Help please! White, maggot-like worms have infested Juniper

DyingJuniper

CLIFF NOTES - I have disgusting maggot-like creatures in the soil of my juniper. There is slight webbing on the leaves along with white spots. The vegetation is brown along the limbs of the tree but at the ends of the growth it is still green.


I have had this juniper for about 2 years, I bought it as a very small, untrained tree. At the start growth was good but then i noticed webbing starting to form around the branches. Along with the webbing i noticed there are small white splotches on the leaves of my tree. From reading this site and others I determined they were probably something like spider mites. I regularly hosed down the tree to remove any webbing, hoping that the problem would disappear.

Slowly the branches of my tree started to die. It is strange to me how they are dying though. The foliage will be green at the ends, but the closer you get to the limb the more brown it gets. It's almost as if the tree is dying from the inside out.

I decided that this was not going to get any better on its own so I bought an insecticide claiming to kill 40+ pests and sprayed down the tree with it. After doing so I placed the tree in the sink and let it soak with water. When I went to retrieve the tree from the sink I noticed several VERY large white worms, almost like maggots crawling on the surface. When I looked closer I saw HUNDREDS of tinier, baby versions of this large maggot-like worm gasping for air. I'm not gonna lie, I was incredibly grossed out, these things were disgusting looking.

I decided to take immediate action and removed the plant from the soil. The soil was very black and it looked almost as if the roots had rotted. Whether this is from the insects eating parts and leaving the rest to rot, I don't know. The smell was also disgusting. After removing the plant I doused it in insecticide (which does not seem to affect these creatures in any way) and replanted it in fresh soil.

I hoped that I had eliminated my problem, but after inspecting the plant today I see that webbing has began to form again (after only two days), there are still white spots on the leaves (which i assume are eggs for these insects) and I saw several baby maggot-like worms crawling around the edges of the pot.

Now I am left with two branches and very little vegetation. I may have waited too long to seek help but I still want to save this plant. If any of you have any idea what these insects are and what I should do to get rid of them I would really appreciate it, thanks.

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cindyread

Is your juniper inside or out. If it is inside put out. On my inside house plants I sometimes get small nats. So I put a 1/2 in. layer of sand that the nats can't get through.It could be over watering There is a fine line of too little or too much water.So good luck. But it sounds like your juniper is is knonw longer with us.

Cindy

DyingJuniper

it is outside on the front porch...could be overwatering. it seems to me that i need to find a way to kill these eggs and repot the damn thing again. does anyone have any clue what kind of worms these could be?

Ian_Homer

Sounds like it might be Vine Weevil to me - do they look like this?

If there were as many as you describe, they will have had a serious effect on the root system.

There are specialist treatments available for them from all good garden stores.

Treat, keep just moist, in the shade outside and keep your fingers crossed.

Good Luck.... any chance of a picture of the bugs and the tree ?

Regards,
Ian.

Attached Images

vine weevil.jpg (35.1 KB, 60 views)

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Alasdair

It sounds like two pests in one here. I agree with Ian that the 'maggots' sound like vine wevil grubs. they live in the soil and munch away at the roots until they are big enough to pupate and leave as adults. This munching of the roots would cause them to rot as you described and would affect the upper plant due to a lack of nutrients and water. Rotting roots also use up the oxygen in the soil, another bad thing for your tree.

The webbing you describe is most likely not caused by the grubs (who live below the soil surface) but there is a multitude of pests which do this; spider mites being one of them. Hopefully somebody will be able to help further.

Al

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DyingJuniper

Thanks alot guys. Yes it does look like the vine weevil you posted. I will head to the local hardware store to see if I can find an insecticide that will kill them.

I would take a picture of them on the plant but my digital camera is AWOL.

Ian_Homer

By the way "DJ" (Shall we call you that ? - since you might always regret having that name as a reminder) if you go to your top left menu bar there is the option of "User CP". Here, you can fill in some details about yourself and a rough location. It always helps to understand your likely climate in the event you have some queries in future.

Best Regards,
Ian.

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