baby brug

[chris]

I have a young suaveolens that i grew from seeds placed staight into a garden bed.

It was doing fine untill someone else i live with started to plant other ordinary plants in the same bed and now somthing has eaten large chunks out of leaves witch are now starting to wilt badly then fall off.

I was thinking of transplanting it into a huge pot and move it away from the garden bed,( the others wont let me use bug killing stuff because of there pets).

*Do brugs cope well with being moved around or is there something else i could try??any help would be good.

[infinite_monkey]

hmm not sooo good, brugs much prefer being in the ground so i would recomend trying to find ways of killing bugs and not pets so it can stay where it is, but if you have to move it be carefull and try not to disturb the roots tooo much it should survive they just like to have a shit at you if they get moved

[gerbil]

Any ideas on the pest? snails, caterpillar?

There are a fair few sprays, (dipel for caterpillar) that i don't think will effect the pets...other than if they eat the brug leaves, and thats another story

I'm not 100%, though my guess is that a spray will be better than snail bait or the likes.

Apparently saucers/jars of beer attract snails aswell (stout supposedly) bury them ground level or a tad higher.

Otherwise, go out during the night and look the plant over, i managed to get heaps of tiny caterpillar off my salvia this way. A bright torch shining from ground up through the plant can help as you will see pests shadows on the leaves.

best of luck!

[occidentalis]

Earlier in the year my sauvolens was totally defoliated by successive caterpillers. The caterpillars were small green ones, exactly the same colour as the leaves and it took me ages to find each one.

[mescalito]

My MG's are having the same prob :confused: ,I'm going to experiment with a chilli/garlic home made spray.

If the probs are slimey(I never get to see the buggers), a fence made from copper wire sticks might work(strip some electrical cable)....something to do with conductivity/alkaline/salts/potential difference..blah blah...you know

,otherwise fine sawdust as a border(sticks 'em up )

Let us know :D

[ 09. September 2003, 00:34: Message edited by: mescalito ]

[chris]

Thanks people, all good help :D

I didnt think it would be snails but ive got the same little green caterpiller on what was a MG cutting.

I went out last night with a torch and had a good look at the plant and found a few realy small slugs..so i think i'll get some sawdust for them

thanks again

[t st tantra]

if it's slugs or snails the latest pellets are said to be safe for pets,it should be a selling point on the package.

i strip any damaged leaves as i find them,it makes it easier to detect new problems.i also think this could be a natural cycle,certainly the plants regrow the foliage very quickly if well looked after.often it's old 'shade' leaves being eaten.

t s t .

[chris]

I pulled one leaf off 2 days ago and there are signs of new growth already.

I also cleaned up the garden bed a little and havent seen any more bugs or slugs on it since.

Ive seen some fully grown brugs that have lost almost all there leaves at some stage and fully grow back agian several months later so maybe it is part of there natural cycle..