Muddywellies
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Re:Help! Bird of Paradise parasites - 2007/03/18 13:43
Hi there,
I've just this minute registered here as a result of Mitch's invitation posted to me on 09/Dec and which I've only now acted upon. My apologies Mitch! Will get back to you. Anyway. . . this post.
You have chaffer grubs and they are evil little blighters. They are the evil larval form of a fairly harmless insect and they will chew through all your roots, not just in Strelitzia, but any root they like - especially Fuchsias. Often victims only discover the problem when they tip the dead plant out and find it has no roots!
Tip the plant out of it's pot right now and go through the soil squishing any grubs you find. Then isolate it, and do exactly the same with its neighbours. Hopefully one plant is affected, but unlikely.
The organic solution involves a tiny worm which eats the larvae alive, problem is, in my experience the evil larvae don't mind the cold whereas the tiny worm just doesn't like temps below 10C, which make it ineffective at this time.
The non-organic solution is to treat the compost with either a liquid or tiny granular killer. The liquid is freely available but has a limited lifespan as it's diluted with watering. The granular form lasts up to two years or more but is prohibitively expensive here in the UK.
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Muddywellies
www.winsfordwalledgarden.com
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