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triumphman
- Newly Registered
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 1:40 pm
- Location: Northeastern USA
weird egg cases on my grape leaf !
I recently discovered a weird looking colony of egg cases on one of my grape leaves! They look like candycorn colored little rockets or cones. I have pictures if I can upload them it would really help. Are they beneficial or harful? I don't want to kill good bugs!
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
triumphman I think you may have a leaf gall, from mites. They are insects that inject a hormone which cause bumbs, long threads or rectangle shapes on the leaves. In these shapes they lay their eggs and thus the cycle begins. Hackberry trees are seem to always have these.
They don't cause damange that will effect the plant/tree health. Although leaves may fall early but will recover and quickly set new leaves.
No treatment is required, but if desired one may use a horticultural oil spray in spring. Or cut off the unsightly infected area and toss in garbage. You may want to visit your local extension office in your area for more information, there are different control sprays for different type of egg laying mites.
Here is Maple blader Gal that I had some years back as an example of showing
[img]https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b396/shadylane5acres/gallonmaple1.jpg[/img]
They don't cause damange that will effect the plant/tree health. Although leaves may fall early but will recover and quickly set new leaves.
No treatment is required, but if desired one may use a horticultural oil spray in spring. Or cut off the unsightly infected area and toss in garbage. You may want to visit your local extension office in your area for more information, there are different control sprays for different type of egg laying mites.
Here is Maple blader Gal that I had some years back as an example of showing
[img]https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b396/shadylane5acres/gallonmaple1.jpg[/img]
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Since shadylane gave us the clue, I looked it up. Do your "egg cases" look like this:
[img]https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HPvvbQ0xY4w/Tg0NCKLq3fI/AAAAAAAABGE/nCQjU4u987s/s1600/DSC_0586.JPG[/img]
It is a leaf gall, caused by grape phylloxera, an aphid like insect. It does cause the leaf to create that swelling and lives inside it for part of it's life cycle.
I have a huge old hackberry which gets covered in hackberry leaf galls every year. It doesn't seem to do the tree any harm.
The grape phylloxera is said not to harm the grape plant as long as the galls are only on the leaves and the infestation is not too severe. In really severe cases the leaves can get malformed and have less chlorophyll and leaf surface. But apparently sometimes they also infest the roots and then they do damage.
So if this is your critter, I would check the roots of your plants for nodules, be sure it isn't attacking the roots.
[img]https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HPvvbQ0xY4w/Tg0NCKLq3fI/AAAAAAAABGE/nCQjU4u987s/s1600/DSC_0586.JPG[/img]
It is a leaf gall, caused by grape phylloxera, an aphid like insect. It does cause the leaf to create that swelling and lives inside it for part of it's life cycle.
I have a huge old hackberry which gets covered in hackberry leaf galls every year. It doesn't seem to do the tree any harm.
The grape phylloxera is said not to harm the grape plant as long as the galls are only on the leaves and the infestation is not too severe. In really severe cases the leaves can get malformed and have less chlorophyll and leaf surface. But apparently sometimes they also infest the roots and then they do damage.
So if this is your critter, I would check the roots of your plants for nodules, be sure it isn't attacking the roots.
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