My Garden

leaves damaged on bay, olive etc.

Last post 12-08-2009 9:48 AM by Pesty. 2 replies.

• 12/08/2009 08:59 AM

  pthompson Location: NI Joined on: 11 Aug 2009 Posts: 1

  Reply | Contact Some sort of pest has been spreading around my garden, affecting bay trees, holly, camellia and olive. The ends of new leaves have turned black and curled over, and inside the curl is a white powder. Then other leaves have been sort of stuck together, and when they are pulled apart there is white silky stuff and a green caterpillar, which can be up to about 1.5cm long and quite thin. We've also found what looks like the pupae stage: a brown shiny cylinder about a cm long. I was wondering if anyone knows what this may be, and what can be used to treat it? Thanks.

• 12/08/2009 09:21 AM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact  It sounds like moths pthompson, I had similar happen last year with them in lilies and was advised that it was the tortrix moth.  To control them, I didn't treat with anything and just picked them off. I'm getting similar with a different kind of moth with my sprout and calabrese plants and I'm putting the caterpillars in the many spider's webs around the garden and it's fascinating to watch the spiders wrapping them up with silk and taking them to the edge of the web. sue1002

• 12/08/2009 09:48 AM

  In reply to

  Pesty Location: Joined on: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 94

  Reply | Contact Curled leaves with white powdery stuff in them on Bay = bay sucker, only affects the bay – see http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0500/sucker.asp   The caterpillar/brown pupa = as sue said is probably one of the tortrix moths. Difficult to control due to them being curled up in the leaves. Squashing them is probably the   Black tips to leaves is something else – possibly cultural or disease   'Trying is the first step to failure' H.J.Simpson