any ideas about what is happening here?

This pineapple sage is in a mixed bed. There is a caterpillar eating away at a artichoke plant right next to this. I'm guessing that is what is causing the holes in this plants leaves but I'm perplexed at what is causing the curling, browning & skeletinizing (sp?) of the leaves. Some sunflowers I have in another bed seem to have aphids but I don't see any aphids on this plant.
Just in case these details are important, I'll let you know we have had much more rain than usual, I don't use pesticides other than a little dish soap mixed with water and that is very rarely.
Thank for your help.
Angele - 2 pics to be posted

here is a cropped close-up of the same photo. When I cropped it I noticed what looks like spider webs?

Thanks again for any help you might have for me.

If the webs are really fine, then get a magnifying glass out and look for the tiniest little creatures you will find, from your second picture, I am not 100 percent sure but there looks like eggs of some sort just at the brown crumbled bit of leaf, but then again, many bugs scar or eat the leaves, if the webs look like common old garden spiders then maybe they are attracted to the caterpillars or aphids you have, in that case, nature is helping you out, if Red spider mites, then you need to use a special spray for them either organic or chemical, but until you know what they are, then I would investigate first before I sprayed with chemicals, can you say a bit more about the colour size etc of the aphids you have because sometimes if they are just growing on the new fresh growing tip of the plants, you can just nip these off and they will move somewhere else to feed on fresh new tips of some other plants in the neighbourhood. get back to us and someone else may know better than I. good luck. WeeNel.

Thank you so much WeeNel! Very kind of you to give such a detailed response :-)

I've got a few more pictures for you. I saved them lower resolution to not take up too much bandwidth so I hope they show enough to be of help.
This first is the aphids on the sunflower. I am only growing these flowers for the birds so I don't mind the aphids. I saw a lady bug on the plant all day today so I think nature will take care of the aphids. I do wonder if the ants will try to harm the lady bug though.

I also suspect spider mites, on some of the leaves in your second picture I think I can see the telltale stippled pattern on the leaves. If that's what you have, you'll see very very tiny reddish brown dots on the underside of the leaves (but if you don't have good eyes, you may not be able to see them without a magnifying glass) With them the key is you have to treat the undersides of the leaves, if you spray stuff on the top it won't do any good. If you like the organic approach and don't mind shredding a few leaves with the hose, I've been able to control them by carefully hosing off the undersides of the leaves with a jet of water. Or you can use insecticidal soap or neem, both of those are effective on them too. The trick is you do need to keep after them a bit, whatever you do you'll have to repeat the treatment. And I would treat any other plants that are right next to this one, they are not too picky about what plants they munch on and I can almost guarantee if they're on this plant they're on the ones next door too and just haven't caused symptoms yet. If you get the hose on those now too then you can hopefully stop the spread.

If you had aphids on the sage that were bad enough to cause the damage you're seeing, you'd be seeing the aphids too so I really don't think that's what's bothering these particular plants. I've also never seen aphids on any of my salvias, they tend to like certain plants better than others and I don't think sage is their favorite. I have had issues with spider mites on salvia on several occasions.

Here is a caterpillar/worm? from the artichoke plant. I don't usually relocate them unless they are devouring a whole plant that I am hoping to get food from. If they act too piggish I move them with a whole stem and leaves to another part of the desert.

(Thanks Ecrane, more pics coming I will look carefully for the spider mites)

Here is an unknown bug on the sage.. I hope it is a good little soldier

another close up of a curled up leaf from the sage. There is quite a bit of webby type material inside the curl


thats all the pics for now.. I'm on my way outside witha magnifying glass

The bug on your sage looks kind of grasshopper-ish, it could be the culprit that's making the holes in the leaves. I'd still check for spider mites though, I still think I see a faint stippled pattern on your leaves and that's almost always a sign of SM's and the webbing in your last picture could be from them too.

hehe, all these bugs are not giving a good name for my 'natural' garden. I sure don't see any spider mites and neither did Kent but a good blast from the hose is well worth a try. A stem from this plant broke off about a month ago, I rooted and then planted it. Though small it is blooming in another part of the yard with nary the sign of bug damage on it.

Oh no!!! after blasting the underside of the plant I did a little research on these 'spider mites'.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/insect/05507.html
In the next to last paragraph in the first section it says honeylocust trees "are almost invariably infested with the honeylocust spider mite." I have two honeylocust trees in my backyard and if I lose them I will be devastated. One is rather large and is the certerpiece of my birdwatching garden. Large trees are fairly rare around here except for the cottonwoods that grow next to the Rio Grande river.

If your trees are that large then I assume they've been around for a decent number of years, so I don't think you need to worry that much. If the mites are that ever-present on them you've already had them and I'm assuming you haven't noticed any symptoms of ill-health, so as long as you make sure the trees don't get stressed by something else they should be fine. Keep in mind that plants have some defenses of their own, and if you've been practicing natural gardening you likely have some beneficials around helping you out too. Generally it's plants that are stressed from something else that tend to be more prone to insect damage.

Thanks so much for the reassurance ecrane! This past fall through mid-summer we had no measurable rain here. I was very careful to give all my trees and established plants long soaking drinks once a month during the winter and once a week during the heat and all have come through wonderfully.
I love to see the preying mantis, lady bugs and wasps visit. I was so upset this week when the man that comes to water the palms in the park across from my home killed off a whole nest of non-aggressive paper wasps. This area had a massive invasion of caterpillars (from the white sphinx moth) about a month ago. Thousands of them chomping on flower buds and crossing the roads. People who have swimming pools were having to remove hundreds of them! Folks from the university attributed it in part to the drought causing a shortage of their natural predators... wasps! I wanted to write a letter to the newspaper. I still might :-)

Just want to thank you again WeeNel and ecrane. As I said I gave the plant a big blast from the underside last evening. It must have looked strange to my hubby to see me doing that in the rain, lol. This morning the plant looked quite a bit better (more perky) to me. I snipped off all the affected leaves and a few heavily affected stems this morning leaving a little more than half the plant intact. I love the red flowers in the fall and so do the hummingbirds so I hope all is not lost. I also gave the surrounding plants a good blast this morning for good measure.
THANKS again!

Pineapple sageis my favorite herb. I love the scenjt and the flowers. On one picture there is green aphids and they can cause the leaf to curl. Whent his happens they are getting there eggs ready for the winter. Usually that sage doesn't have a lot of trouble but I thought I saw japanese beetle damage. Never fear, it will recover but keep an eye out. You may have washed them away but they are still in the bed looking for something else to eat. For them I use safer soap, I love it. Easy to use home depot, lowes and walmart all carry it it's only a couple of dollars and you can use it anywhere.

thank you kitten, DG members are all so kind
:-)

I had a pineapple sage that died very quickly..I also had grasshoppers (which is what yours are as mine looked like that too..they are babies!). My sage became overwatered & died. It looked close to what you have just before it did. I also think the grasshoppers do a lot of bad damage..get yourself a praying mantid. I don't use pesticides as I want butterflies..the PM really works!!