I have been spraying my Brugs with everything because the leaves were mottled, and no blooms showing, this is what I found on Golden lady this morning. her leaves are not affected.
The last straw
the second one
seems like a bad year this year, I can't keep the cats off my brugs, and their not those usual green horn worms either, their other cats. their on everything in the greenhouse. it's frustrating to say the least.
Not getting any good blooms onany brugs so far either. I feel your pain
That's horrible!! Please keep your bugs up north, though, please! I just had to battle Walnut Caterpillars yesterday, and it was not a happy thing. Oh, and let's not forget about the Japanese Beetles.
By the way, will Japanese Beetles attack brugs?
I have been battling them here in Calif also. My peaches and cream leaves looked like swiss cheese over night.
I'm dealing with hornworms and cucumber beetles. Both cause some serious damage. I hope you get your visitors under control. They can really make a mess of things quickly.
My leaves have been mottled and chewed too. Yesterday I removed all the bad leaves which left my plant pretty barren, but hopefully it will come back. I put snail bait around the base and sprayed it for caterpillars (with 'safer' brand cat killer) and hoped for the best. I went out after dark with a flashlight to see if I could 'bust' someone eating and saw a bunch of teeny tiny grasshoppers! What can I use to kill them?
Gosh, I was just going to ask you guys what is causing small brownish white specks on the leaves. I tried systemic but now am thinking it might be a virus so I'm spraying with Messenger.
Have you guys tried BT on your cats and worms? Suppose to be pretty good. I have some but haven't had to use it yet. Knock on wood.
What is BT?
Bacillus thuringiensis. It definitely stops worms/cats, but do you want to kill the cats that make those gorgeous butterflies that we watch flitting through our gardens? I prefer to hand pick and leave the good ones. I'll share or re-locate them if necessary. JMO
I'm having a time with the cats and Jap beetles also. My Ambrosia resembles imported baby swiss now. I check it out twice a day - before work and when I get home - and still they turn it into lace!
Sheesh!
Doris, sorry about your buds. That's gotta hurt!!
Barb
Here is a good article on Japanese Beetles and how to control them.
http://www.bugspray.com/articles98/japanesebeetle.html
My brugs won't bloom. They made the 'Y' and have put up small buds...which just fall off. It is just too hot and there is just too much sun. I think next year I'm going to move them to a shadier spot. This one was supposed to be shady in the afternoons...btu as the summer heated up, the shade shrunk till later and later in the day...exposing my poor brugs to glaring sun in 98-100+ heat. I water and water and water...and fertilize and spray and fertilize and spray....it is just too hot and too dry. Maybe next year.... WAH!
I personally have never had butterfly caterpillar damage to my brugs. Only moth cats = Hummingbird moth (hornworms), plume moth, inch worms, and army worms. These moth cats are the most prevalent.
This is probably a dumb question, but how do you know if you have japanese beetles? I very rarely see what is eating my leaves, but usually it's cats or grasshoppers. The cats I see are teeny tiny and bright lime green. I only saw one while I cleaned up my brug, and the project took over an hour. My leaves also looked like swiss cheese. Ditto for a morning glory across the yard. We do have june bugs, and from what I see the grub looks the same. Are june bugs anything to be concerned about like the japanese beetle?
This message was edited Jul 10, 2006 12:44 PM
hmmm, inchworms - maybe that's what I was describing as a caterpillar. I wonder if the cat killer will get those too?
I got this from Gardens Alive. It is Green Step Caterpillar Control. You may apoly up to, and on the day of harvest.
Cabbage looper, Imported Cabbage Worm, Tomato Hornworm, Bagworm, Gypsy Moth, Fall Webworm, Spring Cankerworm, Tent Caterpillers, Fall Canerworm, Elm Spanworm.
It says it kills worms and caterpillar stage insects, but has no effect on birds, earthworms, or beneficial insects such as honeybees, ladybugs, when used as directed It does not say anything about butterflies. Don't know if they would be classified as "Beneficial" for their purposes.
I doubt it. I am sure Brugie is right. I have some seed for Milkweed which is what the Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on. I have not planted it because of the brugs.
Brugie do you know if I would have a problem if I planted the Milkweed seed 300 feet away from my brugs? Do the Monarchs put eggs down wherever they stop? I have some of them out there right now.
The japanese beatle is easy to recognize, it is rather pretty because it is sort of metalic green, and shines, but it gets into everything, my daughter lost all her blackberries and rasberries because they were totaly covered with them.
Japanese beetles usually leave droppings.
Army Worms create sporadic holes
Grasshopper damage
droppings are like little logs
Plume moth damage
zillions of tiny holes
Ilia Underwing moth Cat
devours big chunks from leaves
It seems like the Japanese Beetles don't care for Whiskers or Isabella -- THANK GOODNESS!!! I've got Whiskers right next to a rose bush, and they haven't bothered it. Isabella is on a side of the house and so far, so good!
Don't ask how my roses are doing, though. :(
Inch Worms are probably one of the worst because they do not get as big as hornworms which makes them very hard to spot.
The damage Inch Worms do is worse than hornworms in my opinion. They travel all over the plant and chew a gabillion holes unlike the hornworm that will normally sit and eat until much of the bud or leaf is all gone.
Japanese Beetle update -- tried the soapy water thing, but put it in a spray bottle -- a few squirts and all the Beetles died. It was simply amazing!!
If you are having a chewing insect problem on a particular plant...drench with Bayer Tree and Shrub. I just let them eat...they soon will be gone and be butterflies. The beetles are another story...the drench works.
oh boy, that was the best response. All those pictures really gave a great example of what to look for. Now I know that I have inch worms, and you're right as they did travel all over and ate and ate and ate. What can I use to kill inch worms?
I don't believe I've seen any japanese beetles, although I have seen army worms occassionaly.
thanks for all this great info!
Vee8ch! What a wonderful collection of pictures of nasty creatures. I only hope they weren't all attacking your plants. Thanks for the info ~ things to look for.
Sanna
Patricia, I just noticed my P & C is swiss cheese here too. It is amazing how fast they demolish a big tree. I am going to spray tomorrow with BT. I have 2 brugs being eaten alive.
PS! LOL. I forgot to finsh this, I am watching TV at the same time I am posting so I fade in and out. LOL
Oh Doris, they really ate so much so fast. You must be so frustrated!!!
This message was edited Jul 10, 2006 9:29 PM
cnswift I usually pick and squish, or scrape off with a stick and squish, or remove the entire leaf and squish, or just leave the critter on there and let it eat, or gently transfer the critter to another plant, or use my finger to "thump fling" it across the yard :) . Depends on what it is and my mood. In the case of any of the moth cats on brugs I never use chemicals.
Yes Sanna seems like at one time or another I've had at least one of every buggy critter, good and bad, in the universe lol! So has most everyone else. I love taking brug bug pictures and I'm always disappointed when I can't find some kind of bug critter to photograph.
Jnette, I don't think you will have to worry about Monarch cats eating your brugs. They have never hurt mine, in fact, I've never seen one on the brugs. As far as I know, they only eat the milkweed family plants. You would only have to make sure you didn't spray the plants they munch on. LOL! I love my monarchs and we seem to have less and less each year. I've ordered an asclepias plant for my flower bed. Would have got both yellow and orange, but its a bad time of the year to be ordering.
Well today we are having LOTS of rain so maybe my Brugs will get washed of all bugs, but we are getting standing water everywhere now,
FWIW, I spent two growing seasons as a slave to brugs, I might as well have had a ball and chain around each ankle. I also bought every kind of snake oil, tonic and fert, bug spray, powders, yada, yada. This year I said, nope, not doing that again. Every single brug I wintered in the ground came up, and I put about, I dunno how many bubbler babies in the ground too. Then I went upon my merry way, planted annuals and other plants of interest. 'One day', I looked at the brugs coming up, about 6 or 8 inches and they looked like Swiss cheese, others looked like they had a leaf virus, or something I'd never seen, others grew out those leather-like, turned under leaves and some had obviously been chewed on by cats, and then there was the slug/snail damage. I said, oh, my goodness, girls, I'm so sorry, if you cannot make it on your own, I'm going to have to say bye-bye and I went on about my business and did not do a single thing, nada. I don't think I asked about a single bug, but don't hold me to that, maybe in a moment of weakness. Thing is, amazingly, all is well, they look better than ever and my wintered outside brugs, Eternity, Pink Favorite, Miss Pretty (Kell's second year seedling), bloomed unusually early, last of April, and have flushed all season, so far. I've used little fertilizer, very little bug stuff, Sevin for my potato vines and Cutter for mosquitoes, close to the ground, and only around the area where we sit. On other little thing, I have let my baby Bantams into the garden and they do love bugs. I have to straighten the mulch after they leave but they don't damage the plants at all, certainly less than stray animals. We call the peeps, 'bug babies', they love anything that moves. I will post a couple of photos of pixs I just made, so that you can see my bug free brugs.
Amen Amen Amen Sherry!
I'm a firm believer in don't baby them and they will live long healthy lives ... and you'll live longer too!
The more chemicals, fertilizers, lotions and potions the weaker the brug!
This is Mona Lisa, a Kell seedling, named for my daughter, she wintered in the ground and looked like Swiss cheese when she started coming up, but look at her now, she has bloomed twice and is working on another flush.
Oooops, I left out one thing, we did treat for ants, and I'm beginning to wonder if ants haven't been most of my problem all along. Not fire ants, but 'plant' ants, if there is such a thing. I treated for them because they invaded my house/barn, where I live.
Tanks, V, I appreciate your nice words, I will never, ever be a slave to a plant again, what a silly girl I was. I guess I had some cats early on, but I added milkweed and, poof, the cats disappeared. Maybe it was the milkweed, I dunno.
I've had blooms daily since April; however, I admit that, while I have many brugs with darker green foliage, without bugs, I've had some yellow plants, lighter than I've had before, but without bugs, so no complaints here, more blooms than ever.
Well I have made up my mind that if I have to worry about them all the time I will give them up, so from now on it's either GROW or GO, i have even been losing sleep about how to get rid of all the little pests.
Now I will see if they were just begging for attention.
You know, I think you truly have something there Sherry. I remember my Charley (Grimaldi) and Harry (Herrinhousaer Garten) not growing an inch. Then I told them if they didn't start doing something I was going to cut their heads off.
The next day, I swear, they had grown 6 inches overnight. They didn't try my patience any more.
Now, Kin did tell me to go out and beat them with newspapers this year. Remember that one you guys??? Well, I just remembered that. SO, when I go out to get the paper in the morning I am going to make the rounds. Watch out you nasty brugs.
Wonder if they can read my mind or if I have to yell at them.
BTW, I just got an email from Randy saying he ripped all of his brugs out and planted night Jasmine in their place. Wow that is vicious.
Oh Sherry lets see pictures of the blooms!!