Tortrix Moth

[shelagh]

Well we had snow again today and the temperature has hardly risen above 4C for the past 6 weeks but the Tortrix moth has not been discouraged or deaded because Brian has found 2 of the little bright green and very active caterpillars busy at work glueing together Soldanella leaves.  Does anyone suffer from this pest?  Over the past 5 or so years we have been plagued by it.  We have tried Pheromone (not sure of spelling) traps which caught the odd bee and butterfly but to my knowledge were completely ignored by TM.  They do an awful lot of damage to our Show plants and because we have so many pots its hard to find all the little critters.  If anyone has any ideas we'd be grateful.

[mark smyth]

Cant say I've seen them in my garden
http://www.gardensafari.net/pics/nachtvlinders/micro/bladrollers/archips_podana_hs5_0966.jpg

[Maggi Young]

This is something which has come up in the BBC radio Scotland garden phone-in, Shelagh.......it seems that the Pheromone traps do not work very well in orchards, either... advised  against the pests is either Thiacloprid ( most readily found in Provado ) or Bifenthrin, but I think the latter is now withdrawn..... I find it very hard to keep track of the available chemicals....

[Eric Locke]

Shelagh, I sympathise with your problem. I had a bad problem with them for a couple of years amongst my Pleione collection where they caused much damage . I found the only way to keep the numbers down was to kill them by hand which took up a lot of time everyday. By this stage they had already done damage not only by glueing the leaves together but eating large holes too. Luckily I have not seen them now for several years.
Good luck and I would be most interested to hear if a solution is found.

Eric

[ranunculus]

A good dusting of green or yellow sulphur in late autumn MAY prove a deterrent?

[Mike Ireland]

I noticed many damaged and glued leaves today on a Lapageria in the greenhouse, pulling the glued leaves apart I found small green caterpillars, Tortrix moth I think.  Amazed such a small caterpillar could do so much damage.

Mike

[Tony Willis]

Shelagh

I suffer very much with them most of the year. They are terrible on bomarea but appear on many different plants.
My only control is to crush the leaves together if I see any signs.
As we are not far apart maybe we live in an area which they find amenable.

[Michael J Campbell]

Malathion will take care of the caterpillars,a couple of applications 3 weeks apart.

[Gerry Webster]

I get small attacks every year on crocus leaves. Any systemic insecticide seems to dispose of them.

[shelagh]

Thanks for all these suggestions. Now I will have to check if Malathion is still allowed for ordinary gardeners.  We have tried spraying a systemic insecticide before but the little b*******s are often so deep within their 'nests' that it didn't seem to have much effect.

Does anyone know what these pests look like?  My two garden pest books don't even mention them.

[mark smyth]

Just now I found a small caterpillar inside a wrapped flower of Godfrey Owen

[shelagh]

They are obviously spreading via the net Mark

[Anthony Darby]

Crumbs. These caterpillars living in a world wide web!

[Darren]

Shelagh,

My experience echos Eric's. We were plagued with them especially in the greenhouse for the first two years after we moved to our new garden but rarely see one now. Perhaps we have inadvertently made changes to our gadren which don't suit them?

I can live with them on things with deciduous leaves that get replaced each year, provided they don't weaken the plant. However, the amount of damage they can do if they get inside a succulent such as lithops (they can get right down the gap between the leaves and hollow the body out without any obvious evidence they are there) has to be seen to be believed... They loved Lewisia tweedyi too.

Squashing them was the only reliable control really.

[shelagh]

I know Darren I think my signature tune is "ONE FINGER ONE THUMB KEEP MOVING".