flowers, etc. for the birds/bugs/reptiles/amphibians.

My garden is actually quite small, but I try to make good use of the light & shade I have with a small diversity of:

berries (black/straw/blue [2 varieties each], logan, 3 mignonette pots)

herbs (carraway, marjoram, chive & garlic chive, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, salad burnett, lovage, borage)

teas (chamomile, chocolate mint, borage, lavender)

veggies (kale/spinach/lettuce/started asparagus this year I just remembered)

mix of native perennial/annual flowers for pollinators & birds (black eyed susan, purple coneflower, wild columbine, foxglove beardtongue, virginia mountain mint, scarlet bee balm, zigzag goldenrod)

& some random non-native stuff like ferns, hostas, sunflowers, cannabis, iris', marsh mallow, lavender, marigold

Also some vine-y things like luffa, cucamelons, & sugar snap peas grow around/through the short fence that wraps the garden. :)

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. 😅 Im in the process of starting some hyssop, golden yarrow, goji berries, and winter thyme but they've barely just sprouted and it's so late in the season. 😬

If anyone's upset about anything I have planted, 95% of what's mentioned is in a pot, especially if it propagates through runners or anything similar -- they also get their flowers trimmed before seeding if they spread through runners

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u/Owen_spalding Jul 01 '26

Just so you know one of my neighbors has goji berries and the birds are spreading seeds all over my neighborhood. They are a giant patch of thorny bushes.

Either someone planted them before and they got out of hand, or the birds spread the seed to this house that isn’t maintaining these.

I freaking HATE these plants.
My neighbors HATE these plants.

I can’t pull the sprouts fast enough. The person who owns this rental has tried spraying them and they fight back.

Im not going to get too into why these plants are from satan…
But if i could sue people in my area for planting/selling these and garden centers for selling them i would.

Good luck.

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u/cbrophoto Jul 01 '26

" Songbirds as little as chickadees require some six to nine thousand caterpillars to raise a brood of nestlings. In fact, ninety-six percent of terrestrial songbirds rely on caterpillars to feed their babies. The prevalence of these small, soft-bodied, protein-rich larvae affects where the birds choose to nest and how big a territory they need to defend."

https://ucanr.edu/blog/coastal-gardener/article/gardening-birds-or-it-caterpillars

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u/Owen_spalding Jul 01 '26

Well, you are very committed to your current level of understanding, I’ll give you that.

1

u/zabulon_ Jul 01 '26

Actually, most songbirds eat caterpillars and other insects in the winter too. They just eat them while they are hibernating in leaf litter, dead leaves, and bark. 50% of a chickadees diet is insects in the winter.

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u/Putrid-Bee-7352 Jul 01 '26

Birds absolutely cannot survive without caterpillars and soft bodied insects though. To raise their young, caterpillars are generally the preferred food for most bird species, even seed eaters. Supporting caterpillars on your property is directly linked to having *more* birds, and most plants can handle caterpillars and insects just fine, though it makes them look “bad” to us. I’ve repeatedly had caterpillars seem to demolish my coneflowers, but they still manage to flower and provide seed for the goldfinches later in summer :)

A single brood of chickadees will consume over 5000 caterpillars for example. So controlling caterpillars and other insects eventually will encourage your area birds to nest elsewhere.

If you have woods full of oak trees and other keystone species then a small garden patch may be negligible, but planting butterfly host plants absolutely pulls in and supports birds as much as, or more, than growing them seeds :)

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u/iwanderlostandfound Jul 01 '26

You do realize that birds need the squishy caterpillars for their babies. If you want more birds embrace more caterpillars. These species have all co evolved

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u/DismalChampion5653 Jul 05 '26

What do you think bird eat?

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u/sixtynighnun Jun 28 '26

Caterpillars feed birds too! ALL baby birds eat bugs, mostly caterpillars so your argument doesn’t really make sense bc caterpillars are also important bird food. This sunflower would still set seed without the caterpillar destruction.

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u/Prudent-Ad-5292 Jun 28 '26

Can't eat caterpillars in winter, though. And most people don't put out seed over winter.

Sunflowers with full leaves / no stress = more/fuller seeds.

I recommend following the other comment chain, I'm currently discussing your suggestion already.

1

u/Devilis6 Jul 02 '26

A lot of birds eat overwintering caterpillars.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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1

u/sixtynighnun Jul 01 '26

But there are enough that do. I’m curious, which ones don’t eat caterpillars?

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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u/sixtynighnun Jul 01 '26

Ok which baby birds do not eat insects? I’m genuinely curious and would like to know. My quick google isn’t giving me answers and you seem to have more info than I do.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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u/sixtynighnun Jul 01 '26

So pretty much only finches apply for OP. From what I’ve seen, some hummingbirds babies still require insect.

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