Towards the top of my "garden hate" list are the Bronze Orange Bugs (also known as Stink Bugs). These can be bronze in colour or black as are the ones in my garden.
Not only do these obnoxious little bugs chew and suck all the goodness out of the new citrus growth causing it to wither and die, they also have an annoying habit of squirting smelly streams of citric acid in your general direction.
Previously I have tried hosing them off the branches but this wasn't as successful as I had hoped, they soon returned to resume their leaf munching.
So today was the day I declared war on these bugs and, armed with gloves, an old pair of kitchen tongs (not sure I'd want to use them in the kitchen again), a plastic bag and eye protection, I set off to remove each and every one from my two citrus trees.
I had procrastinated for ages, not relishing the task of handling these nasty little critters but the tongs certainly made a difference. I can see now that I should have done this job a month or so ago while they were still juveniles, before so much damage had been done to my citrus trees.
Be sure to adequately cover yourself, particularly your eyes, when removing these bugs as the smelly liquid they squirt is quite caustic.
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