Hello,
i have a mandarin and Orange tree that is looking healthy. Recently i have noticed my leaves on the trees, especailly the new ones are being eatin. I don;t know what could be doing it.
I have sprayed the tree with organic homemade whiteoil to remove any caterpillas but this hasn't fixed it.
Both trees have no sign of diease, Aphids, blackspot, ants, caterpillas (from what i can tell) or leaf miner. At night i go outside to check and i have seen slugs moving along the floor but i haven't seen one on the tree. But to be on the safe side, i wrapped any area of both trees with Copper tape to stop the slugs from going up.
The leaves are eaten completly and all that is left is a stub or the branch. In some case only half of the leaf has been eaten.
I've checked both the upper side and under side of the leaves and can't find anything.
I don't have any leaf cutter bees around.
My next step is to spray the leaves with diluted Molasses and a dab of soap to deter any caterpillas that i may have missed.
please help, as i am not sure what to do
thanks
Images of a damaged branch
http://imageshack.com/scaled/800x600/822/m81x.jpg
http://imageshack.com/scaled/800x600/703/wuvy.jpg
http://imageshack.com/scaled/800x600/30/r4wx.jpg