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Hi Workshop Community Friends !!
Something I would love to share with you which is a very common problem in our Edible Gardens.
I always get asked
“ What’s eating the leaves on my plants ? “
Well it could be a number of critters…….
Grubs, Caterpillars, Snails, Slugs, Grasshoppers, Locusts to name a few very common ones…….
I was outside this morning looking at my Calandula in my Edibles garden and noticed the leaves are being stripped pretty quickly 🤬
When you first look at a plant that has been eaten , you can’t really see anything attacking it.
If you take the time to observe the leaves and look UNDERNEATH then you may find what you are looking for and the critters that are demolishing / stripping .
Also take the time to observe any moths flying around, especially small brown moths, then you definitely know you have grubs attacking your plants.
On my Calandula I found two different types of grubs !!!! 🐛 🐛
Have a look at the photos below, the tiny green grub is a Green Looper, it has been stripping the leaves outside inwards.
With Green Loopers and also White Cabbage Moth grubs ( larvae ) they are both GREEN and perfectly blend in with the green leaves, they can be tricky to find. Just take the time to look all over.
Look how tiny it is next to my thumb nail and trust me when I say all Moth Larvae are extremely hungry and can constantly eat as they have a short lifecycle before they turn into moths.
Now look at the extremely tiny brown grub , that brown grub is either an Armyworm or Cutworm they are very similar so it’s hard to tell , looks like it only hatched recently and look at the damage it’s done. Look at the big holes on the leaves AND look at the window panes - this is where the larvae eats out the chlorophyll and leaves like a clear window pane.
The sooner you can identify the problem and you can see them , then you can start treating it.
I just pull them off and feed to the Chooks, you can feed them to the birds and you can spray them with Dipel, which is a safe insecticide to use as it’s a bacteria that attacks the grub / caterpillar.
I hope this information is helpful for you 😊🥾🪲
There's nothing worse than having green loopers move in over a few days and start devastating a crop @mich1972. I actually don't even mind if they have a munch on a few leaves, but I've lost hundreds of tomatoes to them over the last couple of years. They bury into the flesh and spoil the whole tomato. This year I resorted to bagging the fruit, preventing their access to it which allowed me to get a small crop.
Yates Nature's Way Dipel is a wonderful product. Firstly I love it as it doesn't affect beneficial insects like bees and ladybirds and secondarily because it is very effective. I've constantly recommended it ever since I had a customer come back to let me know that they had applied it the previous night, and in the morning, there were hundreds of green looper caterpillars dead on the ground.
Many thanks for sharing your method of dealing will these garden pests.
Mitchell
