CULT: Borer wannabes

For other Southerners who sometimes see suspicious damage on their fans and
worry about borers, would you ol' pros mind listing here every critter
you've ever known to gnaw and bore into fans that wasn't a borer?

I know we get:
>cutworms, which crawl up on the rhizome and gnaw the heck out of fan bases,

>some kind of wiry reddish larvae about three-quarters of an inch long
>which will gnaw into the side of a fan and nestle near the top of the
>rhizome without hurting the growth point. It seems to just crawl into a
>fan to pupate or whatever. It departs without entering the rhizome.

>caterpillars and grasshoppers, which chomp the sides of fans

>slugs, same as above.

>crickets, which gnaw rhizomes, leaving scooped-out holes

Does anyone know the proper name of that wiry reddish grub thingie? And
what other vegetarian monsters have you seen gobbling our fans?


celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas, USDA Zone 7b
-----------------------------------
257 feet above sea level,
average rainfall about 50 inches (more than 60" in '97)
average relative humidity (at 6 a.m.) 84%.
moderate winters, hot summers ... but lots of seesaw action in all seasons
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