ALL of my ficus are doing this? Curled with spots.

Tommykeolle

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So all of my ficus are doing this. I stay on top of my pest maintenance. I use a systemic as well as sprays fairly regularly. Is this over watering and I've just never experienced it? It is raining a lot here lately (tampa area) and I do withhold watering based on weather. I've seen some other posts showing something similar where the cause was believed to be spores of some sort. There are a couple branches of a large oak tree overhanging the general area above my bench...

Any ideas?
 

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SWfloirda

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I am very jealous of the rain you guys are getting. Almost none here since Elsa blew through. There's actually been plenty of rain in the area but it just seems to skip my neighborhood.

That looks like thrip to me. If you take one of those leaves off and open it you should be able to see tiny worm like creatures squirming around. I usually get them in varieties of benjamina but not microcarpa. That looks like microcarpa but you never know. Different area, different conditions. Good thing is your tree is still healthy.

The bayer 3 in 1 for roses has always worked for me, I also remove and bag infected leaves as I see them.
 

Starfox

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For sure thrips, just remove the effected leaves and bin them. Make sure you do it for a few weeks and they'll stop eventually and the tree will thank you for a partial defoliation as well.
 

Snorlax99

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I get this on my Microcarpa as well and I've never known what it is, thanks for the ID! I just remove the affected leaves and it seems to work.
 

Firstflush

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I have 2 yard ficus trees. 100% ficus thrips as others have said.
The sucking insects, thrips, cause the leaves to taco so it is hard to get spray on them.
Systemics work but take a while. If you catch new cases earlier, you can open the leaves and scrape the thrips out before they do the damage.
 

Tommykeolle

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Thrips it is. Awesome. Well it looks like the Bayer isn't quite working for them. Best course of action then is to remove/contain all effected foliage and keep an eye out for more? Then just remove immediately as I see them?
 

Firstflush

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Imagine a 20x30 yard tree….not a dang thing you can do.
I used a systemic late winter and the yearly infestation is not a problem this year.
I used a whole large Bayer jug by the directions in 2 applications….hahahahah!
 

Firstflush

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If you can get them off prior to the leaf completely folding into a taco, it will recover and not need to be removed.
 

Tommykeolle

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They're all healthy otherwise so even if I have to remove a lot of leaves I don't think they'll notice. I appreciate the help guys! Google wasn't leading me to this so when I get back home I will do some removal.
 
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