I found gigantic white grubs in my soil around only my apricot and peach tree. They turn out to be cetonia aurata. I think thats right. They are rose chafers. A large green beetle that looks metallic. They are big, white, fat and ugly. I left then on them on the top of my wall squirming. Hoping birds will get them.
Is my pear Keiffer Pear tree diseased, or is all of the fruit dropping because of cold damage?
The tree was loaded with flowers, and is self pollinating. Until recently, it looked as it would have a large harvest. However, the past several days all of the fruits are turning black and falling off. My area has experienced continual up and down temperature swings over the past month (at least one week worth of random 60s-80s during the day, with low 30s at night ).The bark appears to have a light gray speckle on it. I do not know if this has always been there or not. Some of the leaves are turning black also.
If it is cool and wet, it could be blossom blast (different from blossom blight).
Check out these odd round things doing in my aphids:
I think they are parisitoids?? I.e. the white things are bloated aphids filled with parasites. I haven’t seen this before. It is pretty clear they are doing in the aphids, you can see where there are missing swaths of aphids where these guys are.
Here is the more normal aphid predator, lots of them fortunately:
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I gotta say, the larvae stage of lady bugs don’t look anywhere like the full grown ladiy bugs.
How do those parasitoids show up? Is this the first year you notice them?
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I don’t know … it is the first time I have seen them. So they were either non-existent or minimal in number the last few years. I am looking at the aphids a lot as they usually need some sprays or they get totally out of control.
I am going to hold off spraying for a bit this year in the hope that my large ladybug population plus these parasitoids (?) will breed like crazy.
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It is frequently cool and wet. It does sound like blossom blast. It appears most of my fruit trees ( plums, peaches, nectarines, pears ( apples seem not impacted ) have dropped the majority, if not all, of their post blossom. Though, only the pear is black like this. One of the plums ( unknown Asian variety ) usually holds a lot of baby fruits for a month or so before dropping them all… but this year so many have fallen just a couple weeks after the petals fell prematurely from the first cold.
You need to plan to spray fungicide. If you area will be cool and wet in the spring, you will get it again.
I am wishy-washy between should I spray synthetics or not. I saw some lady bugs today and hate to kill them. I hate PC more.
I sprayed copper solution on all the trees prior to them blooming, but not after during or after. There is a 30+ ft tall ornamental pear next to this pear tree, and essentially in the middle of the yard. It has dropped all of its fruit ( not edible ) also. It sounds like this tree, if infected, will continue to spread this to other trees each season as it is too tall to spray.
Hey , those fuzzy balls eating your aphids are likely
Lacewing larvae
WithA debris ball on their back as camouflage good Eye. !
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Glad I missed that!
Lots of good guys doing good there, it’s real hard to get sightings or photos of the ladybug larvae in the third photo but they are usually there.
Hmm, that could be. They look like they are fixed though, the four on that leaf. I’ll try to get a better picture.
Well it’s hard to see in the pic.
And on second thought , 4 lace wing larva Might not be hanging out together, because they eat each other too.
Anyhow lace wing larva can look similar , a little dust ball eating aphids
Lacewing nymphs are mobile; a nudge from a toothpick would be telling, if temperature is warm enough.
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Pictures of blossom blast / brown rot? Ironically, this is the first year that I sprayed the trees ( copper solution ), and also the first year I that actively pruned them ( Pruned during late winter ). I only sprayed prior to blooms.
Unknown plum variety. During, and post bloom. The blooms only lasted about 1 week before being struck down by significant drops in temperature.
I noticed this white fungus on a flowering crab apple adjacent to the plum tree. It appears the plum tree has it now also - You can see it on the dead fruit stems.
Can someone help identify what is wrong with these apples? I had a few apples on one tree that this happened to a few years back. I had forgotten about them until I saw this picture posted on another site. I thought I had looked it up but I cannot remember what it said it was.
What is going on here? This is an espalier apple (mollie’s delicious) in it’s first year in my yard (probably a 2 year old tree) in Zone 8a. Planted bareroot. I was growing it for three branches, and this orange stuff already killed two of the branches. I nipped each one off as I noticed the disease, but that hasn’t stopped it from spreading to now the last branch!
If I replace the tree can I use the same variety? Or will the disease likely ruin the planting spot?
Thanks!
Found these tiny beetles on my 3 year old cherry tree. The ants led me to them. The leafs they were cuddling in all turned in to the perfect tent. Can you please give my visitors a name so I will know how to make them feel more unwelcome next time? I just removed the infested leaves I found their tents in. Thank you! .
