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22 Dec 13 vera (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

We are living at the Mid North Coast and and this plant popps up at several spots in the garden, I completly neglect them, dont even water them. Plenty of fruit which my toddler demolishes daily. But we sometimes get an infestation of a yellow stripey beetle who mates on the leaves and severly damages some of the plants, any idea what that could be and how to treat it? cheers

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26 Jun 14 Jill (Australia - temperate climate)

I think the yellow beetle is also known as the elm leaf beetle. I have a lot of plants and I get a plague of them in summer. I usually try and manually remove them because even though they are unsightly they actually prefer the leaves to the fruit so you can at least still get a crop. For this reason I don't spray them as they are a seasonal pest and aren't around in the cooler months. The plant does fine in cold weather even with frost and usually gives me a smaller winter crop although they take longer to ripen.

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23 Apr 14 Elissa (Australia - temperate climate)

I got the stripy beetles too. Pyrethrum seems to get rid of them.

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