Question
I have a new meyer lemon brought home in the past year. The leaves have recovered from initial yellowing, but are now being chewed on by something. I haven't seen the culprits, but a couple of leaves have been chewed almost in half. What would be a good approach for thwarting the unidentified culprits? (This is in the Excelsior area of San Francisco)
Laura
San Francisco
Answer
The main culprits are usually either caterpillars or slugs and snails (and sometimes earwigs). With slugs or snails you will generally see holes forming in the middle of the leaves. Plus there is usually a slimy trail left behind on the leaves too. All of our Sloat locations carry slug and snail controls that would help if this is the case.
Caterpillars will eat the leaves from the outside in. The outer edges of the leaves look like they have bite marks on them. They can certainly eat a fair amount of leaves on a citrus tree. If this is what is happening, there is really only one active ingredient that works against caterpillars, called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). You can also find this at any of our stores, made by Safer Brand.
Earwigs can do damage similar to that of caterpillars, but caterpillars are the more frequent attacker. If you find that the caterpillar killer is not solving your problem, then our Greenlight Slug and Snail bait also works on earwigs and could potentially handle multiple problems for you at the same time.
Additionally, spying on your tree late at night with a flashlight might help you discover what it is that is feeding of your plant.
I hope this helps. As always feel free to visit any of our garden centers for more expert advice.
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