Mulberry leaf pest?

[JoshHolbrook]

So, I have the problem - and I've had it with a few mulberries - that as soon as I put it in the ground, they will get completely defoliated by something. I never see any bug that does it, but something eats all their leaves. It has happened with every single one.

What's the deal? Is there a way to control/circumvent whatever's getting my mulberries without spraying? Any resistant varieties? We have plenty of native mulberry around here, and they all seem to do fine. I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a Pakistan Mulberry at some point, but I'm not gonna until I can figure this problem out.

Thanks,
Josh

[bopcrane]

Were any leaves left partially on or was it just entirely defoliated w/ no trace of damaged material left? Any chew marks, markings, scat, hoof prints, broken branches etc that you could go off of to help w/ ID? I know deer are the first pest I'd attempt rule out in my neck of the woods regarding damage to any mulberries, rosaceae or prunus spp.

Are your trees caged? If it's in an area you could monitor (has wifi) I like to catch critters on camera to ID, trail cams work really well for more remote plantings.

[jrin3r]

This sounds similar to a problem we had when my wife was volunteering at the local nursery earlier this year. One morning she came in to find a few of the newly arrived manzanitas eaten down to a nub (small ones, in a 1# pot). Then each subsequent morning, a few more... and a few more. Funny that it was only the manzanita, not the hundreds of other plants all around the nursery. Finally, by luck, she watched a ground squirrel come out of hiding and run over to the manzanita. Weird, since we all have ground squirrels on our properties in this town but never see this type of damage, where it singles out a specific plant. Never knew they had such a hankering for manzanita!!!

So your dilemma reminds me of a experiment I did as a kid in 4-H. We sprinkled tracking powder on the ground around bait to attract pests, then that next evening we used something similar to a black light to track their movements. It was quite fun. So I was thinking that if you had another tree to sacrifice, you could sprinkle talcum powder on the ground around the base of the tree to see if anything leaves tracks in it while feasting on your mulberry leaves. This would work on small animals like mice and squirrels, but crawling insects as well. And if there are no tracks, then you've eliminated a number of leaf-feasters and well on the road on the process of elimination.

Good luck!

[JoshHolbrook]

Wow, I wasn’t even thinking mammals. I hope that’s the case, because that makes my life easier - no chemicals except some copper delivered at high velocity!