Growing in So Cal, darn things love us, my plants not so much. My question is… Is there something I can do to the soil to keep them away without having to use bug spray?
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Caterpillars are crazy this year and last in my area. Trouble is they fall out of the trees and don’t even touch the ground sometimes. Insect barrier glue on the base of the stem may help. You probably already know that BTk or Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki is effective if you have to spray.
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fuck the 
s. they ruined '17 for me and turned me into Frenchy Jr.
me, this year:
neem/pyrethrin every 3 days in veg
safer bt every 3 days in veg, 1st 1-2wk bloom
safer spinosad every 3 days in veg, 1st 1-2wk bloom
so far everything’s looking good but as you all may know now is bOom time for bugs in the northern hermisphere(awesome typo–i’m keeping it).
'cue: Godzilla theme 
good luck yall
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Crap! So no wonder drug for soil. As I suspected. Bug spray it is!
at least BTK is organic 
my city i don’t think really has caterpillars, just friggin cankerworms. they hang from the trees everywhere its so damn annoying.
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Do they do the same thing? Turn your bud brown?
I’m using something organic that my local growing store recommended. I’m def gonna check that it’s BTK. If not, I’m gonna get some for sure. I’m about to put some ladybugs out there for any other creepy crawlies. I’m hoping I sprayed enough already to keep the pillers off. Not sure if BTK hurts lady bugs, hoping they can eat for at least a day or two before they fly off.
btk doesnt hurt any beneficials, only caterpillars moths and bugs which attack trees… BTI is another strain which kills fungus gnats… safer caterpillar spray is BTK
i’ve never grown outside to see what cankerworms would do, all the streets here are lined with trees and they spin a silk web and hang from trees and you end up walking in to them and stuff… super annoying
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Just found one of these damned things in my coffee plants today. Was sure to kill it before it did any harm. Weird thing is, the planter is 30 feet away from any tree.
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yeah they can make it pretty far with their silk web, hang down and the wind blows them i think… the worst is when they shit and piss on you from the trees while youre walking down the street LOL. fall ones turn in to very small white moths… spring cankerworms turn in to tiny grey ones i think.
actually, we also have fuzzy tent caterpillars but i havent seen them in a few years, are these the ones you guys are talking about?
i found these instructions on royal queen seeds
Here are some things you can do without spraying chemical pesticides:
Remove all the caterpillars you can find by hand. Either let them crawl in a garden of someone you don’t like, or kill them. It’s up to you. Just throwing them away is not sufficient because they will come back.
Introduce parasitic wasps to your outdoor grow. There are web-shops in most countries that conveniently deliver beneficial insects to your home. These wasps lay their eggs on the larvae of the butterflies. Newborn wasps will feast of these organisms.
Get your hands on some praying mantis. This is a good option if you live in warmer climates because they don’t do very well when temperatures are too cold. These elegant predators are not leaving the plant until every caterpillar is killed and eaten up.
Spray your plants with neem oil. It won’t be very effective if you already have a large caterpillar population on your plants, but neem oil is always a good option to prevent pests from overpopulating your plants in the first place.
Apply a biological product like Biothur (Trabe), Spruzit Concentrate (Neudorff), or Pireprot (Ecoprotec). These products are tailored to get rid of larvae plagues and are generally made from gram-positive bacillus that is found in natural soils.
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Hahaha! Cracking up! I think I’ll pass on the parasitic wasps! lol but…Praying Mantis I can do!
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btw… My caterpillars are green. Haven’t seen one yet but they lurk…
like aliens… they’re out there…
It’s tough keeping them from roaming and you can’t have more than one in a small area or they will kill each other. Tried them a few years ago for the vegetables. Have two areas set apart by maybe twenty feet with citrus trees along the back (it’s SoCal… it’s the law! lol). Put one in one section, another in the other and two at either end of a 3 tree citrus run. a month later, the two from the veggies had made their way to the trees, where one of the tree ones had already killed the other and a “Battle Royale” started with the other three. A week later, The last remaining one died from being injured killing the other two. It’s easier to spread lady bugs for the little stuff and pick the caterpillars by hand (except for the squash ones which I spray the shite out of … hard rinds.
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That’s what I have. The BTk works like a charm on those.
[quote=“Scissor-Hanz, post:14, topic:11767, full:true”]
Those are a northern thing aren’t they?
Make sure you apply in the morning or evening so it doesn’t hurt any bees. It is only slightly toxic so it would have to be large amounts but the bees are taking a hit at the moment and populations are dwindling so be careful.
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I thought BTi killed bees and BTk was safe?
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My bee population has been pathetic for years. The very few I see these days get eaten by wasps. The neighbor behind me has a swimming pool, so the wasps love my yard, unfortunately.
I certainly don’t want to kill the few bees I have though. I will be careful. 
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ya it looks like BTi has minimal toxicity to honey bees, it seems like BTk might have potential (slight?) negative effects esp combined with other stuff
We found that Bt Cry− and Btk spores induced physiological modifications by differentially modulating enzyme activities. Fipronil influenced the enzyme activities differently at days 10 and 20 and, when combined with Bt spores, elicited modulations of some spore-induced physiological responses. These results show that an apparent absence of toxicity may hide physiological disruptions that could be potentially damaging for the bees, especially in the case of combined exposures to other environmental stressors.
@Meesh if its cankerworms, i think they only feed for about 4 weeks before turning in to tiny moths… there aren’t really any more worms around my area but when you walk down the street hundreds of these tiny white moths fly up out of the grass
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