Hello, please help me with information what is eating the leaves of my lilac. Looks like leaf-cutter bees, but I haven't seen any bees around and there is white substance at the edge of the holes that looks like bacteria. I haven't noticed the holes before ( I water the lilac regularly) so it is possible that all the holes appeared within the last couple of days.
thank you in advance!
been searching the internet to find an answer to the same question,
my lilac tree is just the same....help !!!!!
The holes do look like leafcutter bees, I wouldn't worry about them. They don't harm plants and are beneficial to have around, and they're also only active chewing leaves for a short period of time while they build their nests. But your leaves also look a little curled & droopy which would not be due to the leafcutters & could indicate a different problem--not sure what though. Can you post some additional pictures of the plant?
well, after the rain the white substance disappeared so it seems it is really a leaf cutter bee. As for the curled up leaves - these particular branch is dying, but the rest of the tree is ok. I appreciate that the bees ate the most from the dying branch :)
The white stuff you saw around the edges was probably just a bit of dried up leaf "juice" (for lack of an appropriate botanical word for it) that oozed out a bit when the leaf was chewed.
