Insect and Disease Identification Thread

Bt is Bacillus thuringiensis.Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for Pest Control | Planet Natural
Neem works,but I’d try something milder first,like the dish soap/oil thing. Brady

The hatchlings were some sort of very tiny worm. I couldn’t get a decent picture. I picked the leaf off yesterday.

haldog: In that case they were moth eggs. Bug (including stinkbug) eggs hatch into nymphs, or tiny versions of the adult insect.

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Thanks for the information. Do you think I should of left them, or does that depend on the moth species?

Moth eggs laid on tree leaves will result in foliage being chewed up. For a young or small tree the damage would be significant and I would remove the eggs or caterpillars. There are not many beneficial moth species, especially when fruit trees are the host plant.

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I always leave aphids alone in my relatively dry climate. Ladybugs, lacewings and other natural predators need some incentive to stay in my garden!

First time poster here… just been drinking in the knowledge on the site the last few months. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience. I found these little guys on my Bartlet Pear leaves this evening. I’m in southern Oregon. Any ideas on identification and control would be helpful. Thank you!

I can’t help you on the exact identification but certainly looks like something I’d spray with BT. I’ll let the experts chime in on identification or more appropriate control methods.

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Likely a moth caterpillar as it is not eating leaf edges like sawfly larvae, and it does not look like the pear tree slug.

If it moves in an arching fashion or rears up when disturbed, it could be a geometrid moth larva (inchworm), otherwise it is in a different moth family.

Bt would be effective in this case.

Thanks for the thorough response! They do seem to rear up when I grab them so that fits with your diagnosis. I think that I will go ahead and spray the BT as you and @speedster1 suggested as they seem to be pretty widespread on this tree with about half of the leaves effected. Interestingly, I’m not seeing any at all on any of the peach, plum and apple trees that are near by. Thanks again!

Those creatures are very particular about what they would it. Last year I covered my sour cherry tree against birds and bugs after bloom, and was very surprised when a month latter I saw my cherries dropping to the ground , because their stem was broken. I didn’t see any bugs inside, but I do not see very well. So my son came to the rescue and found few grown up Gypsy moth caterpillars. Apparently, I trapped them in the netting when they were small, and looks like “poor creatures” didn’t like sour cherry leaves. Only eatable part they found was cherry stems… Go figure! :stuck_out_tongue: This year BT goes before netting.

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See these odd lines that run from top to bottom on my satsuma plums. Is this disease or insect damage?

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? Spray injury ?

? Western Flower Thrips?

I see some striations that are typical of many fruits. If you are referring to the pitted areas, those remind me of slug excavations more commonly found on strawberries and other low fruit.

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I spotted this bad guy today on my suncrisp. I believe it’s a spotted cucumber beetle. I’m not sure how bad it is for fruit trees but it’s terrible for cucumbers, which I’m not even growing.

? Birds ?

Please help me ID the issue with my pear leaves. Yesterday they looked perfectly heathy. Then I sprayed sulfur last night. This afternoon leaves turned blackish or black spots. I’m almost positive it has to do with my sulphur spray. It can’t be fire blight right? Can it hit overnight? I sprayed Asian pear it doesn’t look as bad. I’m thinking the plant I sprayed last got this because I didn’t stir the sprayer often enough and it was pretty concentrated stuff towards the bottom of the sprayer even though I started out with correct ratios.
Any comments?

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I have some just like that. I haven’t sprayed sulfur. I’m thinking it’s fireblight? I think Indar works on that?

I sure hope you are wrong. Did it pretty much appear overnight?