Bird poo spider.. not a pest.

Rarely seen, so I thought it worth sharing for people to see.

Two kinds of waxy scale - Fig white scale and white waxy scale.

These insects secure their mouthparts to a plants stem or leaf mid rib and excrete a waxy exudate which covers and protects them.


White waxy scale

Fig wax scale

Control of scale insects.

The waxy scales can be more difficult to control once they are mature as they are so well protected by their shelter.

It is often best to prune off the worst parts and use a white oil/eco oil to suffocate any of the tiny crawlers that may be around on the other parts of the plant. Being waxy it may take a couple of goes at being sprayed with the oil.

Rats will try and eat anything if they are desperate.

Rats, the scourge of our attemps to grow food in our garden. Their repeated onslaught into our brassicas, clearing kale and battering broccoli finally wore me down last summer, then of course summer comes. Hot and dry and much too long, still with very little rain compared to 'the old days'. It is not great trying to garden when you feel bad about any water you are using. 

We stopped growing anything the rats like and I have been trying to remove places they can hide. Walking out the other day I saw this confetti-like stuff. 

Looking up , I realised it was shavings from the stems of the dragon fruit above. Obviously not very tasty and they must be quite desperate to be chewing on that. 

Spitfires and Sawfly Larvae

A sawfly lays it's eggs in the layers of a leaf on a eucalyptus tree. When the eggs hatch into larvae, they congregate and munch their way through a section of leaves on the tree.

If you disturb these caterpillar type grubs they can spit sappy acidic stuff.

I removed these when I noticed them in the Eucalyptus gomphocephala we have in the garden, as the tree is yong and I didn't want it to have any extra stress from losing leaves, however on a mature tree a bunch of sawfly larvae won't cause much damage overall.