North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 07:36 PM 4/12/2005, Pete wrote:
> \lso...grafted about 30 persimmons so far this spring and am having a
> caterpillar problem. They climb up the stock and eat the emerging buds from
> the scion.

I haven't experienced that problem yet, but have had a similar problem with 
some type of caterpillars defoliating defoliating all the young oaks along 
my driveway and those planted in the lawn area.  Every year, for the past 3 
springs, just as these oaks have just about finished expanding their new 
leaves, something devours them overnight - they'll look great when I get 
home from work in the afternoon and be naked by morning.  At first I 
thought it was the neighbor's llamas, then I thought maybe deer were coming 
into the yard and browsing them off, but when one of the 10+ ft tall oaks 
was totally defoliated overnight, I knew it wasn't hoofed critters.
I've only seen a caterpillar one time - it's like they hide in the lawn, 
crawl up the trunks, eat the leaves and either crawl back down or drop off 
to hide again.
The young trees have been re-leafing, and don't seem any worse for it, but 
it can't be a great thing to happen to them on a regular basis.  Last year, 
several of the grafted McDaniel burXEnglish oaks had all their catkins and 
pistillate flowers eaten off, as well.  All look to be gearing up for heavy 
acorn production this time, so I'm keeping a close eye out for the 
caterpillars.
Occasionally have an outbreak of caterpillars defoliating the walnut 
seedlings in the nursery beds, but I SEE those suckers - and they don't 
trouble me near as much as the ones eating my oaks.

May be time to invest in some Tanglefoot.