Guava pest help!

[seanyk]

I planted several guava trees about 6 months back. Zone 10a in FL. Every tree has heavy pest damage. Especially to the new growth. I can never find any pests on them. I've tried looking at night also with no luck. Any help would be appreciated!

[Seanny]

Pictures?

[Oolie]

Go nab some at night.

I have Serica fimbriata that I have battled with for several years. This year I seem to have found a way to keep them down.

The problem with the one I deal with is that they eat all the foliage, then lay their eggs in the soil beneath the tree, and the grubs destroy the guava roots severely stunting them. I dealt with them by placing worm castings on top of the soil beneath the tree hoping that the chitinase in the castings would break down the chrysalis of the pupa stage to prevent the beetle from emerging. Seems to have worked.

[seanyk]

Here are some pictures. Think we are dealing with the same thing?

[Budtropicals]

I have this same issue. Spraying the new growth with sevin usually does the trick... temporarily.

[pineislander]

It looks like the pest is attacking during the fresh growth flush. The rolled up leaves are typical of caterpillars. Guava when growing strong is very resistant and should have little pest problems. Can you post some photos of the overall plants, how old they are, what the environment they are growing in is like? You are really going to have to identify what is happening to your fresh young growth and just spraying might help for a while but maybe not, as quick fixes usually do.

[MangoCountry]

Definitely caterpillars. Look under damaged leaves