My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs, diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

Tom, any particular genera that this beast likes best?

Diana

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

Field mice?

K Barrett

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabrotica

K
"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
Field mice?

K Barrett

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I found a 2" grasshopper devouring the buds on my white den 2 days ago. It
did a lot of damage.


Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

Tom, Just a thought, have you checked the plants at night? Some of these
guys come out & do the
damage after dark.
Cheers Wendy
"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

Those grasshoppers - luber grasshoppers love Dends! I forget where you are.
We do see them in FL. Big suckers.

Diana

"Manelli Family" wrote in message
...

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I found a 2" grasshopper devouring the buds on my white den 2 days ago.
It did a lot of damage.


Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:33:10 -0700, Diana Kulaga wrote
(in article ):

Those grasshoppers - luber grasshoppers love Dends! I forget where you are.
We do see them in FL. Big suckers.

Diana

"Manelli Family" wrote in message
...

"tbell" wrote in message
.com...
My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I found a 2" grasshopper devouring the buds on my white den 2 days ago.
It did a lot of damage.

Thanks, all. Whatever it is seems to prefer large, Catt type buds, and
has eaten holes in the leaves of a frangipani I keep in the GH. Mole crickets
do very much the same as grasshoppers, but they're both large enough I should
be able to see them. Around here (inland No. CA), we have rats from the
canal, but no field mice, Kath!

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200

tbell wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:33:10 -0700, Diana Kulaga wrote
(in article ):


Those grasshoppers - luber grasshoppers love Dends! I forget where you are.
We do see them in FL. Big suckers.

Diana

"Manelli Family" wrote in message
...

"tbell" wrote in message
ews.com...

My GH has been invaded by something that's very fond of chewing on buds
and
rarely on leaves. Careful search has turned up no snails, slugs,
diabrotica
or mole crickets, which do a similar number on my roses. Cyhalothrin
appears
not to discourage the critter.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I found a 2" grasshopper devouring the buds on my white den 2 days ago.
It did a lot of damage.


Thanks, all. Whatever it is seems to prefer large, Catt type buds, and
has eaten holes in the leaves of a frangipani I keep in the GH. Mole crickets
do very much the same as grasshoppers, but they're both large enough I should
be able to see them. Around here (inland No. CA), we have rats from the
canal, but no field mice, Kath!

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D200


My friends have mice/rats eating their buds, spikes and inflorescnces...
so it was a thought. There's a great story of Fordyce stabbing the rat
that ate his only remaining piece of Argh 'Neon Light' FCC/AOS was the
clonal name..... anyway he hunted teh rat down stabbed it with a knife
on a spike then searched the entrails for a viable eye.... to no avail.
The gereral opinion is that judges are reincarnated as rats or slugs
when they die since these vermin eat only the desireable plants.

K

I second Wendy's suggestion. Last fall, my Phal leaves and flowers had
large chunks eaten out of the edges - nothing in the centers. I knew it
wasn't slugs (reincarnated judges) because they didn't always pick on the
best plants. After dark I went hunting and found little (3/8" or so)
weevils. The only method of control seemed to be - catch them in the act
after dark, be sure to put something under them as they like to drop off and
play dead, catch and put them on a hard surface and mash them! No pesticide
I tried had any effect on them.

David

"Wendy7" wrote in message
...
Tom, Just a thought, have you checked the plants at night? Some of these
guys come out & do the
damage after dark.
Cheers Wendy

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Those grasshoppers - luber grasshoppers love Dends! I forget where you
are. We do see them in FL. Big suckers.


I am in middle TN where the drought is severe. We just had 3 weeks of 99 to
106 F temps. If I see another one on my plants I will bring them back
indoors. One of the Phal's nice new leaves has a quarter size hole chewed
in it. This insect chewed right through the Den' flower stalk, leaving the
flowers and buds laying there on the floor. I could have cried.

"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
My friends have mice/rats eating their buds, spikes and inflorescnces...
so it was a thought. There's a great story of Fordyce stabbing the rat
that ate his only remaining piece of Argh 'Neon Light' FCC/AOS was the
clonal name..... anyway he hunted teh rat down stabbed it with a knife on
a spike then searched the entrails for a viable eye.... to no avail. The
gereral opinion is that judges are reincarnated as rats or slugs when
they die since these vermin eat only the desireable plants.

The snakes here keep the field mice under control but I plan to use
mouse-rat baits in the GH this winter. We don't have rats this far from
town.

I am in middle TN where the drought is severe. We just had 3 weeks of 99
to 106 F temps. If I see another one on my plants I will bring them back
indoors. One of the Phal's nice new leaves has a quarter size hole chewed
in it. This insect chewed right through the Den' flower stalk, leaving
the flowers and buds laying there on the floor. I could have cried.

I spelled the name of the critter incorrectly: it's *Lubber*. I have heard
people here in FL talk about hitting them with boards to kill the beasts.
When I have seen them it's generally one, not many.

Here's a link:

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/orn/lubber.htm

Diana

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...

Here's a link:

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/orn/lubber.htm


Nope. The one I caught eating the orchid was about 2' long and all bright
spring green. The lubber isn't shown to be in TN.

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:29:57 -0500, "Manelli Family"
wrote:

This insect chewed right through the Den' flower stalk, leaving the
flowers and buds laying there on the floor. I could have cried.

Are you sure you do not have a rabbit with a fondness for flower
stalks? Rabbits are noted for cutting off the stem and letting it
fall.

On the other hand - when we got grasshoppers they came in as tiny fry
and would eat the leather leaf of a full sized catt with out blinking.
By that time they were big enough for Diana's descriptions. But I
never saw them until they were as big as my thumb, only the damage.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/main.php