SOMETHING IS EATING MY HONEYSUCKLE LEAVES!!!
My first guess was caterpillars, given the big holes in the leaves, but the loss of the flower buds makes me wonder if there are also aphids on the big plant. Sigh.
It had a serious aphid infestation a couple years ago, which I combatted with several sprays of insecticidal soap. Looks like I'll be at it again. As for the caterpillars, should I leave them be or blast them with some BTK? [which is a biological control specific for caterpillars] I bought some last year so that I'd have it in case I have cabbage worms in my brassicas again, but haven't used it yet. I'd prefer to keep it as a last resort. But seriously, that honeysuckle is a major showpiece and therefore it must be saved! It has these incredible orange/pink flowers that attract hummingbirds, and it looks phenomenal growing up the side of the house. See that giant vine on the right side of the house? Yes, I want to keep that. Anyone have any ideas as to what I might be dealing with?
2014 EDIT: I believe the culprit is some sort of sawfly. I sprayed with Safer's "Trounce" and it took care of whatever was eating it. It's not an organic product but but I'm willing to go non-organic occasionally, and for non-food plants (I only sprayed it on the honeysuckle vine). The spray also worked on my columbine which was being decimated by little worms. Again, I think it was a sawfly variant.
2 comments:
My haskups had those same kinda holes. I never actually SAW them until the end of the year. I was suspicious it was slugs throughout the year. Then, when I removed the mulch at the end of the season, there they were, a freakin' colony of them. So I'd go after those.
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