Friday, February 8, 2013

My Apologies to the Slugs

I must make a formal apology to all slugs in my garden project here in Barbados. As you will see the damage I suspected from slugs was indeed after closer inspection a much more damaging creature.
All of the Cannas had alot of leaf damage
But after closer inspection the undersides of the leaf (Canna "Tropicana") had pieces folded over???
Strange silk thread bound down the leaf folds.
The culprit revealed !!!! some sort of hungry caterpillar ? not sure....
even more troubling are the microscopic eggs on the leaves...are they from this creature?
The other annoyance is my Weedus horribulus... what they call here nut grass(Cyperus rotundus) its throughout the garden and in the soil deliveries as I've found out ofter watering the garden and plantings. In the first picture on the post of the canna you can see it in all its glory to the left of the canna. Very robust, and the only solution seems to be roundup at full strength with an eye dropper or small paint brush. The 2 nuts are visible in the picture above. Its near impossible and very time consuming to hand dig without breaking the very fragile tether and then leaving the nut to regrow. Trials and tribulations......

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