Thrips
Thrips are really tiny, but can be seen by the naked eye. Some may have wings and some may not. Thrips reproduce rapidly, especially in tight places. That is what makes them hard to get rid of when using pesticides. The suck the sap right out of your plant with there piercing mouths, which makes the leaves look like they turned white. You can tell when you have thrips by taking a look at your leaves, the leaves will look as if there chlorophyll have been ripped right off the plant. Plants that are damaged canāt be healed thus making it harder for the plant to absorb light. SO if left untreated the thrips will kill the plants. Damage also can be seen by the greenish black specks of there poop they leave on leaves. Also the plants will show silver patchs from scar tissue. Depending on the severity at first, thrip damage might look like spider mite damage untill it increases in damage and then thrips case is for sure when you see the greenness replace with big parts of white.
Thrips damage on the picture
One good way to repel thrips for those growing outside is to use garlic, this is a good way to keep them away before you get them. The color yellow attracts the thrips and should be advised not to have this color around your growā¦ If you already have them using neem oil, and or lady bugs can get rid of them. If the infestation is bad then you need to use biological solution like, pyrethrin-like insecticides. Picture 8 shows thrips damage.
Other Products include:
Chemicals
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Docās Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
Caterpillars (cutworms, cabbageworms, ect.)
chewed leaves. Damage: Most caterpillars feed on plants of some kind, they can feed on wool and hair (the clothes moth) Some are pests in gardens and yards. The leaf roller caterpillars can cause some severe damage of trees and shrubs, while others, such as cabbage loopers, and cutworms can cause severe damage to gardens.
If you find caterpillars have been eating at your plants,garden and you need to get rid of them are several non-toxic and least toxic methods to choose from.
Controls
Hand picking: Easit way to controll them is to pick them up and knock them into a bucket of soapy. If you are scared about handling caterpillars, you can use some gloves or have someone else pick them up for you.
Chemical:
BTK in dust form can be used to kill caterpillars. BTK can also be used to foliar spray your plants. One tablespoon of neem oil added to your BT mix helps stick the mix to the plants better when you are foliar sprayingā¦ BTK is available in liquid form. Apply BTK on all of the leaves both top and underside If you decided using the dust kind,spray your plants down with water before you apply the dust Apply every week to 2 weeks and or after it rains. The caterpillars must eat the BT as they are feeding on foliage in order for the caterpillars to be rid of.
Organic ways:
Insecticidal soaps, neem, oil, and spinosad are the safest insecticides that can be used to controlā¦ Soaps and neem are non-toxic and are great to use when you have a lot of pets and want to be friendly to nature and its animals. Spinosad works very very good in controlling the caterpillar population and is non toxic to wild-life, pets, and humans. It hardly has any impact at all on the plants.
Picture 1 in the Misc section shows damage from caterpillars.
Slugs and snails (Outdoor Growers)
Both slugs and snails travel by secreting a mucus or slime on which they glide. When you see the slime trail on your plants and have damage, then it was most likely caused by slugs or snails.When your garden is very moist slugs and snails can live for a long time as this is the key to them living a long time. If you keep your garden not as moist and dark slugs and snails cannot live as long. They stay away from the sunlight along with hiding around moist dark areas in the garden.They also hide in Mulches, short stubby plants, boards, and in the soil. They come out mostly at night and on cloudy days. They feed by chewing holes into your leaves and can clip the edges of leaves and flowers.Slugs and Snails are mostly pests of seedlings and herbaceous plants that are close to the ground. In order to confirm the damage was caused by slugs or snails, look for a silvery trail of mucous.Controls
Snails can cause massive damage to gardens if given a chance. It is very unlikely you will be able to completely rid your garden of them, but try to keep the numbers down as much as possible to keep healthy and undamaged plants. Here are some ways to control slugs and snails.
Reduce slug and snail damage dramatically by watering in the morning instead of the evening.
If you do see any slugs or snails avoid putting mulches and dark hiding cover.Oak leaf mulch will deter slugs and snails.
Handpick slugs and snails at night. Use a bucket to put them into soapy water.
Lay boards down in the garden to trap slugs and snails.
Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around youāre your plants base of the stems will help keep out slugs and snails, but it can also stop other beneficial insects.
Soak the soil with wormwood tea.
Put copper wire around your garden or at the base of your.Slugs get a big shock when they touch copper Just make sure you donāt trap them inside your garden when you put copper around your garden.
Beer is good to use, because slugs love beer!. Take a container of beer and bury it in your garden with it just barly above the ground so they can drink it and drown.
And one of our favorite additivesā¦ SALT!
Predators that like to eat snails include:snakes, toads, frogs,fireflies, predatory snails, birds, beetles. The large, black iridescent beetles you see in your yard are predators. Firefly larvae eat on slugs and snails and can literally wipe out the development of them by eating 40 to 60 snails from just 1 larve of a firefly!!
Please be kind to nature and pets and stay away from poison slug bates. If you have seen what it can do to pets you wouldnāt want to ever use it again!!!
Poisonous baits are hazardous to all living beings and animals. Slugs and snails can become resistant to baits. So its better to use other methods and stay away from chemical baits, all the while protecting nature.
Leaf miners
These Little creatures are a pain to get rid of, the miners eat and dig squiggly lines into your leaves all the while planting there larvae in them making it hard to get rid of them. They plant there eggs in the leaves in mid When they hatch they feed off of your leaves untill they get big enough to pupate. Pupation occurs within the leaf or in the soil beneath the plant. After they emerge the entire cycle will start over and you will have a bigger infestation.Controls
Controls: Natural control for these insects is difficult. You can remove affected leaves and discard them. Chemical control is hard and is ment towards the emerging adults. Since the larvae is well protected within the leaf. Neem oil will work well.
Pictures 3-4 in the misc section shows leaf miners attack
Scale (Outdoor Problem)
Scale can be found on stems, underside of branches, trunks, young trees or shrubs. They usally emerge from there eggs around March to Aug and make there homes on the plant. They pierce the cells and feed on the sap of the plant. After they have a place on your plant they devlop a very hard shell which protects them from other preadatory insects and chemical compounds to get rid of them. After they develop this hard back the secreation they drip attracts ants. Now since the ants travel over the scales thus dragging it all over your plant spreading the scale from one place to another on the plants. When the secreation falls on leaves it can make a type of mold called Sooty Mold which makes the leaves look dirty and black.Sooty MOLD
The problem with this type of fungi is that it attracts several types of sucking insects,like Aphids, Mealy Bugs, Thrips, and Whiteflies..This mold is so dark that it affects the plant by inhibiting the light from reaching its leaves which stops photosynthesis, which in turn makes the plant die.Control
The waxy layer that is on scales protects them from insects and other pesticides. In order to get rid of them Use a horticultural oil to kill the adult populations throughout the year. If you can combine the oil with the insecticide, such as, Orthene, Sevin, or malathion it can almost wipe out the scale population along with the sooty mold it causes!Neem soil works very well too!
You can do a few thingsā¦ more if your not nearing the end of harvestā¦
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take a pack of chewing tobacco, mix it with a gallon of water, let it brew for a dayā¦ spray the plants down as neededā¦ if your a cigarette smoker no worries spray em down till harvestā¦ watch for moldā¦
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take some safers natural soap, mix it with some water so its a soapy slippery mixture, soak em downā¦ the idea is to suffocate the bugs in the soapy bubblesā¦
