My kowhai looks almost dead. The leaves are stripped right back to nothing and the whole thing looks yellowish. There are no obvious bugs and we don't have a problem with aphids or anything else.
On a wander around the neighbours yards 2 of them have kowhai that look the same.
What's killing our trees - anyone know?
Probably kowhai moth. The first indication is when the edges of the leaves dry, then the leaf wilts and blow off. the culprit is it's wee black and yellow caterpillar. If you can't see any bugs it may be because they have metamorphed into the adult already. If so, no worry till next season
My kowhais have it too, if I wasn't organic I would have sprayed with something to kill them, but anything I used would kill bees on neighbouring things too. The tree does seem to recover, but mine have never been totally denuded.
If ya shake the tree branches when they're active, wee cats fall on threads like spider bungees. I wonder if they climb back up?
Maybe I could give 'em a real hard hose down.
I think Sheild is the name of a product that woud deal to them if yr not worried about side effects
