Possible insect damage on tomatoes and perovskia

[Millymollymandy]

Noticed a little while back that the outer stems of my Perovskia had started drooping downwards and upon closer inspection, I could see that something seemed to have peeled a tiny 1-2mm wide strip of the outer stem all the way down about 2-3 inches. This had caused the growing tip to keel over.

Just put it down to 'one of those things' because it's a hardy perennial and the rest of the plant is fine.

However now the same thing has happened to two newly planted out tomatoes! They've totally lost their growing tips as well but I can see that same strip has been peeled off the outer stem.

Any ideas? Someone has suggested slugs - but nothing is munching my lettuce or anything else, baby or otherwise, and these tomatoes are about 18" tall. I'm a tad peeved about this as they were one off bought ones of interesting sounding varieties.

[Odsox]

Yes I did read this post Mandy (carrying on from the courgette thread), but I'm at a loss to explain what your problem is.
It's certainly not slugs as you probably guessed, as they eat irregular holes in leaves or chew straight through a young stem.

I do have a similar problem with sweetcorn, strips missing from the leaves so that they look like vertical Venetian blinds, but I know what does that ... earwigs, and tomatoes are about the only thing that isn't troubled by them here.
Have you ventured out after dark with a torch to see if you can spot what it is ?

When we actually had several frosts last winter, I thought that maybe my pest problem would a lot less but I seem to have even more instead.

[chickenchargrill]

Have you had a good look on the leaves, especially underneath, for any more clues?

[Millymollymandy]

Umm no haven't looked close up at leaves (or gone out after dark) as the perovskia is in the middle of a big full flower bed and a bit hard to get at now but I keep inspecting the other two planted out toms and they are fine so far. I'll try to remember to take a photo. Nothing new has been munched on the perovskia that I can see since the first attack and some of the growing tips are actually now turning back up towards the light so must be quite a tough old plant!

It's just very odd!

[Henwoman]

Sorry to hear that, MMM. My perovskia is the best I've ever seen it foliage wise, obviously not flowering yet and, I've just been out to look at it, it seems to have spread too, it's at the back of my herb patch, and the fennel was hiding it. What I have had this year though is very bad caterpillar damage on my hollyhocks and caseille plants - cross between blackcurrant and gooseberry. I haven't seen a caterpillar, but it has to be caterpillars from the type of leaf damage.

[Millymollymandy]

Perovskia damage - the wonders of digital photography means I can zoom in and view the damage closer up! Didn't get round to taking photos of the damaged tomatoes but that was finer damage - not so long or deep. anyway you can see that some of the P. stems have managed to survive the damage! It actually looks a bit more munched in places on the P than on the toms but zooming in I can actually see some of the strips peeled away!

[Millymollymandy]

1st photo bit more zoomed in

[chickenchargrill]

Horntail lavae? Can't find anything about them in perovskia or tomatoes but the damage looks very similar, like eggs have been laid inside it and the lavae has eaten its way out. But then I can't find anything on any pests that attack perovskia.

[Millymollymandy]

I shall have to google that - yes the damage does look quite different when zoomed in. Well the tomatoes are still alive and the others not touched so I'll leave them in place and hope a side shoot will continue the growth.