What's eating my lychee?

Lychee is most seriously damaged by the lychee erinose mite, which causes grotesque, furry rust-coloured galls on new leaves and shoots. Lychee stink bugs suck developing fruit, causing premature drop, and mealybugs colonise shoots and fruit clusters. Timely sulfur or miticide sprays at bud burst are the primary control.

Dense, rust-brown velvety erinea (felt-like galls) on the undersides of new leaves; severely distorted, stunted flushes and reduced yield. Apply wettable sulfur or registered miticide at the first sign of new leaf flush and again 2–3 weeks later. Remove and destroy heavily infested shoots. Avoid moving infested plant material.

Adults and nymphs pierce and suck developing fruitlets and shoots, causing premature fruit drop, wilting of flower panicles, and internal browning of retained fruit. Collect and destroy egg masses (orange clusters on leaves); knock adults into soapy water; apply registered pyrethroid if populations are high. Protect natural enemies — parasitic wasps attack egg masses.

White waxy colonies on shoot tips, flower panicles, and fruit stalks; honeydew supports sooty mould that coats fruit and leaves. Apply neem oil or horticultural soap to all shoot tips and panicles; use ant barriers on the trunk (sticky bands or kaolin) since ants protect mealybug colonies.

Larvae tunnel into the pedicel and fruit flesh near the seed; infested fruit fails to develop and drops, or contains frass-filled galleries at harvest. Apply registered insecticides at early fruit development; bag fruit clusters with fine-mesh bags; harvest promptly at maturity and remove dropped fruit from the ground.