Critters amongst the figs
There was a lot of rain in Texas this past month. A lot of damage seems to occur on the trees during the moister times. Among the more damaging bugs seems to be a beetle. I've noticed it chomping on fig leaves at night when it is humid out. They particularly like the Melanzana leaves.
The beetles are slow moving and kind of fun to ping off the leaves. I've seen them eat a leaf like combines harvesting a crop. They start along the edge of the leaf and work around the edge of the leaf. Sometimes one starts an inch or so behind another (think of an AT&T "more bars" commercial). Despite being slow, they seem to eat all night (or there are a lot of them) and a leaf that is fine the night before can look like this one in the morning.
Another pest that is particularly destructive is the snail. Unlike the beetles and other pests which pick one part of the tree to go after, the snails eat everything (fruit, leaves, trunk, and roots). One of the things that make the snail so damaging is that they do not eat the leaves on the tree. Rather they cut the leaf off, then eat it. This is a rooted Santa Cruz Light/White cutting.
The leaf has been cut off and is behind the container (with a snail munching on it at the time). Presumably the snails have learned a lesson not to eat a leaf while on the plant given their weight. Also you can see how much of the fruit was eaten. Unlike the previous photos, this fig was cut off the tree much like the leaves.
The fig was this snail's final meal.
The snails also go after the trunk/limbs of the tree. Here is some damage to other cuttings this year.
I saw this type of damage last year to the trunk of an Excel and the only Col De Dame of three which rooted. Both of them the damage extended below the soil line.
There were other bugs around. Ants, as usual, were in the figs, particularly those that were already damaged.
There also seemed to be more flies than I remember seeing around the figs.
There were also some good things happening around the backyard. The dragonflies were back to deal with the abundance of mosquitoes the rains brought. This one was happily perched on one of the trees until I bothered him.
Also, there was a toad hiding between a container with an LSU Purple and one with a Rattlesnake Island.
I'm hoping that the beneficials Mother Nature provides clean up shop while I'm back in NJ. I can hope, right?
~james
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