Gardening in Fuerteventura

[classic]

Eggs Archives - What's That Bug? (whatsthatbug.com)

lots to choose from on here!

[windermeregolfer]

The recent warm Weather has started to encourage the blooms in our garden - 

                                   

[Gone Fishing]

and any idea what these are, hundreds on one of my oleanders:

Hi Tamara

They could be the nymph stage of ... wait for it ... the Oleander seedbug, Caenocoris nerii

The size and colour are right and as you have found them on your oleander, I'd be 90% on the ID

They are sap suckers, so may be a problem to your oleander in sufficient numbers.

[Gone Fishing]

I love your brug GF, reminds me of apple blossom 

Thanks Tamara, but they are a big bigger than apple blossom 

   

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

and any idea what these are, hundreds on one of my oleanders:

Hi Tamara

They could be the nymph stage of ... wait for it ... the Oleander seedbug, Caenocoris nerii

The size and colour are right and as you have found them on your oleander, I'd be 90% on the ID

They are sap suckers, so may be a problem to your oleander in sufficient numbers.

I'd say you are 100% correct cos I've got hundreds of adults in the garden on all sorts of plants! 
Right, I'm off on a hunt later, capture and squash as many as I can, I'm not too bothered about the oleander but wiki says they also feed on Milkweed! Not in my garden they're not! 😭

[Johnrgby]

Not in my garden they're not! 😭

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I've developed a strategy for capturing these latest pests. The adults are very slow and easy to catch and squash under a stone - very satisfying 
The juniors tend to be grouped together near the end of a shoot. Their first/only defence seems to be to drop off when disturbed. So I held a jar under the shoot, tapped the shoot and they all fell in! Result. They then stayed sitting in the bottom of the jar so I could do the whole shrub before disposing of them. I did accidentally drop and break a jar so I have changed to using a 1L ice-cream box (after I've eaten the ice-cream  ). Death comes courtesy of a quick spray of pesticide into the box, lid on for 10 mins, job done.

 

Lots of the orange oleander bug in the garden again but also lots of ladybirds so I'm leaving them to it.
Seriously thinking of evicting the oleanders!

[Gone Fishing]

  Death comes courtesy of a quick spray of pesticide into the box, lid on for 10 mins, job done.

Perhaps we should start referring to you as ' The Tamarinator ' 

[Can the Man]

  Death comes courtesy of a quick spray of pesticide into the box, lid on for 10 mins, job done.

Perhaps we should start referring to you as ' The Tamarinator ' 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

A general update.
The calimas of the last few weeks really shredded most of my garden including the large hibiscuses and bougainvilleas. I took the opportunity to prune them all back starting with the hibiscus. These were 2M x 2M minimum so ready for a good cut, last done 2 years ago. Unfortunately I discovered that something had been gnawing the bark on two of them. On some branches the bark had been stripped right around the branch. I came to the conclusion it was a rat that had done the dirty. Rabbits couldn't reach 1.5M!
I cut out a lot of the damaged branches and bought some stuff in Oasis to paint on the remainder. Fingers crossed! In the space of 2 weeks quite a lot of new leaves are showing so looking good.
I'm halfway through the bougainvillea but it's a awkward, long job, up and down the step ladders.
I also pruned the Poinsettia tree today - apparently you should only prune on Valentine's day - well today was close   Lots of pieces saved for cuttings.
Tomorrow the Rubber trees and some more bougainvillea.