Wasps Problems and Control

Notes

May all your winds be zephyrs and all your gales be miss spelt girls

Sources Tetranychus urticae Female of the red form of the spider mite Scale : mite body length ~0.5 mm Creative commons by Gilles San Martin, on Flickr Chuck Crandall ‘Whats wrong with my plant?’

There are a lot of things to go wrong with plants in the greenhouse but a red spider mite infestation is one of the most frustrating. This tomato plant in India has had its day.

Earwigs look worse than the bites they take out of plants. Some years there may be large infestations.

Courgettes

New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw, Ross Bayton and illustrated by Hazel Wilks. Amazon

Woodlice are generally seen as scavengers who eat rotting matter, they are not thought of as harmful to the garden. However, they do chew leaves and stems of tomatoes and cucumber in the greenhouse. They are not true insects but a species of crustacean.

Ornamental Japanese Maples are widely available for planting in your garden. The autumn colouring makes these trees spectacular when planted en mass in a woodland or Japanese garden setting.

Hellebore sap can cause irritation to skin or an allergic reaction. No part of the plant should be eaten. Hellebores flower in winter or early spring from buds formed during the previous summer. They may benefit from some watering during a dry summer to encourage more buds.

Ants can be an unsightly nuisance and inspire concern. However they do not directly damage plants but are more a sign that you have another pest problem.

I originally wrote this last year but now in April I have checked my Chrysanthemum plants in the cold greenhouse and find I am infested! So it must be worth a rerun. Evil weevil grubs eat roots and tubers of your favourite plants. My tuberous begonias were attacked and destroyed by these pesky pests. It is the white grubs that cause the damage as they eat roots and tubers throughout vine weevil puberty to become small black beetles. The beetles will nibble the edges of leaves but it is the laying of eggs that ultimately cause the problem. The eggs become grubs and your Cyclamen, Primula and Camellias become grub for weevils. Pot grown plants are most susceptible to attack but this pest also affects other plants such as Fuchsias, Gloxinia and Strawberries.