EDIT: Not ants… Damage caused by peduncle borer
@Blake i found out that small ants have been destroying a lot of my pawpaw flowers.
Im in Florence Ky and had plenty of flowers but not many fruit.
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Yes, there were a lot of blossoms that were damaged by the late frost that we experienced.
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my wee saplings/seedlings have changed color and dropped most leaves. frost tonight.
a surprise germinated seed popped up in August and got about 6" tall to now. hoping they all make it through the bitter winter here.
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Steven,
You picked your Wabash 8 days ago. Mine are still not ripen yet. Mine are in 90% shade. I tried a smell taste. I have not smell any fragrance.
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Interesting. Are you 100% sure of that? What did you notice? They usually help pollinate and spread pollen, not sure why they would want to destroy them
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Don’t think so, maybe in 2025. I think KSU wants to test them a bit longer than in the past, which is a good idea.
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I cant say for sure its the ants but i would always find them in the damaged flowers. The damage was always chunks chewed out of the flowers at different stages of bloom. Here are marks on a photo to show where i would find 1/4 to 1/2 of the flower missing. Always the side of the flower.
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Just a very limited number in Somerset. But perhaps a half crop in Berea KY in the current season. Found some on my sister’s property on Sunday…had no idea…but the foliage got my attention…nice lemony colors. (Fruit long gone, if any.)
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Oddly, it was only that one cluster that was ripe, the rest of mine aren’t yet.
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I’ve also seen that type of damage with the sides of the flowers eaten into. I’m not sure about ants. I haven’t seen what does it either, but my best guess would be slugs. They cause more holes in my pawpaw leaves than anything else and I rarely see them since they climb up at night to feed.
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Yes, I have much less pawpaw fruit than last year due to the late spring frosts. The new leaf growth was destroyed as well. A small amount of dormant buds did bloom on some of the trees, but they took a long time to bloom. That set back my first ripe fruits by over a month compared to last year. There are still several clusters that haven’t started ripening yet. Thankfully we are getting a nice warm spell this week that should allow more to ripen. Shenandoah, Chappell, and Overleese ripened all or most of their fruits already. I should be able to pick my first fruits from Mango soon, as 1 cluster is starting to soften. Allegheny hasn’t even started ripening any yet and it was the first to ripen last year.
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Wow Tony, this does seem very late for our area. Strange year for pawpaws…
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@Preston
@TJ_westPA
.
I would bet that the damage on your flowers is caused by…
The pawpaw peduncle bore .
I have them here.
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@Hillbillyhort You are right. I looked up Pawpaw peduncle borer damage and that is exactly my issue.
I probably i owe the ants an apology.
Any ways to prevent the borers?
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I had earwigs doing this to mine. They emerge at night to eat the flower buds and new leaves. I only found them when I went out at night with a flashlight by chance.
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Yes , I would definitely apologize to the ants.
I would not want ants holding a grudge!
Dont know about control of the bores
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Ah, l forgot about peduncle borers. I don’t think that’s my issue though. I just have petals being eaten a bit and sometimes the anthers are chomped a bit too, nothing boring in. I’m pretty far from any pawpaw wild trees, so that would be unlikely. Earwigs are a good suggestion for me though. I definitely see a lot of those around my pawpaws and other trees. It isn’t a big issue for me since not too many flowers have that happen. I would be more concerned about the peduncle borers though.
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I do have a ton of earwigs in my yard. Ill definitely check the flowers at night next spring and try to spray or trap the earwigs in the meantime.
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I have this phenomenon too and have never really figured out what was causing it.
Thankfully for me too it’s usually a small percentage of flowers
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