I hate to admit my ignorance here, but I bet someone can help identify my problem. Something is eating my brugs that I have in the garage. It has all but striped the leaves off of my peaches and cream cutting, and has eaten several leaves off other small brugs. It has eaten the leaves and stems - - leaving only the base of the stem. Plus I have found what looks like poo droppings on the plants (little black poo). I have looked high and low and cannot find any catepillars and the damage doesn't look holey like slug damage.
Any ideas of what I am dealing with here? Many thanks, Nat
Mystery Varmit Eating Brugs
sounds like a mouse!
ABG - - if the damage was lower, I might think that also. But unless mice can shimmy up a brug - - I think it must be something else. That or a realllyyyyy small mouse. LOL
won't they make the mice sick if they eat them I am having the same problem out side with my peaches and cream i went to cut it back today and seen all this green poo like caterpillars leave but no caterpillar any where. I cut it back and said well they would have a surprise tonight I think it is catydids large hunks are missing from the leaves
It could be those grayish brown snail. They have almost stripped my older brugs completely and also eaten the smaller ones to there was barely a stem left.
Nat, try going out at night when it is dark with a flashlight and check the trunk,top and undersides of the leaves.
I am shure it is a snail ( slug )
if its snails put salt around the base of it, just a thought...the snails won't cross it.
LOL if the mouse or rat cuts down to the base of the stem with his teeth, he can then eat it....eh?? Hey, just my scenerio of the situation lol....
I went out in my GH last night and with a flashlight I might add, I found a green catepillar on the leaf of one of my plants out there...of course I removed it but it wasnt the brug it was on. I checked them but didnt find anymore...leaves are curling up though.
My 2cents like it matters right?
Julie
Nat:
Maybe it's a tomato hornworm. A couple of them horribly defoliated my brugs and they left black droppings behind.
I think Delecie is right. You rarely will find them on the plants until dusk or early morning. They can trim out a tomato plant in a night or two and leave little black pellets to let us know who they are.
ohhh yeahhhhhhhhh those things are ravenous monsters-and get as big as mice almost. had some in my cuttings, I could have sworn one of them growled at me. its bad when the bugs in your flowers need taken out with a bb gun. lol cheryl
Well, I have left Sluggo around the base of a couple of brugs, sprayed with a multipurpose insecticide and have my handy flashlight out by the garage door. As I have to get up at 5 (groan) in the morning, I'll spring through the door - whip out my flashlight and go bug hunting. If you don't hear anything from me in a couple of days, then you'll know that one of those big as mice hornwormy things got me.
My husband won't want to take care of the brug if I disappear-- so I have to trust that you'all will come get them. LOL Nat
OK girlfriend, you can count on me (~;
I took a Whiskers into the office and after 3 days found the cutest lime green inch worm on it! Good thing it wasn't around with all the folks sticking their noses into it!
BTW, WW seedling has buds, hope I'll see bloom in the sunroom!
Something has been eating on my brugs out in the GH. I looked closely and found 3 smallish green worms, looking like cabbage loopers, but didn't do the loop thing. They were very soft and just about an inch long. See quite a few eaten places on the leaves, but only so far those three worms. My HID light is on from 5:00am to 11:00pm so it light out there until late. I've not gone out to check when dark. Donna
YEA Vi - - you have WW buds! You're gonna love it's scent!
That's good reminder Donna - - I need to make sure my timers on my lights are adjusted to that it will be dark in the morning when I go out to check for varmits. The search is on!
Now I need to look up what a hornworm looks like.....
Hey Nat will the seedling smell the same as WW? And is it different than Whiskers? The buds are only an inch long, sure hope I see bloom!
Donna, do lights really need to stay on that long? (Anyone can jump in here!)
I've had those little green worms that are hard to see on the back of the leaves munching, and now today I saw a whitefly zipping around my brugs. Gee, I sure hope those don't get started. They are sure hard to get rid of.
Well, I really don't know how long is the best time for lights to stay on. I've read somewhere that for best results should be 16 hours, I think that was for regular fluorescent lights, the HID puts out more lumens I think. Actually I don't know how important it is to keep them on for any certain lenghth of time. i just hung a fluorescent light out in my bonsai storage room and it isn't on a timer yet so is on all the time which probably is good. I must get a timer out there.
I also have seen a few white flies and also on a couple of the brugs some aphids. So far only a few and I have been getting rid of them by hand. I really hate to spray with other that a little soap. Donna
I bet it is caterpillars eating P & C. They love that brug more than any other in my garden. This poor P & C was just planted a week before in perfect shape, and then I went out to water it for the first time and got such a shock a month or so ago! Could not find anything but sprayed it with Bt. Problem solved.
Vi, My brain skipped over the word seedling. That seedling had bloomed but wasn't as as pretty as WW. It has a nice white bloom but lacks the long curly tendrils. And the blooms that I had on it were about 8 feet high - - it had been cut down before bringing it to you. I don't think the scent is the same as WW - - but then WW always had so many blooms it scented the whole yard and it would be hard to compare.
Well guys, I went bug hunting bright and early this morning- no sign of anything. I will try it again tonight. I am inclined to believe that I have a catepillar problem. Maybe when I hosed off all of my brugs - - I dislodged the varmit. Thanks for your suggestions. Still in the dark, Nat
If it is a hornworm and he has already eaten a lot, he will be as big as your little finger by now, but still hard to see because of the color. On cool or overcast days they may eat during the day. I had a bunch of white wooly worms devouring some of mine this summer. Took me forever to get them all hand picked.
Brugie, there was no sign of anything at 5 this morning. And yes, I had my eyes open! But then, I had taken all the plants outside and hosed everything off 2 days ago. I may have dislodged whatever was lurking in my brugs. So, I am going to get an eye on them and see if I have anymore damage.
It could be that the worm had reached the end of it's cycle and is off making its cocoon now. They are a fuzzy brown thing that I've found more often on the wood siding of a shed than in branches like butterflies place theirs. I hope he is gone, but also hope it doesn't hatch out and then lay eggs to make more of those little devils. They are hard to get rid of. They hatch into the hummer moth that loves to visit your brug blooms and other flowers.
Hatch was the wrong word, but you know what I mean..
This message was edited Nov 13, 2003 3:40 PM
Thanks Brugie, I'll be on the lookout for a cocoon. I always see several of the sphinx moths during the summer - so you may be correct.
However, it is supposed to be a chilly 27 degrees tonight. So I will have to move everything into the garage tonight and sort out what goes into the basement this weekend. I won't have room to turn around in the garage once I get everything in there - - so no more varmit hunts until this weekend. But I will hose everything down and spray with the appropriate insecticide/fungicide before storing for the winter. Plus I'll look for any cocoons.
Hey Nat, watch out for that Avid, did you get any instructions? Plus--it really smells! Sprayed everything early yesterday morning knowing I might have to bring everything in--so naturally everything's in and stinks):
Yes, I downloaded some instructions for Avid and sprayed my brugs about 10 days ago so that they would have a chance to air out some before bringing them inside. I was also careful to wear long sleeves and face protection. I want the Avid to kill the mites, not me.
I looked up some pictures of hornworms on the web, and you guys weren't kidding about how big they get! Oh my goodness, I can see why you would need to break out a BB gun to kill one.