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My Jiuzhaigou has been looking a little brown the past week, and now it seems it may have acquired a disease. Towards the bottom of the plant, I see these little white clumps at the top of the nodes. When I touch it, it breaks apart and crumbles like a powder.

Can anyone tell me what type of disease this is, and how to treat it. Also, it is planted next to scabrida plants. Do I need to worry that this will spead to my other plants? Can I save this plant or is it too late?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Pictures might help, I've never heard of anything like this. Several years ago when I first planted a bunch of F nitida I noticed that culms started looking'off'. Some broke off part of the way up, others came right out of the ground with a gentle tug. Termites! They were thick through the plants and I finally dug them all out, soaked them in a wheel barrow full of water and moved them elsewhere. They might have been carpenter ants but I think termites is correct. Lost about 1/3 of each clump to them, most of the damage was below ground where they had eaten the rhizome necks off but they also tunneled up the culms and were moving up and down through them - some of those broke off at the node.

I'd at least eliminate that possibility if I were you, you'll find them if they are there but your issue sounds different.

It's not mealy bugs, is it? As Brad said, photos would help.

is the white stuff "webby" as well as powdery? that would suggest mealy bugs to me.

I will try and upload a few pics very soon. I did notice that some powdery balls were webby as well. For the time being, I took my garden hose and used the "jet" spray to sort of power wash them off.

I purchased an organic insecticide that treats like 25 different diseases. Gave it a good shot of spray today, so I am hoping that this will work. If they in fact are mealy bugs, what is the best remedy???

thanks in advance!!

Ah, I thought you were saying that the culm crumbled when you touched it - you mean the white stuff crumbled?

I use Safer Insect killing soap. seems to work pretty well. i usually spray them wait a couple days and spray again.

needmore wrote:Pictures might help, I've never heard of anything like this. Several years ago when I first planted a bunch of F nitida I noticed that culms started looking'off'. Some broke off part of the way up, others came right out of the ground with a gentle tug. Termites! They were thick through the plants and I finally dug them all out, soaked them in a wheel barrow full of water and moved them elsewhere. They might have been carpenter ants but I think termites is correct. Lost about 1/3 of each clump to them, most of the damage was below ground where they had eaten the rhizome necks off but they also tunneled up the culms and were moving up and down through them - some of those broke off at the node.

I'd at least eliminate that possibility if I were you, you'll find them if they are there but your issue sounds different.

Okay- that takes top billing as "most bizarre bamboo pest experience"

termites in their feeding stage are white and only have two segments. they also usually only feed on dead wood. if they looked like big ants they probably were carpenter ants.

I've had termites in some of my bamboos too. My in-ground F. robusta (that got smaller each year), and a couple of different pots. I don't think they were harming the plants though. With the robusta they were probably eating the dead culm stumps (the majority of the plant), and with the potted bamboos they were eating wood chips in the potting mix or mulch.

These guys were killing culms for sure. I had thought that they must be carpenter ants and then one day they developed wings and were swarming so doubt emerged...

I wasn't implying that termites wouldn't have been eating your culms -- I was just saying that the ones I had didn't seem to be doing anything harmful.

Seeing a termite swarm emerge from a nearby dead tree (or whatever) can be pretty wild, and a little scary if they're heading for your house. I've done the web search for "winged ant or termite" before myself.

Alan_L wrote:I wasn't implying that termites wouldn't have been eating your culms -- I was just saying that the ones I had didn't seem to be doing anything harmful.

I wasn't saying you were implying that I was commenting on dudley's post that they usually eat only dead wood.