Help: What Insect is Eating My Plants' Leaves and How to Keep it From Coming Back?

in ecoTrain4 years ago

Hello, good morning! Well, looks like I've been seeing grasshoppers in the last 2 months but our backyard seems like it has another in store for us:

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This "caterpillars" have been pestering our lemon and lime plants. Every time I see one, I would get them with a stick and transfer them on grass or dried leaves or wherever far from the lemon and lime plants. But we can always find another the next day or after a few days. I spray water with oil and dish soap solution but they don't intimidated with it. There are times that we forget to inspect the leaves until we notice that there is already little left from the leaves.

I don't know if they are really caterpillars, where they came from, and how do they get to the plants fast. I wish someone here can help me identify it and give me tips on how to keep it away from our plants.

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You could boil water with lemon, orange, any citrus peels and spray a diluted mixture of that on your plants. That will definitely intimidate them.

Okay, I'll try that. Thank you!

Garlic, peppermint, and hot pepper is another combination of scents to deter pests. Sometimes I rub some crushed mint leaves over the leaves of the plant I want to protect, it lasts about about a day or so. That is enough time to send crawly bugs away to find a new home.

Think you are doing the right thing by picking them off as soon as you find them. Be diligent, and they will stop returning.

Another strategy is to put a flowering container plant nearby. Anything that attracts lots of bees, wasps, and birds, to bait them into attacking the pest. This might help reduce the population while you are busy doing other things.

Wow, thanks for the many suggestions! I've tried garlic before and it somehow works but recently, my mom told me the oil + soap is already enough. And now the pests are back. >.<

 4 years ago  

I think you're doing fine, it's just that the pest won't give up. From what I read in the google, it should be a diluted soap with water. To avoid pests in coming into your plants. But since it's rainy season in the Philippines. You could expect that what you sprayed awhile ago will be washed away and that's why pests are coming back.

d' dreamboy is here,
@mrnightmare89


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Ah, yes the rain! 😣 Do you think it's good to spray on the plants everyday?

 4 years ago  

I don't think that's a good idea since the diluted has also chemical on it. I'm afraid it will harm the plant by doing it everyday but not so sure about it. I'm just being cautious about it.