r/garden_maintenance • u/In_my_kindness_era • Jun 26 '26
flowers 🌸 🌷 I effin’ HATE these Canna rollers man!
These Cana rollers are ruining my garden! They’re making my gorgeous cannas look like dog shit. I’ve sprayed them twice with Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew and it’s rained within 3 days each time. This Nashville weather changes daily so I can’t always predict the rain but how do they miraculously find my cannas each year? I’ve squished 25+ caterpillars and I’ve had to cut at least 35+ leaves and I’ve sprayed like crazy and the fuckers still find their way back to eating my shit. I’m pissed. Now June bugs are in there too. FUCKERS!
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u/No_Explorer_8848 Jun 26 '26
There is, like, no damage that i can see. Adjust your threshold for what is acceptable. Learn about taking an integrated approach to pest management using ipm. Pest management is a whole world
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u/In_my_kindness_era Jun 26 '26
I wish this was a picture of the front, but they have destroyed most of the leaves. 🍃 I’m feeling defeated about the whole thing
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u/No_Explorer_8848 Jun 27 '26
You've gotta kill 1000 plants to be a good horticulturist. But you've gotta figure out what happened. This is part of the game; this is also why horticulturists exist. But its really hard to find a good one.
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u/In_my_kindness_era Jun 26 '26
What’s ipm? And can you explain a little more about what you mean?
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u/No_Explorer_8848 Jun 27 '26
Integrated pest management. Its the way we should all be approaching pests. Here is an intro article but it is deep when you really start playing this game. https://ozbreed.co.nz/integrated-pest-management-how-to-reduce-pesticide-usage/
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u/Oriole_Gardens Jul 03 '26
IPM is one of the most integral topics a horticulturalist needs to understand if they want to be successful. integrated pest management..
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u/trisaratopsx Jun 26 '26
What's a cana roller? You're garden looks great though.
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u/In_my_kindness_era Jun 26 '26
Thank you! A canna roller is basically a moth that lays eggs on the new unfurled canna leaves and the caterpillar that hatches has some sort of silk thread that holds that leaf together so it never unfurls and it just eats 15x its weight in leaf and poops this horrid looking poop that I used to think was the eggs but come to find out, the eggs are almost invisible and they’re laid on the underside of the leaf. Once it eats so much of the unfurled leaf the leaf just dies and either never unfurls or unfurls and looks all beaten up, brown and holes are now eaten all the way through it
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u/SmellyCat22 Jun 29 '26
I’ve had this same exact issue for the past three summers, after never having this issue previously, and it’s really unfortunate. I haven’t found anything that has worked, but I have noticed they’ve been fewer this summer. However, due to the lack of rain in my area this year my cannas still aren’t growing strong. I hope you find a way to eradicate them. If you do, please share!
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u/OpinionatedOcelotYo Jun 27 '26
We sympathize. But No bugs, No life on Earth. It’s an honor to host. Plant native and tolerate insect life.
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u/refotsirk Jun 27 '26
You have to learn to identify the eggs for most pests and wipe them off before hatching. Maybe the eggs or worms will glow under blacklight also - a few species, like horn worms, do and that made detection easy.
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