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Fruit & Orchards

What's eating my kiwi leaves?

17 years ago

I have some male and female kiwi vines that I planted last year. They've put out lots of new leaves, but quite a few have chunks taken out around the edges. There is no leaf browning or any signs of distress...just the nibbles. What is the best way to deal with this? I have some Tanglefoot that I can apply to the base, but what other things might I consider?

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Comments (9)

kudzu9
Original Author
17 years ago
Ok...I took some pictures. Does this help in figuring out what is eating my kiwi?

{{gwi:80359}}

{{gwi:80360}}

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chills71
17 years ago
Cats are supposedly highly attracted to kiwi leaves (though my cats have never thought anything was special about them)...

Zone 8....Maybe you've got oscelots?

~ Chills (who would suspect slugs in his climate)
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Usually it is slugs but that sure doesn't look like a slug trail. It looks more like some animal barfed on it and the stomach acids ate through the leaf edge. Your pic over on the OG forum is a better pic. It could be slugs but you will have to go out at night with a flashlight to check for them. Either way the damage is minimal and no threat to the plant. it is all on the old leaves that will soon fall off anyway. Just remove them. If you don't want to deal with cabbage loopers you need to get the plants covered with row covers ASAP. Dave Edited to add - I see you posted that other pic here while I was posting. Look up cabbage looper pics so you will recognize them when you see them. This post was edited by digdirt on Thu, May 8, 14 at 19:38
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kudzu9
Original Author
17 years ago
It's not cats. The damage is a couple feet off the ground and there are no cats around.
kiwinut
17 years ago
It does appear to be some sort of insect. The only things I have seen here that nibble leaves and flower buds are tent caterpillars and what are locally called hard back bugs or June bugs, but are not real June bugs, but smaller and brown. I'm not sure you have those out your way. You may want to go out at night with a good light and look then, as the culprit may only do the feeding at night.
kudzu9
Original Author
17 years ago
kiwinut-
Thanks...good suggestion. I'll report back if I catch anything. If I can't identify the culprit, is there something that I might be able to apply, like nematodes, that would possibly help?
bejay9_10
17 years ago
Could it be cabbage butterfly larvae. They are almost microscopical in size - with big mouths. Although never known them to be particularly fond of kiwi - mostly they like cabbage family plants. Use a loop to see if you can see anything.

(loop - English word for magnifying glass).

Bejay
jellyman
17 years ago
Um, Bejay, loupe. Sounds the same. This is why learning English can be so hard for newcomers. Not that you are a newcomer.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
bejay9_10
17 years ago
OOP - sorry JM. Yer right - been around a long time. Actually, I have a good excuse. I worked almost 40 years as a medical transcriptionist - we had a lot of big words to spell (typed them from sound, rather than sight). It ruined me for English spelling - even tho I could spell the Latin words just fine.

My co-workers used to tease me a lot. One of the worst ones that I hung up on were:

peal for peel.

basil for basal.

their for there.

and now loop for loupe.

LOL.

But just give me schizophrenia, thoracolumbar, costovertebral, etc., and I'm a real whiz.

Just another 2 c's.

Bejay
Francis Wilson
last year
Loupe It's French guys

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