I have had various issues with Adenium plants here. The are issues with too much rain and with the large swing of the sun’s path throughout the year. It can be a challenge to keep them in enough sunlight.
Keeping them from being overwatered is always a concern. The only helper I have is to ensure the substrate is a very porous mix. Root rot is a major concern for me here in the Philippines
But this post is something else. There are times when I move the pot in the garden and all leaves drop off. Most of the plants seem to take moving them poorly. Ok, the leaves grow back, but really, move 5 feet and the leaves drop?
Anyway this is about the newest affliction for my plants. And that is, the dreaded Green Swallowtail Moth catepillar. I have been getting more fortunate lately in seeing this pest early on in the infestation. Identify this pest early.
The nasty little things is sitting on the underside of the topleaves. You can see how some leaevs have already been a meal. This bug can eat all the leaves from a mature Adenium in just a few hours. In the Philippines they seem to like this plant.
Here is another picture with one on the terracota pot and if you look to the left you will see another sitting on the leaf after it was chewed down. The silver stuff is Christmas lights and not catepillar roadways.
Anyway, over the span of about 1 week I pulled about 20 catepillars off of this rack, another rack nearby another 10 bugs. The rack about 5 meters away, Zero bugs.
I also tried Neem as a mild spray, it didn’t seem to work at all. Maybe these bugs use Neem as a shower aide.