They are going after my persimmon right now.
You made me go look under my pecan trees. None there. Also, looked at a hickory tree about 75 yards behind my house in woods, None there but the squirrels have started to cut the hickory nuts.
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Could be European Hornet- huge insects. They girdled some of my apple grafts and my lilac tree last year.
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It was a twig girdler, one was found and dealt with.
Yes they love persimmon, lost several branches. There is no mistaking their cuts after you have seen one. Burn the limb it likely has eggs in it.
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That’s crazy I never heard of these but the other day the whole top of one of my 5 ft persimmon tree was cut off. I was thinking some kids came by and cut it off because it was such a clean cut. I’ll be sure to burn it tomorrow.
Saw the first hit today in a Rosseyanka tree that’s been re-growing after being killed back to the main trunk by the 2014 Winter Vortex.
Is that what they’re called- twig girdler? Not a European Hornet that does the same thing?
European Hornets are hell on my figs, I can barely get a few ripe ones a day because of them but I never seen them cut a limb before. I know they will strip bark but they cut limbs too?
I found 4 more cut limbs today from 3 persimmons and 1 pecan.
I don’t know how many limbs they can girdle but after finding and killing that one bug I have had no more problems.
We have large mature pecan trees in our yard and they never get hit, I did lose one persimmon limb last year.
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2 more persimmon trees today, I’ve never had this happen before and I can’t find the stupid bug anywhere. I’m burning every limb I find so hopefully next year I won’t have this problem.
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Does anyone have any new experiences with twig girdlers? I lost all limbs off an 8’ tall ‘Kassandra’ persimmon this fall. I’m really only interested in organic control methods. Has anyone tried neem oil on smaller trees? I’m wondering if this might be a deterrent? I know this really isn’t a practical option on larger trees.
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I don’t think neem would help on any beetle. Make sure to pick up every single twig and dispose in the trash, the eggs are in the fallen twigs.
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