Sea Grape Tree - fungus / insects? - links to pics included

14 years ago

Hi everyone.

I hope someone can help - We have a very large, beautiful sea grape tree in our front yard and I recently noticed some things going on.

I first noticed what I thought were ant hills all around the base. This morning while walking the dog, I noticed there are what look like green bees going into these hills. So we have some sort of ground nesting bees now living all around the base of this tree.

After noticing the hills, I noticed that the leaves are being eaten by something. They are getting holes in them and the edges are being eaten. I included a picture of these little things that are hanging on the tree - they feel like some sort of plant material and when we bought the house a few months ago they were on the house, fence, screens... anything with a surface, really. I'm wondering if they are some sort of moth cocoon?

And yesterday I noticed a fungus growing on the bark of the tree. It is a shade of orange. The leaves are now getting "rusty" on the undersides, in addition to the holes being eaten.

Tree fungus and leaf holes )

Bee hills and bees

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the bees, fungus and whatever is eating my tree? I'm hoping the bees are a separate issue from whatever is going on with the tree, but would love to hear any thoughts you may have.

Thanks!

Tracy

Featured Answer

nandina

14 years ago

Sea grape (Coccoloba uvifera) is quite resistant to salt. It naturalizes in colonies along the ocean. The "what to do" is to drag out the phone book, look up arborists in the yellow pages and ask several to come by and evaluate your situation. You should have done this yesterday as it sounds like a significant tree you do not want to lose. Sea grape is generally known to be disease resistant. However, there are reported problems such as anthracnose infecting them. This needs treatment. Get a professional opinion. Please post back when you have a diagnosis as this is an interesting situation.

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Comments (9)

homesteadingmommyof6
14 years ago
Do you have enough sand in your soil to make the tree happy? Also, test the ph around the tree, find out what kind of balance is going on there... many a bug has found its way elsewhere when you amend the soil to change the ph. Could it stand to use a little salt in the soil? Grape trees don't mind a little salt, and it may help with the fungus problem.Thats all I've got right now.. I'll think on it a wee bit. :)
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rainfallki
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you! Our soil is very sandy and salty. We're on the coast of S FL, with barely a 1/4 mile between us and the intracoastal waterway. So I'm not sure what to do.
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Richard Sparkman
5 years ago
I am experiencing this problem.

Can not find anything online to help.

Small black ants that are resistant to all natural bug spray for vegetables and plants. Unsure what to
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Iris
2 years ago
I have this same problem. Just planted a large Seagrape tree and afterwards see it’s leaves are full of holes. Also has brown spots. I’ve contacted a few landscapers and the nursery I bought it from and no one seems to know exactly what it is. I read online that it is a Seagrape borer—a type of moth that lives in the twigs and eats the leaves. Also heard it was a beetle, but no real treatment, because they’ll come back.
please let me know what you did?
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alwayscold
2 years ago
Iris, same thing here, ask all kinds of gardening people and they are perplexed. Don’t understand why there isn’t something definitive. I’m experiencing something else odd. We had a really big sea grape lay over from Ian and we uprighted it and it is staked. It’s been doing fine and we were gone for a week and I come back to tons of new growth leaves but they are all copper. Shiny like new, but copper. Other smaller sea grapes have this as well but others have the green leaves. I’m not finding an answer to the leaf color. Anyone with an idea?
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alwayscold
2 years ago
Ok, so I just confused. I did find something that new leaves are bronze, but why are some of my new leaves green? The ones that are green are close to brackish/salt water and or only get water from rain (which we went over 70 days w/o) and the bronze ones get additional watering from the sprinkler system and from hand watering.
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Iris Toledano Egozi
2 years ago
Wait… our sea grape also has the new growth bronze shiny leaves, not green. what’s that about? do sea grape leaves start out bronze, or green? our tree is also getting water from our sprinkler system. any info would be appreciated…
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carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
last year
last modified: last year
This topic is 12 years old, and the photos of the problem in the OP are no longer accessible.

And the color of the leaves is normal, as far as I know. Sea grapes all do that, IMPE.
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