Hello all Hope you can please help me, I am located in Central Florida and a couple of years ago planted a Pomello Grapefruit tree in my garden and recently discovered a funny worm like track on the leaf of the plant. Its starting to cause new leaves to turn and grow funny! I am going to try attach a picture and hope someone has some advice to try stop this problem. Thank You Stu
The leaves of your tree has an insect called Citrus Leaf Miner, which is the larva of a minute 4mm moth. Although the Leaf Miner makes the tree look bad, it does not do all that much harm. You can read about it here. - Millet http://ag.arizona.edu/crops/citrus/insects/leafminer.html
The best control is from Oil spray on new leaves when they are about 1/2 inch in legnth. The oil spray does not kill the moth or larvae, but it keeps the moth from laying eggs on the leaves. There is only one pesticide that I know of that will kill the larvae after they are in the leaf, and that is spinosad, but it is not very persistient and you are not suppose to use it more than 6 times a year.
The best oil (Horticultural Oil) has the trade name Ultra Fine. Ultra Fine is completely non toxic and safe to use on your tree. However, never spray a citrus tree during the heat of the day. Spray in the evening before sunset. You should be able to purchase Ultra Fine at any larger garden center, or big box store such as Home Depot. - Millet
Hi all No luck finding Ultra-Fine yet, had a look online and I keep getting this when I google it http://homeharvest.com/insectspraysoilbased.htm is this Bonide the same stuff ? Thank you
Try these two web sites. Almost any larger garden center, and Home Depot should cary Ultra Fine. - Millet http://www.wmmg.com/pdf/label/UFO_Spec.pdf http://www.berkeleyhort.com/roses/r_oils.html
if your local nursery does not have Ultra Fine, try looking for Volck Oil or Dormant Oil Spray. I have seen both of these here in Florida. Like Millet said, never spray in the heat of the day. Some oils say not to spray if it is over 85 F.
