What's Eating My Fig Tree?
Figs have few insect enemies where winters chill — the real war is over the ripe fruit itself, fought against birds, beetles, and ants in the last 48 hours before harvest.
The usual suspects
Birds
The signs: Ripe figs pecked open or hollowed on the tree, always the softest fruit first.
What it looks like: Mockingbirds and jays run patrols as figs color.
What to do: Net the tree or bag individual figs with organza bags at softening; harvest twice daily at peak.
Fig beetles and sap beetles
The signs: Ripe or split fruit swarmed and hollowed from the eye inward.
What it looks like: In the Southwest, big velvet-green fig beetles; elsewhere tiny black sap beetles entering the eye.
What to do: Harvest at first ripeness, remove every overripe or split fig, and favor closed-eye varieties where beetles run bad.
Ants
The signs: Trails running up the trunk straight into the ripest figs' eyes.
What it looks like: They follow the sugar the moment fruit softens.
What to do: A band of sticky barrier around the trunk (on tape, not bare bark) cuts the highway; harvest promptly.
Root-knot nematodes
The signs: In sandy Southern soils: a tree that grows weakly and wilts easily despite water; roots show beaded galls when examined.
What it looks like: Microscopic soil roundworms — the galls are the visible signature.
What to do: No cure in place: mulch heavily, water and feed generously to help the tree outgrow the drag, and plant future figs with heavy organic matter.
Rabbits and voles
The signs: Winter bark gnawing low on the trunk in cold regions.
What it looks like: Paired tooth marks beneath the snow line.
What to do: Trunk guards and cleared mulch, especially on young trees and wrapped winter figs.
When it's not a pest at all
Figs that drop green before ripening usually signal water stress or a young tree finding its rhythm — not a thief. Rusty-brown leaf spots that defoliate the tree in humid regions are fig rust, a fungus of late summer.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial