Sometimes it’s worth treating a plant to avoid or stop holes in the leaves. For example, it’s a good idea to spray kale, broccoli and cabbage with either Bt or spinosad to prevent the white cabbage moth larvae from destroying your vegetables. And I’ve always made it a practice to spray the leaves of my hardy Hibiscus in mid-June so that the hibiscus sawfly larvae won’t turn the plant into lace. But not all damage that we see on plants demands a response. This card encourages garden makers to be thoughtful about when to treat and when to be relaxed about “an acceptable level of damage.” 

I live on Cape Cod and many of the holes in flowers and leaves are caused by earwigs. But there’s a golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata) that eats holes in morning glory and sweet potato vine, and geranium budworms eat geranium flowers. I ignore the holes that the gold bugs make, but if my Pelargoniums get the budworms I will spray with spinosad. I don’t stress about holes in petunia flowers since those blooms come and go so quickly anyway. 

These moonflowers and morning glory plants are a bit lacy because of the gold bugs. Oh well.