geranium
janlin
Posts: 18
Help, I am new to this. I have a lovely pot of geraniums (they were lovely) on my patio. At the week end I noticed a few holes in the leaves,and I sprayed it with Bug Clear. This morning I looked at it,and it is worse. Please can somebody give me advice.
0
Posts
Hi Verdun
Thank you so much. I will take your advice.
Yes, it's caterpillars - bright fat green ones approx 1 inch long and dozens of tiny ones up to 1 inch long. They're not only on the leaves but wind themselves around the stems and bury in the compost. Evidence of their presence are their droppings - greyish, dusty crumbs on the geranium leaves. I spent 2 hours one afternoon this week picking off these caterpillars and scratching through the compost in affected pots. Make sure you squash them completely dead or drown them in a jar or they will move on somewhere else! They seem to be resistant to Bug Sprays. They also eat the geranium buds before they flower - hence no flowers! So I reckon simply cutting off the leaves and spraying is not enough to eradicate them - my geraniums are already looking better 3 days after my 'plucking' session! But I would love to know how they got there as not all my pots of geraniums are affected.