Large Crickets
 

Last week both my wife and I were hit by very large crickets( about 6 inches long without outstretched legs). I fished one out of the pool which was about the size of my palm. I've never seen them this size before. Have I just been leading a sheltered life or are these new. Can someone enlighten me?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Technical point. Do you really mean crickets, or big grasshopper/locust types?

The latter are quite common, but really big crickets are less common.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Unfortunatly we get rather a lot of those here, they are very partial to my very large and beautiful passion flower plant!

In answer to the OP question....yes that size sounds about right! :)

Re: Large Crickets
 

Yes now you mention it I guess it is more like a locust. I just didn't think of locusts in the context of Spain but I guess that was me not being on the ball.

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Re: Large Crickets
 

You can't share images from your own computer. You have to upload them!
We get just the odd one of these huge locust type things. Must admit I always thought of them as big crickets too. :o I thought locusts were just crickets that had started to swarm from being too close together. I blame my husband for telling me that! I'm sure someone her knows the real answer. But there do seem to be a few more around this spring. Well. we've had fire flood and famine (well, financial crisis anyway) Maybe it's another biblical plague in the offing . We're all doomed!:lol:

Re: Large Crickets
 

Damned things I now kill them all, they have made a right mess of my peach, avocado and fig :frown:

Sorry your photo link does not work, I cannot remember how to do it :unsure:

Re: Large Crickets
 

Interesting.

There are two body plans. The locust/grasshopper one is where the body seems more flattened laterally, and the crickets look more flattened vertically, if that makes sense. The smaller grey crickets are the house crickets, and very hard to eradicate once they get established. The shiny black ones are the field crickets. There are green crickets here but I see very few of those.

There's also the odd mole cricket, but you will be very lucky to see one of those.

The grasshopper types mostly are the small grey/brown ones, the big grey/brown onle that look to be the size of locusts, and the green grasshopper. Those are apparantly the ones that do the most damage, according to my neighbour.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Are you sure? I have never seen any of those here with leaves eaten by them, but I have seen the fruit massacred by beetles.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Big browny grey coloured ones and the bright green ones always on the plants. Last year I was told to get rid of them all as they damage the plants. Some have leaves eaten others have red leaf curl. My plum is dead.

Re: Large Crickets
 

One should always listen to people who have been gardening there for a long time, but do remember that sometimes they talk the purest garbage.

Red leaf curl. Matt is the boy for all this, but I am certain that whatever causes it, it isn't grasshoppers or crickets. Take the trouble to detect what it is that really is eating the leaves.

When people tell me to 'get rid of them all' I usually worry, as it is seldom 'all' that are to blame, and it's a shame to go around killing everything. If only because, a) you may not get the right pest, b) you may waste chems and money and c) the indiscriminate killing of 'bugs' can result in you killing the predatory ones, which will result in the problem ones going out of control.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I would have thought that the big grey/brown ones were locusts,though most ppl.say not.
I wonder what's the difference ?
Presume they belong to the same family ?

My mut just caught a one and ate it,..very cruchy.
He seems to have taken over the job from the cats.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Spray them with copper oxychloride just make sure that you do it well before or well after they have flowered and they will be fine. They tend to shed all their diseased leaves and put new growth on, this can put them under a hell of a lot of stress so give them a VERY heavy dose of nitrogen rich feed then get some seaweed extract into them, they will eventually make a good recovery.

Re: Large Crickets
 

There is no one here to ask, I had a good crop of peaches last year not looking so good this year. Same with my fig but not looked at it to see how it is doing. The plum was poorly looking last year good fruit but less of. Now no green when scrap the bark. As far as I know they have never been treated with anything. I squash the beasties UGH

Re: Large Crickets
 

I added a photo of one of the brown beasties to my gallery on here cant remember how to add to post sorry

Re: Large Crickets
 

I will get a photo of a leaf when the rain stops ! and post it to my gallery. I will also look for the items you mention. Thank you.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I've never been sure if the things we get in the garden are crickets or grasshoppers or something else again but I do know they munch their way through lots of my plants and have a habit of flying straight at me. :eek:

Re: Large Crickets
 

UGH thats the nasty wee blighters

Re: Large Crickets
 

You can ask me TCW, fruit trees are kind of my speciality... well apple trees really because of the joy they give me...

Re: Large Crickets
 

That's the big ones all right. Typical grasshopper body type.

Watch for the same body type, but smaller and green. They do real damage.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I used to have a peach tree which grew to a hell of a size in absolutely no time at all.
Problem was, it was for ever attracting all manner of evil insects and creepy crawlies.
My Spanish neighbour advised me to get rid, which I did, for the sake of the rest of the garden.

Re: Large Crickets
 

To me,they look near enough like a locust.
Anyone know the difference ?

Re: Large Crickets
 

I've lost a peach, apricot and pear tree in the last couple of years, but I don't know why, the rest of the garden is thriving.

Locusts, or whatever they are, I get hundreds of them, but I did notice only in the last few days that I've got a really loud one in an orange tree, three or four times as loud as the usual ones. I haven't seen it, or them, yet.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I think the sweeter the fruit the more insects it attracts.

I've often gone out on a night to try and spot a particularly noisy one, yet even though I can almost pinpoint where the sound is coming from, it's very rare I can actually spot them, they blend in so well.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Is that not the cicadas that you hear ?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Looking at images on Google they are all looking the same but the names are all the same too :confused:

Re: Large Crickets
 

If it's in the trees, probably cicadas, if on the ground, what they call here onion crickets, but I suspect they are mole crickets.

They create tunnels with a shaped opening that acts like a speaking trumpet to amplify the sound.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I looked on a couple of websites.
It seems cicadas are only active night-time.
Locusts/Grasshoppers which are virtully the same, only active daytime.

They are both capable of a fair bit of damage, though both in different ways.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Why not turn adversity into opportunity?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Yes,well they are quite a delicacy in some parts of the World, my dog and previously my cats seenmed to think so to, as they crunched them up before getting them down their necks.

Must confess I've never yet tried them on the barbie.
Something to look forward to perhaps.

Re: Large Crickets
 

I did mean here as in where I live, although the viveros is very good just my spanish is not.

The peach was planted and started to be trained as fan shape on a wall. It is not out of hand but I must do something about pruning it after this years fruit. The fig the same and it is taking off a bit too much, will need work also after the figs are gone.

I know some folks think Spain is not civilised but I am and have no need nor want to eat the little beasties :ohmy:

Re: Large Crickets
 

You can do what you like to the fig and it will just keep growing, I have ripped them out of gardens before only to go back a year later to do more work on the garden and see another fig growing where the last one was... they are tough plants and if you have ever been to India and seen them growing in and around whole buildings you will see what I mean... you won't kill them.
Let me know when you prune the peach and I will send you a really simple pruning diagram for fruit production, as you may know, to get the most fruit from your fruit trees they need to be pruned in a specific way, its not rocket science but it really does make a difference.
I personally don't agree with the idea that if you have stone fruits in your garden then you will always have pests.... if a plant is healthy and strong it can fend off any amount of pest they are likely to have to deal with on a day to day basis, its the arrogance of men who think that they have more power over growing things than nature does.... trees were fighting off pests long before we ever learnt to walk upright and bash each other over the head, and I'll wager will do it long after we are gone...

Re: Large Crickets
 

I dunno, some pests are just beyond belief. Plus of course when we upset the natural balance, especially with senseless use of indiscriminate pesticides....

Here, we get a beautiful beetle, looks like some kind of very shiny cockchafer, they home in on damaged or ripe fruit, and come in black or greenish gold colours.

Unless you are super vigilant and keep on top of every single fruit, they will be all over the trees, with scores of the damn things flying in from all over.

Matt, do you know anything about nisperos? The local loquat? The fruit on some trees gets brown/black spots which can in its worst stages end up with the fruit remaining small, inedible and completely covered with a hard black skin.

Re: Large Crickets
 

Not 100% sure but it sounds a bit like brown rot, it tends to mummify the fruit which sounds a bit like what you are describing... sound about right? Generally though you will see some spots on some of the leaves as well. If thats what it is you need to get rid of ALL offending materiel, burn it, bin it, whatever, but don't compost it... hit it with a good anti rot , something with phosphoric acid in it and hit the leaves with it, its a perfectly safe chemical, its in almost all cola based drinks and it works fantastically, and.... and you will hear me say this LOADS, hit it with some seaweed extract.... its a miracle cure mate it really is!

Isn't the nispero the south american one? I'm sure thats come up before on here hasn't it?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Yeah, mummify is a pretty good description. Brown spots on the leaves too, even some small trees.

Should I make up the anti rot with cola then? (joke.) God knows where the tree comes from. The really wierd thing to me is this. The roots (they are grafted) are radically different from the fruiting stock, as different as if you had grafted an apple onto a citrus.

There's a two sachet treatment for vines and garlic based on metalaxil and mancozeb in the first, and copper oxychloro in the second.

Would that do it? Also, when would you suggest using it during the year?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Mancozeb is a BRILLIANT product, I rarely advise people use it because its just so hard to get hold of for most people but yeah, go for it.
Yeah thats normal for the scion to be grafted onto a completely different stock, most horticulturists and plantsmen use a stock that is aggressive, these quite often have thorns, take pears for example, a vast majority of pears are grafted onto Quince stock, when the scion gets stressed or goes into terminal decline then the quince takes over and throws up thorny shoots from the base, I have seen people cut the main pear stock or scion down and "hope for the best" with the rootstock... and no amount of explaining will tell them they are wrong....

Re: Large Crickets
 

I did wonder if it wasn't quince that was being used on the nispero.....

That Mancozeb is pretty standard issue here. They advise it on almost anything. Garlic, roses, geraniums...

Re: Large Crickets
 

Almost certainly mate, quince is so often used because, like most thorn bearing plants it is a vigorous grower.

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That explains it. It just surprised me because the root stock seemed so different from the fruiting stock.

Is it OK to use Mancozeb so freely?

Re: Large Crickets
 

I would not use it on or near fruit you intend to eat and so long as you take all the usual precautions then yeah its fine... remember our friend Paracelsus?

Re: Large Crickets
 

Yeah, there's the usual 30 day toxicity......

Paracelsus? Not quite sure how he fits in there, unless it was down to sticking to the correct doseage?