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With leaf-burst on many deciduous trees taking place at present it’s time to remove
any Mistletoe that is evident. They appear as clusters of different shaped leaves in the
canopy and many are evergreen, so easily detected at present. Common in Elms, Maples, Gums
and Citrus in this area, as well as many other tree types.
A clean cut on a branch below the Mistletoe union, will generally add many years to the
life of your host tree. Unless removed the parasitic Mistletoe will generally kill the
host tree and amazingly fast on some varieties. At the very least it will reduce the
ability of fruiting varieties to yield a crop.
Aphids are on the wing and moving in on the soft rose buds at present. Unless you wash
them off with a strong jet of water or spend a little time squeezing them or at worst
spray them with a NIMBY deterrent, such as a Pyrethrum spray, they will at the very least,
disfigure your early blooms.
There are good colonies of Rose Aphid Wasp in this area that feed on the young fat Rose
Aphids, but they simply cannot keep up early in the season and need a little help, if you
aim to control most of your Rose Aphids. You might ask why control them anyhow? Well they
are currently sipping away on the leaf juices of the lush soft rose foliage you provide,
aimlessly spreading plant viruses and sapping the vigour of your Roses and distorting
blooms as they unfurl.
The Black Aphids on your Citrus and the Aphids on your Peach trees and Camellias are all
different varieties and not predated upon by the Rose Aphid Wasp, so we do not have such
an abundant control as we have on Roses. The little black and yellow honeyeaters do feed
on them though, when they are raising their young in spring, which is why a strong jet of
water will return a hungry predator to your garden hour after hour.
I had a letter from a concerned reader that my advice about recommending Dipel™
would be injurious to his Grey Fan-tail friends. I think the point was missed, that
Dipel™ is a stomach rotting Bacteria which only effects the intestines of
caterpillars and not those of higher creatures in the food chain that predate on the kill.
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