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| i never heard of such a thing until the end of last summer, when out of the blue these little blighters found one of our sand paper fig trees, this plant was all of about 400mm high how they found it when there are no other fig trees around is beyond me. they killed the tree by not only eating the leaves but also the bark (DPI said now that's new they only usualy eat leaves).
now we have common fig trees, brown turkey kind and for the last 2 years these little developing grafteds had no bugs, but today both with the few new season leaves they have are covered with these bugs that drop to the ground when you approach, then fly back up when you are gone. we have been picking the odd one off of our one and only sand paper fig all of 200mm high, they must have good radar or noses, this tree barely sticks above the mulch that surrounds it. anyway has anyone got any organic methods for dealing with these ravenous pests? len |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Check with Google,Len,and see if they can come up with a garlic spray.....it stinks and is very effective...but I've lost my recipe. Daz. |
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| thanks daz, not sure the garlic or even the chillie psrays will work on these as those sprays do nothing to help with grasshoppers, and these are leaf eaters just the same but will check it out on google you just never know. len |
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| g'day daz, haven't gotten around to trying any garlic spray yet, but we have been using their own defence mechanism against them. they have this sneaky trick of simply dropping to the ground when you touch the leaf/branch whatever, so we put a little kerosine into an iceream container hold it under the leaves then make them use their defence so they drop into the kero' and die. seems to be working well. len |
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- Posted by grntreeresearch 10 West Palm Be (grntreeresearch@aol.com) on Sun, Nov 16, 03 at 10:50
| Try using a dishwashing liquid detergent soap. We have used this spray formula for palm trees for forty years and it really works. We use this spray as a preventive against diseases and insect in plam trees One tablespoon of soap to a gallon of water. Use a small spray bottle and try it to see if it works for you. If it works for you let us know and we will give more information. Earle grntreeresearvch@aol.com |
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| thanks earle, we'll give that a try and let you know controlling the leaf eaters can be a bit more difficult than most. for now we seem to have headed them off using their own defense mechanism against them. len |
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- Posted by Phil Rosenbaum TX(phillip_rosenbaum@yahoo.com) onWed, Jun 8, 11 at 22:27
| My fig tree, about 5 feet tall, is full of figs this year, but something is stripping the leaves and leaving only the heavy leaf veins/frame. Whatever it is it must operate at night because I see nothing on the tree. Must be a large caterpillar or beatle that works at night. Never seen this before and have had many fig trees in my life. Going to go out tonight with a flash light and check it out. Anyone had this problem? Any ideas other than spraying with insecticide? |
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| I have the same issue here in Boerne, TX. In the morning, leaves are eaten back to the stalk/veins. Will the dish soap spray help? Thanks! |
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- Posted by Rickaroonie NSW (My Page) on Sat, Sep 10, 11 at 3:44
| Phil, I think your problem is a type of beetle. I've had the same problem. Only the soft tissue of the leaves are eaten and the web is left. They can dessimate your tree in quick time. After many hrs of research and asking questions to many people, the only thing I came up with is; literally squash them when the opportunity arrises. They want to fall off when you approach so you have to be sneaky. Apparently, they live in the soil over winter and reappear when juicy new leaves in spring come forth. I followed the advice and was fairly consistant and overcame the problem. Just coming on the spring here now and new leaves are just popping out. Will be interesting to see how bad it gets this summer. Hope this help. I cant remember the name of the beetle. |
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| I might be able to I.D. it if I could see it. Its hard to work out a control until you know what the pest is. It sounds like a weevil |
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| g'day miketrees, the original post was about 7 years ago, i now can't remember the final outcome now. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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