15 responses
| About the Author Rachel Greensborough 27th June 2007 3:07pm #UserID: 127 |
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| About the Author Kath Cawongla 27th June 2007 3:26pm #UserID: 2 View All Kath's Edible Fruit Trees |
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| About the Author Ian Richmond Victoria 2nd August 2007 11:09pm #UserID: 200 |
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Sandy says... The old lemon tree that was in the backyard, had a plague of wasp galls, far too many for us to handle, so we decided to chop off the branches and remove the rest. The garden waste bin, was used to get rid of all the infected branches. It was over 40 years old, planted by my late husband, when he was previously married.It had long thorns, not sure what type it was. Always loaded most of the year, except for about 2 or 3 weeks every year, when it has less fruit. Now that space is being used to plant native trees amongst our fruit trees as a wind break and for privacy. | About the Author Sandy melbourne, Victoria 25th September 2007 8:13pm #UserID: 281 |
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| About the Author Mark Vermont 8th June 2008 5:26pm #UserID: 0 |
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| About the Author Wendy Rawady Melbourne 29th October 2008 9:06am #UserID: 1580 |
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Sandy says... Hi Everyone, We got a bit of advice of Don burke, pictured with myself, on left, and my daughter on right, at Flower Power Store, in Chadstone, back in October. Don mentioned about lea ving galls on citrus trees, if it didn't affect the tree much, or cut off affected bits and put them in the rubbish bin! Either way, seemed ok. What a wealth of Information is Don! He sure is a great bloke to talk about any gardening problems etc., you might have. I think I might try growing another citrus tree or two in pots next year!
| About the Author Sandy melbourne, Victoria 4th December 2008 7:59pm #UserID: 281 |
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Paul says... Well after a horitcultural friend of our pointed out the infestation of galls on our citrus plants (all in pots) I read how to treat them on the internet and pretty much came up with the only real option of cutting the galls out so I radically cut back all plants. This year, some galls did still return (suspect I left it a bit late last year and the next generation of eggs were already being laid). Anyway, so this year, have severely cut back all citrus plants (yes, the fruiting bits go too which is a nuisance and the plants look pretty terrible for a while) but fingers crossed this time. The trouble is, if your neighbours don't know or don't care about gall wasp in their citrus trees, I guess the chance of reinfestation is pretty high. Well fingers crossed! P.S. I put all the cut away foliage in plastic garbage bags, spray the inside of each bag with a long acting surface spray to get any wasps that might hatch and throw out in the regular rubbish (not the green recycle rubbish) | About the Author Paul Essendon 17th May 2009 3:38pm #UserID: 2335 |
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Violet_Cactus says... WASP TRAPS A DANGER TO NATIVE BIRDS! I used to use the yellow plastic wasp traps, hanging them close to the trunk of my lemon tree. All was going well. Then my husband hung a trap on the orange tree, but he hung it among the blossoms, and not close to the trunk. One afternoon we heard a terrible crying in the garden and when we looked out we saw a poor wattle-bird struggling across the lawn entangled in the sticky yellow thing off the orange tree, with half its tail feathers torn out. I quickly captured the distressed little creature in a towel. It took ages to get the trap off, and when it came off it took the rest of the tail feathers with it, and some of the flight plumage too, and left that incredibly sticky glue all over the bird's feathers. The bird was sticking to everything and unable to fly. I phoned around for a wildlife carer. That's when I discovered that most wildlife carers are wonderful, but one or two have the reputation of not deserving the name of 'carer'. The best carer I found had no room for another animal so I handed over a hard-earned $500 for her to buy another aviary. She kept that bird for weeks, every day wiping its feathers with some kind of solvent to remove a little more of the glue. Three times a week I would go to the local park to steal bottle brush flowers (I did not know where else to get them), then make the long drive to the carer's place to give the flowers to the bird. The tail feathers grew at a very slow pace, though boosted by a high protein diet from the carer. One day before the tail feathers were quite long enough, the bird, which had been stressed by captivity and was always trying to escape, flew past the carer's shoulder as she was putting food into the aviary. It managed to fly high enough to perch in a tree, and then, rejoicing no doubt in its freedom, it flew off and was never seen again. (Or if it was, I didn't recognise it!) Moral: BE VERY WARY OF STICKY WASP TRAPS. The carer told me that this kind of trauma to wild birds is not uncommon. She has seen it several times before and the Wildlife Carers as a group have called for the traps to be banned. | About the Author Violet_Cactus Melbourne 9th February 2010 10:23am #UserID: 516 View All Violet_Cactus's Edible Fruit Trees |
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lemon and lime says... ...I sliced the galls off the branches, thinking the young branches would heal over....but i think i have done more damage than good....the branches have dried at the splice point and the outer skin of the plant has not healed over (much like de-barking with the whipper snipper!)...the bugs have left deep little holes which I am sure will make the tree prone to disease or rot....I say chop the branch and dont be tempted by the stanley knife! | About the Author lemon and lime melbourne 10th February 2010 8:59pm #UserID: 3368 |
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| About the Author Violet_Cactus Melbourne 17th March 2010 8:17am #UserID: 516 View All Violet_Cactus's Edible Fruit Trees |
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| About the Author irene russell is..qld 24th May 2010 11:09am #UserID: 3755 |
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Brendan says... Hi irene, The 'guru' up here recommends that you do not remove the gall wasps, as they will return big time when the new shoots appear. For a detailed answer, go to: http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/capricornia_gardening_talkback_with_tom_wyatt/ and ask Tom the question. He usually answers on Fridays or Saturdays, of each week. | About the Author Brendan Mackay, Q 31st May 2010 8:02am #UserID: 1947 |
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Steven says... Hey everyone. I have a lemon tree out the back and its always covered in swellings from gall wasps. However it never seems to affect the tree and is always covered in lemons. I think the main problem with gall wasps is on young citrus trees. I have a blood orange which is still quite small as had gall wasps on it, im keeping an eye out to make sure they dont affect the trees health, but if they dont i say leave them alone, they may end up helping the tree in some way, e.g. if they attract wattles the wattles may then help to pollinate the flowers. But i know a good way to prevent elm leaf beetle is to paint a 30cm wide ring of carbaryl and this kills them. What if you were to do the same with the gall wasps and spray or paint the swellings with the insecticide maybe this will kill the young as they emerge and interrupt their life cycle. Regards Steven | About the Author Steven Eastern Suburbs 1st June 2010 10:30am #UserID: 704 View All Steven's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Mark says... If it helps according to Colin Campbell from Gardening Australia: "Another of the pests is this citrus gall wasp. The insect lays it’s egg in there and it all swells up so the hatching insect can get food. Now by law in Queensland, you have to prune that out and get rid of it before September when the adult hatches. " http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2273813.htm | About the Author Mark 1st June 2010 10:17pm #UserID: 0 |
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| About the Author Xiem 7th July 2011 1:43pm #UserID: 4715 |
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