The active ingredient in the spray you use for bud worms is BT. It is available under different brand names. It won't hurt your animals or you should you ingest it. It works well on the plants, but has a short life once sprayed. For this reason spraying should be done even before you notice the damage if possible. Al

i am pretty leery of recommending you spray anything.. w/o an ACTUAL ID of what the problem is ...

of course.. the simplest solution is to just pull out the pets for this year ...

either post us a pic.. or take a piece to a local nursery.. and get an ID ...

organic solution or not.. you need to ID problems

ken

Sounds like armyworms(I had them on my 'tunias earlier in the season), but as Ken said, an ID should be made before using any product. Google armyworms and see if that is what you have. Bt will take them out.

Swallowtail butterflies use Petunia as a host plant.