What Is Eating My Jade Plant?

Not sure what is eating your Jade plant?

This is one of the common issues with indoor as well as outdoor plants.

Since many pests and animals like to feed at night, it becomes difficult to guess who’s causing the damage to your plants.

So, how do you find them?

And what’s the process to go about it?

In the following guide, I have shared a few details on this topic.

Hopefully, you will find them useful.

10 Pests That Might Be Eating Your Jade Plant

These are the common suspects for your search for pests that may be causing damage to your Jade plant –

1. Spider Mites

Spider mites love to have colonies on the Jade plants.

They may not eat the plant entirely, but you can expect severe damage to the leaves and branches of the plant.

2. Mealybugs

Mealybugs are another cause of concern in Jade plants.

These bugs also like to have colonies on the plant’s surface, and they feed on the sap from the plant.

The bugs have a fuzzy white appearance and can easily be found with the naked eye.

3. Scale

Scales are similar to mealybugs, and they are equally damaging to indoor plants.

These bugs also appear in white.

4. Whiteflies

As the name suggests, whiteflies are white, and these insects also thrive on the sap from the plant.

Moreover, all of these bugs won’t eat your plant.

They will only make the plant weaker by extracting the juices from the leaves and branches.

5. Snails

Snails do eat leaves!

They are also more active during nighttime.

So, you should definitely consider them while performing the search task.

6. Rabbits

Have rabbits in the garden?

They can cause damage to your Jade plant.

Rabbits often nibble on soft leaves and branches.

However, they don’t like succulents a lot.

They will only eat them if they don’t find anything else in the area.

7. Chipmunks & Squirrels

Both these animals are well-known pests in the gardening world.

If you have trees or jungle around your place, you might get these visitors in your home garden.

They may also come inside the room and nibble on the leaves of the Jade plant.

8. Deers

Similar to rabbits, deers don’t prefer eating succulents.

They will only eat them if they don’t have any other options.

But deer can be a primary reason for this issue in your plants.

9. Rodents & Possums

Rodents and possums can also cause damage to your indoor and outdoor plants.

These animals won’t eat a lot of leaves from your plants, but they will damage the branches and stems.

10. Other Insects & Animals

There might be something else that is eating your Jade plant.

So, you shouldn’t just consider the above possibilities.

You may research more about the local animals found in your location.

Similarly, you can research other possible insects.

For e.g.,

If you have palms in the garden, you may have caterpillars on them.

These insects can also cause havoc in your garden plants.

In the following section, you will find more about the ways through which you can identify the pest or animals behind your Jade plant damage.

5 Tips To Find Out What Is Eating Your Jade Plant

Even though it’s a difficult task to find who’s eating your Jade plant, there are certain techniques that can help in this process.

Here are some useful tips for you –

1. Look For Damage On The Leaves

Most pests and animals like to chew on fresh leaves, as the leaves are their primary source of food.

So, take a look at the leaves.

Check for any patterns or bites on some of the leaves.

If it’s animal damage, you will probably see these signs on the lush green leaves of your Jade plant.

For other pest damage, you will need to inspect a little deeper.

Generally, small insects and bugs try to extract juices from the leaves.

So, if you don’t see any biting marks on the leaves, you should think of other possibilities.

This is especially true for your indoor Jade plant because you won’t have animal issues inside the room.

Of course, if you have pets in the house, it could also be the reason for this issue.

Therefore, check the leaves properly and try to eliminate the possibilities.

2. Check The Branches

This is another part of the Jade plant where you can find the real cause of this issue.

If something is eating your Jade plant, you should check the branches along with the leaves.

It’s quite important because animals will not just eat leaves.

They often damage the branches as well.

Again, this might be an issue with your outdoor Jade plant.

For branches, you can look for biting or scratching marks.

If the plant is relatively big, you may also see these marks on the main stem.

3. Check For Smell

This is useful for both indoor and outdoor Jade plants.

While performing the inspection in your garden, try to get the smell from the plant.

Of course, you should smell it from a fair distance.

Generally, the animals like deer may rub-urinate around the pots to set boundaries during the breeding season.

This is typical behavior of such animals.

If you are an animal lover, it can be an effective method to find out more about the new visitor in your garden.

4. Check For Footprints

You can also look out for animal footprints in the garden.

If the visiting animal is bigger in size, you can easily identify it with the help of footprints.

5. Set Up A GoPro Camera

As you know, the above methods are pretty much based on the trial and error method as well as your previous experiences.

If you are good at both these things, you may be able to identify the reason for such damage to your Jade plant.

But what if you don’t have any previous experience?

In that case, you can make use of the camera.

You can set up a GoPro camera if you want to know what’s eating your Jade plants.

You may also use any other camera, but GoPro’s size makes it easy to set up around the outdoor location.

Also, it’s easy to hide from animals.

Along with the camera, you will also need to install a source of light in this place.

The reason is self-explanatory because the camera won’t capture anything if it becomes too dark at night.

Note: The camera should be placed at a certain height so that you will get a better view of the damage.

It will also help in determining the path of the animal through which it might be entering your garden.

Now, let’s check out the FAQs below.

FAQs