Re: eating my hollyhocks
- Subject: Re: eating my hollyhocks
- From: R* S*
- Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 23:33:25 -0700
Usually the leaf-cutter bees cut a rather round (almost half circle) in the leaf
edge. They are relatively harmless, in that they don't really harm the plant.
Consider that, with the almost complete extinction of italian honey bees here,
the native bees are doing most of the pollination of all flowers. The leaf
cutters also like roses a lot. If the munched portion looks very jagged, and is
not half-circle like in shape, it is probably some sort of weevil or other pest
doing its dirty work at night.
barbara sargent wrote:
> >Up here near Tilden Park the leaves of my Callas have notches cut out all
> >along the edges, something that I don't remember ever seeing before.
> >However, something else I've never seen in the garden before --small bright
> >green grasshoppers--have also turned up this year. So far I haven't seen one
> >actually eating a leaf, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's a
> >correlation.
> >
> >Anyone else having problems?
> >
> >Cecile -also in Berkeley
> >
> >barbara sargent wrote:
> >
> >> My wonderful yellow perennial hollyhock has finally bloomed after three
> >> years; but the flowers are being chewed around the edges. I thought the
> >> culprit might be some kind of butterfly larvae so I sprayed with BT. This
> >> *seemed* to slow it down a bit but I'm not really sure.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have an idea of what other pest might be doing the damage?
> >>
> >> Barbara - in Berkeley
>
> Cecile,
>
> I saw the culprit in the act. It's a bee--perhaps a leafcutter bee. I saw
> it actually cutting a round notch on the edge of a hollyhock petal. Then it
> held it in it's mouth (?) and flew away with it.
>
> Now the question is--how to repel these bees? I like to encourage bees in
> general but the hollyhocks really look awful with notches cut out around
> the edges of every last one. And, interestingly, it's only the yellow
> hollyhock which they seem to like.
>
> Barbara - in the Berkeley flatlands
