attacked cactus

[amen-ra]

Hey guys. I need some advice. I just got home from work to discover that a bird has attacked my largest buttons that i have had for along time. I am devistated and not quite sure what to do. About half of a 6cm button has been shredded off aswell as small bites on other buttons. Is there anything i can do to help it recover, will it recover at all.

[XipeTotec]

Hey guys. I need some advice. I just got home from work to discover that a bird has attacked my largest buttons that i have had for along time. I am devistated and not quite sure what to do. About half of a 6cm button has been shredded off aswell as small bites on other buttons. Is there anything i can do to help it recover, will it recover at all.

ive heard off rodents getting into them also. I cant help you sorry, but would like to know if this type of problem comes up much, and what people do to prevent it?

[nothinghead]

Keep it out of the rain and keep an eye out for fungal attacks while it heals over. It will callous and keep growing, maybe even sprout pups if the centre was damaged.

[charliewired]

I have noticed little bites in my loph seedlings outdoors, could be pillbugs/sowbugs/woodlouse or earwigs where I live(they were also getting quite red from too much sun)

so a solution for both problems was to cover the pot/s with black screen and hold them onto the pots with elastic bands, this serves the purpose of shading them and keeping critters out,,, working well so far,,,

It might have the added advantage of keeping moistire in a little longer after waterings as well,,,

Good luck with your babies

Cheers

Cw

[Evil Genius]

Hi Amen-Ra, Place your best plants as near at the house as possible. Just like mentioned before, theres few you can do. Just keep it dry! bye Eg

[Vertmorpheus]

I only have one lil loph (named Boo) cheers Shru... just a little tacker of a couple cm, seems the birds already had a taste for it so just got some fine square galv mesh, cut out a circle, cut a "radial" line from the centre to the edge of the circle, cut out another radial line, to make a circle with say 90 deg removed from it... then bent it around into a squat cone, used the left over stricky-outy galv bits as ties to keep it all together, plant ties to keep the cone on top of the pot, seems to work so far, even if it does look like something from Dr Who (the old ones, not the new ones).

mesh solves all of life's problems

VM

[foolsbreath]

I'd clean it up with a sterilised blade if the damage is pretty ragged and large in area.

This will make a much neater and faster forming callus, plus if it was bird/rodent they may well carry microorganisms on them that may increase chances of infection. I would probably bring inside at night and probably reduce light a bit and keep out of extremes while healing initially

Some of my lophs got sprayed by an overzealous pest sprayer a few years back and most rotted away completely. 2 survived, 1 of which was more than 50% damaged and is slowly growing out the damage, but was probably set back 3 years. its 5 now and only 1.5cm diameteter

[blangschpeer]

If you're worried that it'll get infected with fungus try dusting the wound very finely with sulfur, it should stop most fungus bofore it can even take hold and as an added bonus it'll deter most types of pests from trying to eat the exposed flesh

[Conan Troutman]

Hello amen-ra,

might wanna check THIS OUT

Certainly does not seem to be uncommon. I didnt use any fungicides, just left the plant in a dry and reasonably sunny spot to callous over. In the long run it hasnt seemed to hinder growth at all...Good luck

[amen-ra]

Thank you all so very much. Obviously im still freakin out but if i were to leave it till tomrrow to clean out the wound would this be to late as i dont have access to a razor blade at the moment. Thank you CT for your encouraging story and link to previous thread, great to see your cactus is coming on nicely after its mishap, hope mine will recover just as well.

[shruman]

"I only have one lil loph (named Boo) cheers Shru... just a little tacker of a couple cm, seems the birds already had a taste for it so just got some fine square galv mesh, cut out a circle, cut a "radial" line from the centre to the edge of the circle, cut out another radial line, to make a circle with say 90 deg removed from it... then bent it around into a squat cone, used the left over stricky-outy galv bits as ties to keep it all together, plant ties to keep the cone on top of the pot, seems to work so far, even if it does look like something from Dr Who (the old ones, not the new ones).

mesh solves all of life's problems

VM"

No wuckers mate!, yeah bloody birds had a peck at it bout a month after I brought it out from the windowsill, it was only a foot away from the house too & surrounded by other cacti but they had to pick the most potent

Ur already giving boo more love then I could I hope its recipricated, very ingenious idea BTW.

[charliewired]

Im just reading thru Trouts Notes Growing Cactus,

He addresses this problem and talks about what animals/insects (Im loathe to call them pests) predate the lophophora..... they are just sampling natures wares.... and so are we!

Anyhow he said that in the wild goats will eat whole patches of mature lophs, but that very few animals and insect enjoy whole lophs - but might nibble them occasionally, magpies, mice etc leaving them slightly damaged... they will heal up if left alone to calous generally I think...

Some growers will put a wooden box around thier plants covered in screen,,,, Not difficult to construct,,,, when the box is layered with both screen and shadecloth, its appearantly suitable for hosting a wide variety of seedlings in an outdoor setting... when water or rainfall hits the screen it gets busted up by the coverings enough to be gentle enough for fragile youngins..

Ive recently dusted sulphur on some cut trichos to avoid rot seeting in - but I dont have alot of experience with it,,,,

Hope you work it out...sometimes its best not to mess with it too much..

Cheers

Cw