Well it’s been a while since I’ve journalled. With the silly season activities, some business stuff, and crazy weather, the garden’s been in maintenance mode only.

But I’ve had an outbreak of some serious herbivores in the last week or two, and I need some identification help if anyone has an idea.

These buys seem isolated to my Physalis family. First the Cape Gooseberry has been stripped to the bones, and now it looks like they’ve moved over a couple metres and taken up residence in the Cossack Pineapples. These little critters appear in huge numbers on the backs of the leaves, ranging from tiny 1mm dark green/black lumps, up to 5mm large dark grey/green, mishappen pear-like blobs of soft squishy substance, with small black heads and legs at the front small section, quickly expanding to huge slug like back sections.

They wash off the leaves very easily, but as they are on the back only (mainly) and in such large numbers, it’s hard to get them all off. Plus, it took them only about 3 days from when I first noticed them, until they had the first plant stripped bear, so they’re fast eaters.

The pictures are hard to get since they’re so small, but hopefully there’s enough here that someone can identify and give me some suggestions on management.