"The process of photosynthesis is like a fine, critical thread that invisibly suspends all our food and the dining experience before us". Lloyd Godman 2005

St Andrews Garden, Victoria Australia

Cherry Trees - there are three Cherry trees in the St Andrews Orchard

Establishing the tree is one thing, protecting it against wildlife is quite another - the tree is surrounded by wire netting supported by star pickets to stop attack from wallabies who eat the leaves. The netting runs to the ground to stop rabbits who might ring bark the tree.

When in fruit it is also covered with netting to prevent opossums and parrots who eat the fruit. The Star pickets also prevent large Kangaroos who frequent the orchard from bashing into the tree and breaking it down.

I never had to worry about any of this lot in the New Zealand garden -

Pear Slug - also attacks cherry leaves

You do need to rid your tree of these pesky little blighters or they will come back in Autumn ten fold. Left untouched they can strip a small to medium size tree of its foliage. They will not eat al the foliage but feed on the leaf (skeletonise) it. As the leaf can not repair itself it falls and then this in turn is less energy for growth due to the lack of available chloroplasts present in the surviving leaves.

So how do you get rid of these leaf munching buggers.

So this leads us to either a mechanical means or a physical method

You have already eluded to the fact you do not want to squash them. So use drying agents such as lime or ash, this may be dusted on the tree foliage to dehydrate the larvae.