What is this eating my plants?

[Brunolem]

On 1/22/2018 at 9:52 AM, drtreelove said:

 

We can take it a step further and learn as much as possible about the plants under our care and their requirement for management. We can also build the soil fertility and manage water, which are the first lines of plant health care and preventive treatment. This is the way to minimize need for chemical or botanical substances in pest and disease management. "High Nutrient Density" soil minerals and biological activity building and balancing is the state of the art.  

Since you are well informed, maybe you can help answering these questions:

 

- what is cutting roughly rectangular pieces in our babana leaves?

 

I know that some ants can cut leaves, but these cuts seem quite big (15 x 30 cm approx) for ants and they appear to be done only during the night since I can't catch any culprit in the daytime...

 

- how to attract bees

 

We have many wasps and hornets...too many for my liking, and few bees, which I would prefer because around here they produce honey, notably in mango trees.

What should we grow that attracts bees rather than their pesky cousins?

 

Your advice is welcome...

[tracker]

Don't know if it is of any use, but i have seen squirrels taking pieces of banana leafs from our trees...

 

[drtreelove]

On 1/25/2018 at 11:58 AM, Brunolem said:

Since you are well informed, maybe you can help answering these questions:

 

- what is cutting roughly rectangular pieces in our babana leaves?

 

I know that some ants can cut leaves, but these cuts seem quite big (15 x 30 cm approx) for ants and they appear to be done only during the night since I can't catch any culprit in the daytime...

 

- how to attract bees

 

We have many wasps and hornets...too many for my liking, and few bees, which I would prefer because around here they produce honey, notably in mango trees.

What should we grow that attracts bees rather than their pesky cousins?

 

Your advice is welcome...

I've grown bananas in every property that we've lived in Thailand, and have some growing now. I just went out and looked, nothing except wind tattered split leaves on some of our plants. I don't remember having that type of leaf damage.  But if not squirrels like Tracker suggested, I suspect Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle. They do that on coconut palms and they are active at night. This is most likely a possibility of you have coconut palms on your property or nearby, and if you have uncovered, un-netted compost piles and/or downed wood and brush debris piles where the larva feed and mature to become adult beetles that fly to the trees. 

 

As far as attracting honey bees, I was going to suggest planting flowering plants and wanted to give you some suggestions, then I found this brilliant comprehensive article online

https://www.wikihow.com/Attract-Honey-Bees

 

And if you have an appropriate property and plantings, especially if you are in a farming area, you can sometimes get a local bee keeper to place a bee hive on your property and maintain it, in exchange for allowing him/her to harvest the honey. My wife asked around a farming village we used to live adjacent to and found someone to do this on our little farm.  It seemed to help our mango and lamyai productivity, and we even got as much honey as we could use. 

[drtreelove]

This is from Hawaii, but confirms banana as possible host plant.  

 

http://plantheroes.org/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle

 

Host Trees: Adult CRBs attack coconut, oil, and date palm trees.  They also attack other species of palms, such as Hawaii’s only native palms, the endangered fan palms, or Loulu.  CRBs also sometimes feed on Pandanus (screwpine) trees, banana trees, sisal, sugarcane, and pineapple.

[Brunolem]

13 hours ago, drtreelove said:

This is from Hawaii, but confirms banana as possible host plant.  

 

http://plantheroes.org/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle

 

Host Trees: Adult CRBs attack coconut, oil, and date palm trees.  They also attack other species of palms, such as Hawaii’s only native palms, the endangered fan palms, or Loulu.  CRBs also sometimes feed on Pandanus (screwpine) trees, banana trees, sisal, sugarcane, and pineapple.

That could well be the explanation, since my banana trees are right next to coconut trees.

Thanks.

[Brunolem]

On 1/29/2018 at 9:09 AM, tracker said:

Don't know if it is of any use, but i have seen squirrels taking pieces of banana leafs from our trees...

 

I wish we had squirrels but unfortunately the population around has killed every living thing bigger than an egg!

They even kill rats and eat them!

I think the coconut beetle explanation provided above may be the right one...

[Brunolem]

14 hours ago, drtreelove said:

 

As far as attracting honey bees, I was going to suggest planting flowering plants and wanted to give you some suggestions, then I found this brilliant comprehensive article online

https://www.wikihow.com/Attract-Honey-Bees

 

And if you have an appropriate property and plantings, especially if you are in a farming area, you can sometimes get a local bee keeper to place a bee hive on your property and maintain it, in exchange for allowing him/her to harvest the honey. My wife asked around a farming village we used to live adjacent to and found someone to do this on our little farm.  It seemed to help our mango and lamyai productivity, and we even got as much honey as we could use. 

It is actually very difficult to grow flowers in our area, with its climate extremes...extreme heat, major storms that uproot trees, torrential rain, drought...

 

Flowers don't survive more than one specific season, depending on what kind of weather they like.

 

As far as I know, there are no wildflowers growing for miles around us.

 

This may explain the lack of bees in our region...

 

Thanks for your input...

[drtreelove]

FYI Attached is a paper on CRB. See the notes on natural enemies, cultural and chemical controls.  But study what damage is actually being done and if they are boring into the terminal buds and stems and killing plants, or if it just superficial damage.  If minimal damage, you may not need to attempt control. If yours is a crop for which you depend on sales then it is more serious for you.  Control will also depend on if the coconut palms and debris is on your own property or an inaccessible neighbor property.

 

If you have no access to the coconut palm areas or possibility for addressing sanitation and netting of debris piles and compost, or introducing biological control agents, then you will be limited to protecting your own plants as best possible. Pyrethroid (cypermethrin) barrier spraying is hard chemistry and not organic program compatible, but relatively low toxicity for mammals. It is not systemic so won't enter the tissues of the plant or fruit. But it will give some residual protection for a month or more against new infestation.It won't get to beetles already feeding inside the plant tissues. Organic botanical insect repellents like neem and aromatic plant based oils, rosemary, clove, can be used, but they don't have more than a couple of weeks residual effectiveness, so require frequent applications. This makes them not as affordable as the cheaper, longer lasting synthetic chemistry. 

coconut_rhinoceros_beetle__oryctes_108.pdf

[Brunolem]

3 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

FYI Attached is a paper on CRB. See the notes on natural enemies, cultural and chemical controls.  But study what damage is actually being done and if they are boring into the terminal buds and stems and killing plants, or if it just superficial damage.  If minimal damage, you may not need to attempt control. If yours is a crop for which you depend on sales then it is more serious for you.  Control will also depend on if the coconut palms and debris is on your own property or an inaccessible neighbor property.

 

If you have no access to the coconut palm areas or possibility for addressing sanitation and netting of debris piles and compost, or introducing biological control agents, then you will be limited to protecting your own plants as best possible. Pyrethroid (cypermethrin) barrier spraying is hard chemistry and not organic program compatible, but relatively low toxicity for mammals. It is not systemic so won't enter the tissues of the plant or fruit. But it will give some residual protection for a month or more against new infestation.It won't get to beetles already feedin

g inside the plant tissues. Organic botanical insect repellents like neem and aromatic plant based oils, rosemary, clove, can be used, but they don't have more than a couple of weeks residual effectiveness, so require frequent applications. This makes them not as affordable as the cheaper, longer lasting synthetic chemistry. 

coconut_rhinoceros_beetle__oryctes_108.pdf

Thanks.

I will first give a closer look at the extent of the damage...

[drtreelove]

2 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

It is actually very difficult to grow flowers in our area, with its climate extremes...extreme heat, major storms that uproot trees, torrential rain, drought...

 

Flowers don't survive more than one specific season, depending on what kind of weather they like.

 

As far as I know, there are no wildflowers growing for miles around us.

 

This may explain the lack of bees in our region...

 

Thanks for your input...

If you are there for the long haul it may be worth it to start property improvements that will improve growing conditions, with soil building, windbreak plantings, irrigation system etc.

 

Or alternative; get air conditioning, cable TV, a good library, and don't fight it. 

[Brunolem]

43 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

If you are there for the long haul it may be worth it to start property improvements that will improve growing conditions, with soil building, windbreak plantings, irrigation system etc.

 

Or alternative; get air conditioning, cable TV, a good library, and don't fight it. 

The long haul...I have been here for almost 19 years...yet not much involved into farming and gardening until the last 3 or 4 years.

 

I do this mostly as a hobby, not at a commercial level...yet with everything I do, I try to learn something in the process.

 

One aircon in the bedroom, for the night, otherwise the heat is suffocating, even these days...no cable TV and the library is mostly via internet, cheaper and much less voluminous...

[tracker]

I'm a bit in permaculture. From what I learned there, diversification is key. The more species you grow (just like nature does) the more chance you have any pests kept in check by natural predators. Water attract birds and dragonflies, which eat insects,etc. Bats are good too. Anyway, lot to learn, and I'm in the process of starting this too.

[drtreelove]

11 hours ago, tracker said:

I'm a bit in permaculture. From what I learned there, diversification is key. The more species you grow (just like nature does) the more chance you have any pests kept in check by natural predators. Water attract birds and dragonflies, which eat insects,etc. Bats are good too. Anyway, lot to learn, and I'm in the process of starting this too.

Good points! Keep it up, there is a lot to learn. That's a big reason that I participate in these forums; every discussion is a learning opportunity. Check out the Farming in Thailand and the Organic subforum if you haven't already.  There are some very experienced growers and knowledgeable people there.