I have a pest mystery - please help a beginner gardener out! I planted a swan plant several months ago, hoping for caterpillars for my little ones to observe. butterflies come, we have eggs eggs eggs, then the eggs disappear and we never have any caterpillars :-(i guess something must be eating the eggs.any suggestions! what can i do to stop the egg poachers!
wasgonna,
Dec 15, 1:32am
That's the problem with free-range eggs.
jackscoldsweat,
Dec 15, 1:39am
i reckon! we had a swan plant years ago, before the kids came along, and it was absolutely chocker with chrysaliseseseses (chrysali!) now we can't get a single one :-(
majoba,
Dec 15, 2:06am
Go to either a charity shop and find some net curtains or one of the cheap chinese rubbish shop that sells net curtaining and once you see there are eggs on the plant drape net curtaining over. you may need to make some kind of wigwam construction depending where your plant is. The tiny caterpillars are being dealt to by either praying mantids or wasps. Or both.
dibble35,
Dec 15, 2:07am
I ve got loads of eggs to, had one caterpiller which I watched every day getting bigger and bigger, this morning it's gone. I just hope its gone somewhere else to turn into a chrysalis anf not been eaten by a bird.
jackscoldsweat,
Dec 15, 2:17am
thank you! net curtains, here i come. i hate them in the house, but will gladly tolerate them in the garden. why the wigwam! can i just chuck the net over the plant!
oh_hunnihunni,
Dec 15, 2:24am
Praying mantis predating. Not the native one (with the blue spot), but the imported South African one. It thinks monarchs are ice cream.
jackscoldsweat,
Dec 15, 2:26am
poo. i sort of dig praying mantids, but i may start squashing the buggers when the kids aren't looking.
majoba,
Dec 15, 1:18pm
You need to support the fabric over the plant as the branches will just bow under its weight, even though it is lightweight.
russ18,
Dec 15, 1:31pm
Chickens got ours last year, this year we've netted them.
mottly,
Dec 15, 2:11pm
wasps, german and paper wasps annihilate them, right from when they've first hatched, till they're chrysalis turning size.Nets are good - so are swan plants out of direct sunlight. This time of year, they're pretty much doomed.The ones that hatch in sept/oct will make it, as will the later ones - around April.Cuckoos have also been seen eating the larger caterpillars :(
lemming2,
Dec 15, 7:26pm
Most likely wasps. I wound up with swan trees one year when every singly caterpillar was wiped out on hatching. The plants got to 2 metres tall! Having said that, I also watched two ants carrying off a new hatchling!
mokaumoi,
Dec 16, 2:54pm
There are tiny parasitic wasps which lay their eggs in the living caterpillars- you will see the caterpillar go sluggish and black, and eventually drop off the plant.
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