Hello everyone. I have this flower at home and I do not know its name. Recently I noticed that there is excrement from a small worm (but I could not see the worm itself) and some leaves are damaged. I do not know what to do but I want to save the flower, it is very beautiful. Can somebody advise me what to do? I live in Germany.
Hi Mile, First of all my compliments, that's a beautiful Begonia you've got there. I can imagine you do not want to lose it! My idea is that you've probably got a little caterpillar or a little snail/slug crawling around somewhere. Actually, that's good news, because at least it's not a disease. Diseases are much harder to deal with, I always find. The only thing you can do is to keep checking the plant VERY carefully as often as you can, under the leaves and also in and around the flowers. You'll find the critter(s) eventually, it may just take time. Good luck!
Hello There Mile, I second Gardenelf's compliment on your begonia. The large, mangled leaf on the central on the foreground, with the soft-looking brown spot --- I believe that the brown spot is due to water that was perhaps left on a leaf whilst watering the plant. It could be a fungus colony though. I would remove that leaf for security. I did not see any excrement. Where do I look for that? G'elf's suggestion to check the plant thoroughly and frequently is a really good idea. Do you have any leaves that you could photograph to show examples of eating that the worm may have done? Another thing that you may want to do is to hold a surprise inspection in the night before going to bed. If there are worms, they will probably be inactive and sitting on the underside of a leaf or stretched out long on a stem. If it is a beetle, they will be out of the soil and crawling about. I am thinking here about one of the species of Otiorhynchus. I sincerely hope that you do not have one or more of these in your begonia, as there is no recommended Rx. I have had these beetles and could only kill the beetle, but the real problem were the eggs and larvae. An interesting side note of this beetle is that it is parthenogenic. Good luck with finding the culprit. Please do keep us posted.
