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What is killing my willow

KJAKJA Posts: 16
in Problem solving
image

 Any idea what this is and how I can get rid of them to save my willow trees. The leaves have been turning brown and dropping so I sprayed with a bug spray. Three of these were lying on the ground under one of the four trees when I got home tonight.

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Posts

  • DougTheDibberDougTheDibber Posts: 15

    This looks like a poplar hawk moth, they eat willow as well.

    They won't make the leaves turn brown though. Maybe its a fungus like anthracnose.

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,305

    Another indiscriminate spraying.

    Death to some harmless creatures and no help to treeimage



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • margaret Roberts3margaret Roberts3 Posts: 7

    I think it's a hawk moth too.  Should not harm a tree  so it is probably a virus that affects willows.  It weakens the tree over a few years.

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,320

    Well done Kris. Shoot first. Good stuff.

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,112

    Kris didn't know ... and the pesticide companies market their poisons as if all insects are pests,  and they don't say check what you're spraying for first. image

    It's sad that these have died. image

    If we can help Kris to get his willows more healthy, hopefully there'll be more caterpillars next year and he'll enjoy knowing his trees are contributing to improving the much needed population of moths and other pollinating insects. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,320

    This is exactly why I was asking if anyone thought that a five-minute educational programme about things that live in our gardens on TV would be a good idea.image

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,112

    Education is always good image 

    The problem is that so often these programmes are only watched by the people who are already interested in the subject ... lots of people don't develop an interest until they think something is killing their plants ...


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,320

    Or they only develop an interest after they have killed the thing that is ... Oh well.

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,320

    I'm off to the dentist for a little light relief.image Syl.

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • KJAKJA Posts: 16

    I had taken one of the brown infected leaves to the garden nursery for advice and it was suggested that it was a fungus so was given the pesticide to use and prevent it spreading further and completely destroying these beautiful trees.  It was only after I had treated them for the fungus that I found these caterpillars which is what prompted a google search and found this forum.  It was not a shoot then ask situation.  I had thought approaching a "local expert" was the right thing to do.  Only when I noticed the caterpillar did I question what was killing the trees as they are clearly not a fungus, so I reached out.  Due to their colouring, they are camouflaged and I could not see them.  Had I have seen them, then I would have mentioned this to my local nursery.

    Thank you to those with helpful constructive advise.

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