What's Eating My Hydrangeas?
Hydrangea damage is usually more alarming than fatal — these shrubs regrow generously. Sort the deer from the insects by the size of what's missing.
The usual suspects
Deer
The signs: Buds, blooms, and shoot tips bitten off ragged overnight — often precisely the flower buds you waited all year for.
What it looks like: Browse height, torn (not cut) stems, and hoofprints; damage repeats nightly in season.
What to do: Repellents rotated from bud set onward, netting over prize shrubs in spring, fencing where deer pressure is chronic. Bloom loss isn't plant death — the shrub itself shrugs it off.
Japanese beetles
The signs: Leaves lacy-skeletonized and petals shredded midsummer, beetles present in daylight.
What it looks like: Oakleaf and panicle types attract them most.
What to do: Morning knock-downs into soapy water; established shrubs tolerate cosmetic loss.
Aphids
The signs: Sticky curled new growth and sooty mold on leaves below.
What it looks like: Soft green colonies at stem tips in spring.
What to do: Water-blast the tips a few mornings running; beneficials do the rest.
Slugs
The signs: Ragged holes in low leaves on young plants, slime traces at dawn.
What it looks like: Night feeders in moist mulched beds — hydrangea country.
What to do: Morning watering and iron phosphate around new plantings.
Spider mites
The signs: Stippled bronzing leaves in hot dry corners, fine webbing beneath.
What it looks like: Tap-test over paper.
What to do: Shower foliage in dry spells; soap for outbreaks.
When it's not a pest at all
A hydrangea that leafs out but never blooms wasn't eaten — it was pruned at the wrong time or lost buds to a cold snap (the classic bigleaf-hydrangea heartbreak). Brown-edged leaves in August sun are scorch; move the water, not the blame.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial