Save Our Citrus Melbourne: Pruning out gall wasp.

Kaye Roberts-Palmer, founder of Save Our Citrus Melbourne, demonstrates how to prune out galls.
Visit saveourcitrusmelbourne for more information.
Credits:
Kaye Roberts-Palmer, BlueBeeGardenDesign.com.au
Video production: Neroli Wesley, ShiverVision.com.au
Graphics and story: Kaye Roberts-Palmer
Animation: Neroli Wesley, ShiverVision.com.au
Animation audio: Freesound.org under CC attribution:
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[@A_DR]

My Father taught me to drill the tiniest of holes in each gall, thus killing the larvae inside. He also taught me that gall actually tricks the tree into thinking it's sick, thus producing more growth and more lemons.

[@itsshwetas]

Thank you! We recently bought a house with 2 established citrus trees. I've done my "prune for June" and noticed a LOT of these bumps. Hopped on here and realised they're gall wasp larvae... There's so much citrus around our neighbourhood that I'm sure a lot of people have this issue.

[@aaronlim1122]

P.s. Having read further, I am now exposing gall wasp infection with potato peeler, then coating it with calcined kaolin/petroleum jelly (67%/33%). The theory is kaolin dries out the infection whilst the petroleum jelly stops the rain from washing kaolin away. My trial is in Adelaide, hope it works :-). (To get small amounts of kaolin, enquire your local ceramics/potter group)

[@hoopsaustralia]

how did your trial go?

[@hoopsaustralia]

Has anyone tried this?

[@tpv59]

Thank You. APPRECIATED.

[@ftrobbiani]

thanks. I enjoyed your video.

[@missk8teu]

Thank you for this!!! my poor lime tree has been suffering for years. All the branches had been affected by the wasps so i've trimmed them off, cut the galls up, and they are now soaking in water to kill them off. My poor tree is looking very naked now :( I hope it will survive winter. I hope the wasps also wont come back. I really hope i've done the right thing by my tree :/ can you tell i'm worried! hahha

[@brettfoote9708]

Devastated i have these problems in my dwarf potted citrus pots thanks for your advice

[@porphyrio1]

Hey, there is now better advice on treating this, check out other youtube vids. Some use potato peeler to expose the larvae but don't go all around the branch else you'll ring bark. Someone else spray with kaolin base product, which keeps insects at bay. I've not tried this so I presume if we have the nodes already then use the potato peeler method to kill existing larvae first and then spray at the appropriate time of the year to prevent wasp from laying eggs.

[@zorlacskaterfreak]

👍

[@maverickyoda379]

Hi Kaye, do you advise both cutting through the gall and submerging the galls in water to drown them?

[@saveourcitrusmelbourne3216]

Hi - yes if you have a few galls its good to cut through as many as possible. But the submersion in water will kill them too if you miss any galls - good luck!

[@saveourcitrusmelbourne3216]

Hi Maverick - the main thing is to submerge them this completely drowns the wasps

[@hannahr7068]

Hi there i just bought a patio lemon tree lemoniscious and i saw those white lines along the branches its still so small im scared its wasp larvae. I thought that this was normal ! So in june ill prune it back if i see any lumps? Sorry im new to gardening thank you :)

[@saveourcitrusmelbourne3216]

Good luck Hannah - remember the white stripes on a bump indicate the gall - good luck!

[@zorlacskaterfreak]

What a hottie!