The grapes are not good for eating but the torts love the leaves,this year it has reached 80 feet in length, I pick over 100 leaves a day for food, Walker doesn't eat from the vine but will eat them if I pick em for him,He's spoiled.
emysemys said:My grape vine is good for about a month in the spring, then the grape-leaf skeletonizers lay their eggs on the undersides of the leaves and in no time at all, most of the leaves are gone. At first I tried picking them off, but its too big a job. It gets away from me.
ascott said:Is that a Frenchie butt I see in the pic?
I planted two grape vines last year and only one made it...the fricken gophers got the roots of the other....
redbeef said:grape leaf skeletonizers:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r302301011.html
don't know if they've made it to AZ yet, so you might be safe, DesertGrandma
I did a quick search around the web and it looks like there might be a viral product, Virosoft CP4, that might work on controlling this pest...alternately, I believe bacillus thuringiensis is considered pretty low impact, i know it isn't supposed to affect mammals...and it seems to be OK for other vertebrates as well.