Something is chopping my banana leaves from the tree. It chews the leaf stem in a straight line close to the trunk of the tree. I have searched the tree and can't find a bug or worm, but each morning there are more leaves on the ground. It prefers older leaves. Any ideas what it is?
It has chewed on Orinoco, Pisang Ceylon, Basjoo....the taller trees, not the pups. It has not bothered Goldfinger, Ice Cream, Cavendish or Ele Ele.
Banana bug?
Hey man ill bet you its a caterpillar but i hope brian chimes in on this.
I get theese little green beautifull caterpillars that seem to be harmless except they have a liking to my tropicals but i have had luck just removing them if i can find them.
start by looking at all new damage then flip those leaves over and i bet if you do this a few mornings you will find your culprit.
Jerry
I looked this morning but couldn't find anything. I'm going to get a ladder and look at the taller branches. If I find what it is, I'll take a picture.
I found another leaf cut a while ago, had been cut long enough for the edges to turn brown. This thing starts at the end of the petiole and cuts at an angle down thru the stem and the leaf falls off. Clean cut like a knife, I've never seen anything like it.
Susie I checked my butterfly/moth books and can find nothing listed with banana/musa as being a host plant. Sorry can't help you there but can say the squirrels used to do what you are describing to my bananas when they are making a nest. They like to get long thin strips of the leaves
This message was edited Dec 31, 2005 6:21 PM
Cala....I know this is a long stretch for those who have not seen it happen before, but I have squirrels everywhere, and they do that to my bananas this time of year. It's a clean straight line, like a knife cut. They come back a day or 2 later to get the leaves to make their nests out of. I completely back up Donna's comment...I lose my banana foliage every year because of them.
We don't have tree squirrels. None of the cute little critters at all. I think I've only seen two or three squirrels in two years in the whole county. They were fox squirrels.
We do have a couple varieties of ground squirrels but I haven't seen any in our yard.
This message was edited Jan 1, 2006 8:43 AM
do you have camcorder to can set up to catch the culprit lol????