Problem Tomato wilt

The Rubber Kitty

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Yes, its unfortunate that those hungry beetles grow into those huge beautiful rhino beetles and other similar Christmas beetles etc.
But I find they tend to live harmoniously with my plants.
But then again the plants I have growing in the ground never look that crash hot anyway due to impoverished soil.
I often find them at the bottom of my compost which is fine because that's a place where they are doing good work.

The thing we need to be mindful of re these beetles is that their life cycle extends over several years and do we want to kill off that cycle purely because they are eating some plant roots?

It's like the giant cicada whose life cycle is 17years long. They live in the soil among the roots of their tree, then slowly eat their way up the inside of the native tree trunk and finally emerge through a hole they cut in the fork of a smaller branch.
However, once they get right up there, often the black cockatoos hear them and come in to cut the branch off to get the grub, which is not good for the grub!
But we often see the branch dying on this tree in our gardens and someone will say oh, use insecticide, its a grub. But the poor thing has spent 16 of those 17yrs getting there.

I have found these in my area ... and have just left them alone and or tossed them back into the garden to live away... i plan on growing enough so that they don't matter. and companion planting. I will have to draw up a map of my place for some advice on planting some citrus trees... herm
 

Cathy

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I am contemplating making fly screen convers for my raised beds to keep the beetles out this year. I will share a photo of the damage they have done to a flower garden in an old wheelbarrow and i want my new birdies beds to stay free from the grubs.
I am moving to my new place over Christmas and it is extremely exposed and will be a prime target for beetles.
 

DTK

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Yeah, I wouldn't eat it because I'm vegan. But apparently they are delicious :eat: :crazy:

I think I would turn vegan before eating one (and I LOVE my steak) bur happy to provide my chooks and ducks with another alternative food.
 

DTK

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Hi Dan

Curl grubs are the larval stage of a beetle.... so yep a curl grub. The bleeding heart that I am I could not kill these beautiful creatures as they grow into the giant rhino beetle..... however I will give this method a go as so long as they move on I will be happy.

I wonder if I could use that as a preventative during beetle season to stop them from laying eggs in the pots and garden beds?

I lost a HUGE citronella geranium to grubs ...it started wilting and by the time I pulled it out if the pot there was over 20 lawn grubs in the soil eating all the roots and I lost it.


A picture of my most recent tomato plant lost to wilt disease.
Cathy, my motto on this could be summarised by 'if it sounds like a good plan, try it out'. I will keep adding molasses to my garden while it seems to benefit the soil ... and the plant roots (in more ways than one). :)
 
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