Pest ID? Have what looks like large 'nibbles' taken out of my leaves, cannot find a pest...

[M. Frary]

Foemina bugs.

 

[TN_Jim]

It is my understanding that slugs love beer, and if you bury a nearly empty can of beer (cheers!) up the rim of the can..you will end up with a can full of slugs.

 

[JudyB]

copper bands will also stop them, slugs that is...

 

[Bonsai Nut]

It is my understanding that slugs love beer, and if you bury a nearly empty can of beer (cheers!) up the rim of the can..you will end up with a can full of slugs.

I don't know about slugs, but you might catch me with that tactic...

Or you could just drink enough beer... and then you won't care about slug damage on your trees

 

[Dorky_gearhead]

I know I've asked this before but cannot remember if there's a 'standard' approach for it, but what can/should I do to the wooden-legs of my bonsai benches to prevent insects traversing it from the ground? Would be nice to at least limit it to flying bugs and get rid of a good amount of potential pests, I mean I'm very happy I was convinced (by this board!) to get all my specimen off-ground and on-benches, but I've yet to do anything that'd dissuade bugs from just climbing-up the legs of the benches, really want to do something here! Honestly I'm about to just grab vaseline and put a 1/2" band around the top of each leg so no bug can walk-across!!

Bowls of water

 

[rockm]

Great thank you!!! I've yet to have issue with slugs, but about a week / week+1/2 ago I did find a small slug (wasn't on a bench though, all these trees are on benches), have also found a good amount of snails but again not on the benches..

What should I do besides search&destroy? Are there traps I should set or anything? Would using one of my systemics like 3-in-1 or Daconil do anything to dissuade them? For the past couple days I've just been keeping them barely-moist-enough to not wilt too-hard, trying to reduce the appeal of the leaves while I figure this out.. (and just to be clear, all of the affected specimen are on benches, in fact many of them are on a bench that doesn't have a real 'table top' it's just got a metal-wire shelf...will go searching and see if I can find any! How big a slug would you be expecting to find? Surely not the large type!)

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Scorpio...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CObAmfO659cCFc3IwAodd3YLLw

 

[SU2]

Nothing. Bugs arent bad. There are good ones, and bad ones, and ones that do nothing. Learn your garden.

You'll have to explain this to me, it goes against everything I've read... My understanding was that I should get my trees onto benches explicitly to get them off the ground ie away from ground-dwelling pests, why on earth would I want to allow them access to my benches? What bugs would I be desiring/expecting any practical benefit from in the context of letting them climb the benches into the trees? The only bugs I've seen doing it are ants, and the aphids they bring along to farm :/

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Scorpion-Master-Barrier-Tape-900229/203772116?cm_mmc=Shopping|VF|G|0|G-VF-PLA|&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi8mV7rrn1wIVi6J-Ch0fRgfmEAQYASABEgIeMfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CObAmfO659cCFc3IwAodd3YLLw

Awesome!!! Thanks


It's gotta be grasshoppers eating them, just this morning I went out and saw they're really fond of the specimen from post#1 in this thread, here it is today:


Thankfully, and god knows why, they seem to know which specimen I like most- nearly all the damage is on the specimen I like least, and my favorites are virtually un-touched!

 

[Pachycaul]

Well, at least you have something to feed them, other than your good stuff!

 

[Lazylightningny]

It could be some sort of nocturnal caterpillar. I have that problem with certain plants in the summerThey just love my yellow birch. Spray it with BT and your problem should go away.

 

[rockm]

I'd vote for some kind of caterpillar. They can be very difficult to spot sometimes and some, as noted, operate in limited time windows, like late afternoon, early morning. Look VERY carefully along lead stems and branching. If your eye "catches" something that looks unusual, poke at it. Sometimes I've discovered caterpillars only out of the corner of my eye, even though I had been looking directly at it...

 

[Saumya]

Hi how do I write a new post

 

[SU2]

I'd vote for some kind of caterpillar. They can be very difficult to spot sometimes and some, as noted, operate in limited time windows, like late afternoon, early morning. Look VERY carefully along lead stems and branching. If your eye "catches" something that looks unusual, poke at it. Sometimes I've discovered caterpillars only out of the corner of my eye, even though I had been looking directly at it...

I've had the sensation I *just* saw something in a canopy like 5+ times this week, I try to focus my eye and see nothing and presume it was the wind playing games w/ shadows in the canopy, I wonder if I haven't seen the culprit! The damages have slowed so it's either less in #'s or has found something else to munch on thank god! It's too late in the year to lose much foliage, can't replace it in a day like during summer!!