I bought a crabapple last year when I was in Brisbane with the specific intent of bringing it back to cairns with me. It's an experiment, since everyone says its unsuitable for our climate. Tess at morayfield keeps them. For the moment the goal is to keep it alive in cairns for a year. If I can do that I'll start working on it.
Anyway, it has been doing very well despite the heat and humidity, however it has slowed down in the last few weeks. I've seen a few big black ants on it and today I noticed some bark has been stripped on one branch. Is it rot or is something eating it? There are some mealy bugs I have just spotted too.
I'm happy to say that it is NOT a possum for once. We have ants of all sizes, rainbow metallic stink bugs, regular stink bugs, green metallic armoured christmas beetle things, regular christmas beetles, rhinoceros beetles. Moths everywhere at the moment, perhaps it's a grub?
Something is eating your crabapple bark. Any possibility you might have a rat around? I have seen them inflict that sort of damage before.
Whatever it is has been pretty busy. You might get away with moving it to another spot but I think you'll need to cage it until you've identified and dealt with the culprit.
shibui wrote:Something is eating your crabapple bark. Any possibility you might have a rat around? I have seen them inflict that sort of damage before.
Whatever it is has been pretty busy. You might get away with moving it to another spot but I think you'll need to cage it until you've identified and dealt with the culprit.
Wow, did not know this sort of thing happened. Never experienced it myself but it is pretty shocking to think of something eating bark hey?
Cheers,
Mo
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There are many ways to do things, but only one "best" way.
I'm on a 3rd floor balcony but I have the bbq and a bit of grease spilled a few weeks ago, could be a rat. There's pots stacked upside down so plenty of hiding spots. I'll check it out.
I am pretty sure snails are the culprit.
For two years, my passion fruit tree would grow vigorously early spring then would almost die from all its bark eaten off similar to yours. I would search it for signs of pest and would fine nothing. Then one night, I went out with a torch and found heaps of small snails on it. During the day, they would retreat to crevices and not be seen.
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Dennis A journey full of experiments
shibui wrote:Something is eating your crabapple bark. Any possibility you might have a rat around? I have seen them inflict that sort of damage before.
Whatever it is has been pretty busy. You might get away with moving it to another spot but I think you'll need to cage it until you've identified and dealt with the culprit.
If your positive its not a possum then I'd guess rat also. I have a Chinese elm that almost got ringbarked by a possum last year, and missed out on picking up a few others from a nursery that suffered the same fate and didn't survive. I know rats can inflict similar damage, I've seen lime trees completely de-barked... it's not rot in any case - something is munching!
I have also had snails eat bark but never to that extent, usually just smaller patches but certainly worth checking for.
Could it be this? Just went to check on it and found this grasshopper on the bougie leaf
Definitely a possibility Beano, especially as you are on a balcony so their usual green grass will be in short supply. Might be just 1 but from the extent of chewing you may have a few on the balcony. I know these guys as 'crickets' but not much difference from grasshopper. They are night active and hide in cracks and under stuff during the day. They 'sing' at night so you would be hearing them outside.
You could use a pesticide but they are big enough to see so search and destroy would be a suitable control method. Look under all your pots, etc or go out at night and hunt.
I don't think I've ever seen a snail outside of a creek in cairns. The cricket got morteined. I thought it was an odd looking grasshopper. I've not seen a cricket that big before either.
Thanks everyone!
When I lived in Sydney, I lost a huon pine, a crabapple, a melaleuca and a few others to this problem. There can be quite a few culprits, and often they are very hard to find unless you think outside the square. One of the culprits is a little bug that likes to chew on the cambium. It has a leathery type sack it lives in, and it looks remarkably like a woodchip, (the sack that it lives inside). It is a little soft, and if you squeeze it hard, generally the little bug inside will burst and its guts will spill out. It is about 1/2 a cm (5mm) big, so it can be very inconspicuous. It usually lives on the soil inside its sack just near the trunk. At night it will attach to the trunk and continue to chew its way around the trunk. Very hard to find if you don't inspect all the dirt. Sometimes they will hang off the edge under the lip of the bonsai container and you will never see them at all unless you look hard. This is the most common trunk muncher I came across. I know they live all throughout Australia and a horticulturist once told me what they were, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name.
If you don't find them in time, yes, they will kill the tree. No spray will be effective, because they have evolved quite well, so that they live inside their protective camoflauged sack, which is quite hard to open, you literally have to tear it open to get the bug, or squish it really hard. But to a bird a lizard, they'd never see it or notice it.
When I first got into bonsai, I only found this out because I inspected the tree that was losing its exterior and noticed that there was a clump of dirt sitting right next to the recently eaten area. I brushed away the dirt, but then suddenly noticed it was slightly moving inside the woodchip. Upon closer inspection I realized, omg, there is something alive inside that woodchip, and voila. They often will just hang onto areas kind of like a wasp has its nest hanging too.
Rory I style Bonsai naturally, just as they would appear in the wild.
Central Coast, NSW
Bonsai: Casuarina Leptospermum Banksia Phebalium Baeckea Melalueca Ficus
