handling caterpillars on passion fruit

[irun5k]

Hello,

Caterpillar problem on my passion fruit vine- I smash them when I see them but I'm clearly not getting them all.

I have a few different Bayer products that I've used on my fruit trees, but none of them indicate they are for passion fruit expect for a Bayer Advanced fruit specific product that contains Imidacloprid.  Will a systemic like this work for caterpillars or do I need some sort of foliar spray that will kill on contact.

Thanks,
Brian

[MangoCountry]

Use bt. Bacillus thuringenis.

[FamilyJ]

BT is your best friend for the Caterpillars on the Passion Fruit
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AA8WYEC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[pineislander]

Keep the vine healthy well fed and watered, give it room to run up and enough sun. They can withstand the caterpillar attack and get beyond their capacity to damage it. It may be possible that the stress stimulates fruiting. Good luck!

[roblack]

Keep the vine healthy well fed and watered, give it room to run up and enough sun. They can withstand the caterpillar attack and get beyond their capacity to damage it. It may be possible that the stress stimulates fruiting. Good luck!

+1

caterpillars are part of it

[skhan]

I finally started BT and the results are amazing.
I had my vine for about 3 years and whenever it seemed to be hitting a stride the catepillers cut it back to nothing. Managed to get a few fruit though.
Now it's big enough and I haven't had to spray anything in a while.

[Orly]

I also use BT. It's kept them at bay but it washes off after a rain so I'm often having to re-apply.  I also use BT on my banana plants when the worms starting hitting it too.
My vines are less that a year old but growing fast.  Lots of flowers but only one fruit so far, even after hand pollinating. 

[KarenRei]

I also use BT. It's kept them at bay but it washes off after a rain so I'm often having to re-apply.  I also use BT on my banana plants when the worms starting hitting it too.
My vines are less that a year old but growing fast.  Lots of flowers but only one fruit so far, even after hand pollinating.

Agreed. BT is great against caterpillars if you're diligent about reapplication; I used to use it in my garden to control cabbage looper, tomato hornworm and a few other lepidopteran pests.  There are few pesticides in this world that are more selective about what they target than BT. Its only downside is that it has no "staying power", you have to reapply. But then again, that's yet another win for the environment; as far as the environment is concerned, you don't want pesticides that stick around.

[irun5k]

Thanks, I picked up some BT from Amazon the other day and sprayed a couple nights ago.  Hopefully it it works.  I just planted this vine a few months ago so it is still of a size where a few hungry caterpillars could completely defoliate it.  (this happened to my neighbor's vine actually.)

[pineislander]

BT works best on low instar (young) caterpillars.

https://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/LarvaInstar.html

[wonderfruit]

I manually take out the yellow eggs they put in new leaves.

[greenman62]

Keep the vine healthy well fed and watered, give it room to run up and enough sun. They can withstand the caterpillar attack and get beyond their capacity to damage it. It may be possible that the stress stimulates fruiting. Good luck!

i think it depends on the passi variety and caterpillar.

i have grown incarnata several times... usually, very healthy, at least 30ft of vine
almost every time each leaf was down to a nub in a few weeks.
at first i would kill each one, then it was just too much .
usually the plant is overcome in fall, and in winter (here) they often die back to the ground anyway.
try attracting birds, lizards, other predators.