On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:21:07 +0000 (UTC), Lynda Thornton
wrote:


I think I either have a plague of one thing or lots of different things
*suddenly* eating my plants' leaves and flowers!

The most worrying to me is my young rowan tree which we planted earlier
this year. It has done OK and put some branches out and good leaves,
it's over 6ft high, but in the last few days they are covered with small
holes which are brown-edged and from a distance the leaves don't look
green any more and some are like lace. I can't find the pest that's
doing it but it's had a go at almost every leaf.


Caterpillars? I've got shrub which had the same symptoms for two
years running. I sprayed it with a systemic insecticide and pruned
most of the damaged stuff out and now it's fine.



I didn't spot any caterpillars

Maybe they've changed into moths and flown away? Are you getting any
new holes?

and I can't really prune a young tree as
they are the only leaves it's got and it would be left looking like a
tall stick in the ground!

I left mine the first year then pruned it this year. I sprayed as
soon as the holes started to appear in the new leaves and whatever
was doing the damage stopped. All I found on the plant were a few
small green caterpillars and some tiny brown maggoty/caterpillar like
grubs.

I'm wondering if it might be some tiny
weevils that I think came in with some plants I bought last week. I've
been stamping on them when I see them now as initially I didn't think
they would do anything. They are very small and I think I've identified
them (see another thread re weevils). I didn't think they would be
eating such a wide range of plants, but a lot of the affected plants are
showing the same symptoms, of tiny holes with brown or white edges and
I've found these weevils in a position like they're sucking sap with
their snouts buried into stems.

If you can suggest a suitable NG I'll post a picture of one of the
damaged leaves. Tiny holes - about 1mm across - with brown or white
edges.

. All I can think of to do is to kill
them when I find them, I can't go spraying every plant in the garden...

Just spray the rowan then! Use a systemic insecticide and repeat next
spring in case they come back. There seems to be no lasting damage to
my shrub BTW. I'm just glad that they didn't turn yellow and fall
off...


Maybe