Hello, had anyone ever dealt with these buggers in their no til beds? I’ve heard they’re not really a problem. I assume as long as there’s organics for them to eat, they’ll leave the plants alone. Maybe they’ll even help the breakdown of the organics. But I have a shitload of them. I will not put any kind of poison into my soil.
Has anyone used Beauveria bassiana to control them? I hear it works good for hard shelled insects. I’d love to hear from anyone that’s dealt with them. I also don’t want to put anything in there that will have a negative effect of my worms. Thanks everyone!
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Goggle says:
These little critters mainly eat decaying plant matter and other decomposing materials, making them great decomposers and good for the ecosystem as they can improve soil quality. But in large numbers, they can be a nuisance as they start consuming new roots, lower leaves, seedlings, and even fruits and vegetables.
So I’d say in high numbers, it’s an issue.
Try this.
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they are utterly benign and innofensive creatures. they are beneficial decomposers and soil aerators. no action is necessary.
If population density reaches critical mass they may begin to nibble some lower leaves, but I have never seen them cause significant damage that would affect a harvest.
As you said, as long as they have organic matter to work on they will leave the plants alone. Just add some green mulch once in a while and they will be fine.
They will improve your drainage with their tunneling, enrich the soil with their castings, and when they die or molt, they add chitin to the soil.
They have also been found to eat insect eggs.
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Yeah man that’s what I figured. I’m going to leave them alone. I have a million springtails too. There’s a guy on YouTube called Joshua Steensland that had a crazy infestation. He just let them be and eventually they got a virus or something and the population crashed. They’re kind of cool. I like to put a heavy layer of alfalfa on top of the soil and then top dress all the other amendments underneath. That mulch really helps keep the other amendments stay moist and speeds up the breakdown. Thanks for your opinion!
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Thanks for your opinion man! I’m going to let them be until I see detrimental effects. There’s a lot of organics in my soil and I will continue to add more. They shouldn’t need to go after the plants.
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Ya I have tons here. Every once in a while I’ll have them nibbling on young plants leaves and they love young cover crops. But like everything stated above they don’t cause me too much problems and can be controlled for the growers benefit.
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I plants a cover crop a few days ago with the idea(like you said) they’ll go after them. It’s just starting to pop up. I’m going to start transferring a lot of my red wigglers from my outside pot to the inside one now. I’d like to start throwing all our vegetable scraps in the inside pot but I’m a little worried it may be too acidic.
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Potato bugs are completely harmless to cannabis
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Not completely, for the the most part yes, so long as they have enough food.
They can sometimes eat sprouts and if you give a big load of water at once they tend to flee to higher points, and if you have mature plants and they have no other organic matter to eat then they will climb into your cannabis and eat and shit on the buds.
So water only little bit at a time.
And make sure they have food, but don’t give too much either.
Should they really get out of hand then it’s perhaps worth considering having two no-till beds that you can rotate while you have the other one dry out after harvest to get rid of them (will work for just about any pest), they need moisture to survive, and dry soil revives pretty quickly once you add water and seeds again.
Especially with some aloe vera water.
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What method did you use to get rid of them?
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Topdress with some fresh grass and tree leaves and they’ll stop eating your cannabis.
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They’re at the leaves because there is literally nothing else for them to eat. Usually only time I see them anywhere other than the ground is when they’re getting randy. I don’t have them inside, though.
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Potato bug porn!
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What @Rogue said. 
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They’re usually not a problem because I have so much mulch cover but these were fresh pots with fresh soil in the greenhouse and I know there’s a ton around. Why they decided to climb up there I have no idea but I chopped some leaves for em and they weren’t noticed again. And for some reason chickens don’t like em.
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kali mist in Oregon was good smoke 
’
Haha! What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?!
Welcome to OG @Kevingasinaziploc
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