Chewing insect beginning to attack Meyer Lemon Leaves

[lifegardener]

Hi Everyone -

Any idea(s) what may be beginning to eat our Meyer Lemon leaves, and how to minimize the damage is greatly appreciated.

 

[Chuck]

Spray with spinosad. It doesn't matter what is eating the plant as spinosad kills both insects and caterpillars. Spinosad is a bacteria, not a poison per se. Add a little molasses to the spray mix. This feeds the bacterial microbes and makes the spray effective longer. That damage looks a lot like grasshopper damage and if so there really isn't much you can do as grasshoppers do not stay around, they keep going, eating plants in their path. The spinosad will kill them but they will die a long way from your plant and the grasshoppers following behind will eat the plant. The only thing I know of to protect against grasshoppers is colloidal clay. It is an abrasive and grasshoppers do not like what it does to their mandibles.

 

[lifegardener]

Spray with spinosad. It doesn't matter what is eating the plant as spinosad kills both insects and caterpillars. Spinosad is a bacteria, not a poison per se. Add a little molasses to the spray mix. This feeds the bacterial microbes and makes the spray effective longer. That damage looks a lot like grasshopper damage and if so there really isn't much you can do as grasshoppers do not stay around, they keep going, eating plants in their path. The spinosad will kill them but they will die a long way from your plant and the grasshoppers following behind will eat the plant. The only thing I know of to protect against grasshoppers is colloidal clay. It is an abrasive and grasshoppers do not like what it does to their mandibles.

Thankyou very much.