I inspected the plant for evidence of a bug culprit, but found none.
Just to be on the safe side I sprayed the plant with Yates Insect Gun
I've done my usual "check the internet" and found all manner of possible suspects.
Rabbits - well we don't have any of them near to where we live and how could they climb the fence anyway? The wisteria is quite high up.
Not rabbits.
Squirrels - we definitely have no squirrels near to us - none in New Zealand, in fact.
Not squirrels.
Sparrows - a sure possibility because we have hundreds of sparrows where we are and they cheekily come right up to the doors and windows from the deck.
Could be sparrows.
Doves - one post that I read said collar doves eat Wisteria buds. Lordy, we feed the little darlings and get up to 20 of them hanging around the door in the morning.
It could be collar doves (we call them ring neck doves), yet I doubt it because they aren't any good at hanging onto things and to get at our buds they'd need to hang on the wires. Ring neck doves are walkers and need to stand on a flat surface or branch/perch to eat, so I very much doubt it's them.
Probably not ring neck doves.
Finches - yes we also have finches on our property - chaffinch, green finch, gold finch. They won't come anywhere near the house and I've never seen them up near the deck, so I doubt that it's finches, but you never know.
Possibly it's finches.
So there you have it. I suspect sparrows.
The main advice I found on the internet, if birds are the culprits (and it seems they well could be) is to throw a net over the wisteria until the flowers have all bloomed because it's just the tasty little buds that they find delicious. Cheeky things.
We do have some bird nets, so I'll give it a try.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Aaaaw! What a shame. I wonder if it's possums. They would eat it too. The advice I found on the internet was to try some blood and bone in pantyhose tied onto the wisteria. Possums hate the smell. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteGood try, but not possums. We don't have any around the house in any close proximity. They only come out when it's dark and would have quite a job getting to the wisteria, plus and we'd hear them on our roof. Cute idea about the blood & bone, but seeing the wisteria's about 3 feet from the house, I think the smell would repel us too :>)
ReplyDelete