I want to know what is eating my hibiscus tree. It is a green worm like insect. It is eating the leaves. I have put soapy warm water on them and it does slow them down. I want to naturally get rid of them. Does anyone have any idea what they are and how can I get rid of them?
By Sue
I had a problem for years with the green worms on my hiabiscus and I tried everything. Then last year I planted tomato plants next to the hibiscus and I planted marigolds under the bush and I have no more of these worms. So I feel the marigolds worked. So for everyone out there with the same problem you may want to plant marigolds under your bush. I hope this helps It did for me. lilac 10
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How to get rid of the little green worms on my hibiscus?
Make a spray of 5 cups of water with 1 Tbsp mild dish soap and spray on
Insecticidal soap works well on all kinds of insects
Does it look like this horrible critter:
If so, it is a sawfly. This site has solutions, but the easiest is to wear gloves and pick them off, if you want to kill them, you can drown them in warm water with soap. I hate that part of the process but if they are too much of an infestation, sometimes you have to.
The most natural solution (mother nature's choice) is if you have bird feeders, move them to near the affected plants as most birds love these things, then spray the bugs off the plants and on to the ground where the birds will eat them up! Snack time!!
Hope this helps! They are nasty critters!
Name: sawfly
These nasty little critters dearly love hibiscus and mallow leaves! If you only have one or two bushes you may be able remove them with hand picking but has to be consistent - like every day or two or they will destroy the bush very quickly.
Normally these are called sawfly and love to go on hibiscus plants. If you try to drown them in soapy water it won't work. All you can basically do is examine the leaves and pick the worms off.
I have used tobacco sprays in my plants to eliminate plants here's a recipe
probably the best aside from that and soap spray is to pick them off by hand, as alluded to by others here
here's a good link to other pest control solutions www.appropedia.org/
from the above link, the rhubarb leaf spray sounds promising. Or barring rhubarb leaves i believe you could use kale too as it is also high in oxalic acid (though rhubarb leaf is way higher hence its toxicity to humans)
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I need some help. We have several hibiscus plants and every year they are attacked by something that eats the leaves, they look like tiny green worms and they leave the leaves looking like lace.
