Monday, July 21, 2008

Western Grape Skeletonizer




Ok, so I was bragging about my grapes doing great. Well, most of my grapes are doing great. I have had one plant that has been nearly destroyed by this little pest. My kids have been pulling these little stinkers off of my concord grape plant. I looked them up in the Master Gardener Entomolgy Manual, and it described them to a tee. This is what the book said, "Western Grape Skeletonizer. Adult moth is blue-black and about a 1/2 inch long. Larvae have black and yellow bands are up to 1/2 inch long. The catapillars line up and feed in groups. They feed behind the veins in the leaf, creating a net-like appearance. The adults produce masses of yellow eggs. Look for the adults and eggs in early May, and destroy any you see." I challenged my boys to fill a sandwich bag with them. So far everything I read, said that you need to pick off the leaves early in the morning to get all of the eggs. I noticed it in May, but wasn't committed to addressing the probem. Boy, now that it's July and my poor Grape plant is soo sad, I wished I would have taken care of it then.

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