Yeah! It's Bud Worm Season. Pics

Noballs said:
Safer makes a tomato and vegetable spray that kills caterpillers. Its OMRI approved and can be used up to the date of harvest. At least for veggies! Its mostly pyrethrins and a little potassium of fatty acids which are both good for your plants. Hope this helps!
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Before you assemble your ant army why dont you give this stuff a try? Its available at walmart.
 
anomolies said:
Today I was on a trip somewhere and I noticed ants in my car.

Then it hit me.

Ants will devour anything in it's path. If you could collect a bunch of ants by baiting them with sweets, discovering a nest, or collecting ant queens and brooding them, you could unleash an army of ants onto your plants and they will drag those caterpillars out and eat them alive.

I think it's a pretty solid idea because there are many different size ants and the smaller ones are able to get deep inside the buds. Now whether or not the ants will panic and run around instead of killing caterpillars is another story.
I'm thinking keeping queen ants in a terranium near your plants would be a better idea but that would time, so maybe next summer.

I'm going to try and look for some ants tomorrow. This BT shit ain't workin and my hydro stores don't carry spinosad.
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I would suggest not to do this because ants will bring aphids to your plants
 
Noballs said:
Before you assemble your ant army why dont you give this stuff a try? Its available at walmart.
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Pyrethrins are toxic, no thanks. I'm 2 weeks from harvest.

Pyrethrins are used in many varieties of insecticide, fogging products and in some pet products. Care should be taken when using this substance around humans and animals. Overdose and toxicity can result in a variety of symptoms, especially in pets, including drooling, lethargy, muscle tremors, vomiting, seizures and death.[5] Toxicity symptoms in humans include asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, incoordination, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing and swelling, and burning and itching sensation.[6]
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TycoonTrees said:
I would suggest not to do this because ants will bring aphids to your plants
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I knew a lot about insects when I was a kid and that is generally incorrect. Aphids fly to a plant and hatch young. The ants find and protect the aphids in exchange for the honeydew that they secret. It is symbiosis.
However, I have never had an aphid problem and if there are no aphids the ants aren't going to bring aphids because aphids aren't required for ant survival.
There are some ant species that depend solely on "aphid farming," but they aren't present around here.

Also, aphids are the easiest to deal with in my opinion, because they are visible on the stalk and can be easily squished by rubbing your fingers across the stem. It is very difficult to have an aphid problem unless you completely ignore your plant for weeks or are just fuckin blind.

I see a lot of people using bug spray on ants-- totally unnecessary. I always tell people there's nothing to fear from ants if you know how they work but they don't believe me until I show them.
Here is what you do: Remove the food source, erase the trail with bleach or oil or whatever (the invisible line they are following), and they will disappear or eventually wander back to their nest. Ants do not run around aimlessly, except for those scouting for food. They follow scent trails, if there are no scent trails they won't be there in the first place.
 
anomolies said:
I see a lot of people using bug spray on ants-- totally unnecessary. I always tell people there's nothing to fear from ants if you know how they work but they don't believe me until I show them.
Here is what you do: Remove the food source, erase the trail with bleach or oil or whatever (the invisible line they are following), and they will disappear or eventually wander back to their nest. Ants do not run around aimlessly, except for those scouting for food. They follow scent trails, if there are no scent trails they won't be there in the first place.
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Bleach and oil are more toxic than 0.01% Pyrethrins. Iunderstand your concern, but the air in CA is more toxic than 0.01% Pyrethrins.
Pyrethrum is a substance that is obtained from certain types of chrysanthemums, sometimes called pyrethrum daisies. Pyrethrins are chemical compounds within pyrethrum that act as insecticides. Because pyrethrins are naturally occurring chemcials, using pyrethrum as an insecticide is less environmentally damaging than using man-made chemicals. Heck man made nutes are more toxic​



​
 
that last paragraph had nothing to do with plants-- that was my recommendation on how to get rid of ants in your house, so I don't know why you're telling me that bleach and oil are more toxic than pyrethrins.

Pyrethrins are toxic to cats and dogs. Ironically, you find them in Hartz and several other brand's flea control products. Even though it's only .01% or whatever, if you go to hartzvictims.org or google "hartz killed my pet," you'll be surprised at how many complaints there are and after so many years of complaints the product is still on the shelf.

If the nearly 2000 complaints and painful stories about facial paralysis, itching, allergy, balding symptoms, etc. in pets, doesn't convince you, well that's too bad.



I'm not going to be smoking herb sprayed with the same poison that has killed hundreds of pets.

Nor do I want to be smoking stuff that can cause these symptoms: "Toxicity symptoms in humans include asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, incoordination, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing and swelling, and burning and itching sensation."

Even if it's .01%, It might become concentrated after several applications or the plant absorbs it.

Also... I'm seeing less caterpillars now.. and finding more dead ones. Either the neem or BT is working so I'll just keep spraying like crazy and hand-picking.
 
Sorry just trying to help. I thought you meant put it on your plants! At least you think outside the box.
(electrocution, ant armys)
 
Yea I know. But pyrethrins are really toxic and intelligent veterinarians will tell you this. Just cus it's natural doesn't mean it can't kill you. (i.e. venom, bee sting, poisonous berries, etc)

I do think the ant army thing will work, haven't you seen those army ants on discovery channel? They kill everything in their path! haha. Though you don't need ants that big.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXaaTQztoI0
 
Noballs said:
View attachment 1191139View attachment 1191137
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Jumping Spiders are amazing critters.

I have the black and white jumping spiders with the electric blue "eye" patches, the regular garden spider, and black widows. I'd like to get rid of the last, but not at the price, of losing the others.

I've started harvesting and found three small dead spots on the tips of buds.

An indication the worm burrowed into the bud before it found the Bt.

I haven't sprayed in several weeks.

All three buds were near each other. Probably a spot I missed when I last sprayed.
 
anomolies said:
that last paragraph had nothing to do with plants-- that was my recommendation on how to get rid of ants in your house, so I don't know why you're telling me that bleach and oil are more toxic than pyrethrins.

Pyrethrins are toxic to cats and dogs. Ironically, you find them in Hartz and several other brand's flea control products. Even though it's only .01% or whatever, if you go to hartzvictims.org or google "hartz killed my pet," you'll be surprised at how many complaints there are and after so many years of complaints the product is still on the shelf.

If the nearly 2000 complaints and painful stories about facial paralysis, itching, allergy, balding symptoms, etc. in pets, doesn't convince you, well that's too bad.


I'm not going to be smoking herb sprayed with the same poison that has killed hundreds of pets.

Nor do I want to be smoking stuff that can cause these symptoms: "Toxicity symptoms in humans include asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, incoordination, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing and swelling, and burning and itching sensation."

Even if it's .01%, It might become concentrated after several applications or the plant absorbs it.

Also... I'm seeing less caterpillars now.. and finding more dead ones. Either the neem or BT is working so I'll just keep spraying like crazy and hand-picking.
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Thanks for posting that. I'd feel terrible if I did that to our cats.
 
it was a good warning.. I don't think he meant for the pics to be entertainment or anything. poor kitties. good to know.
 
fuck... how do you get these caterpillars when they're super tiny and hiding inside the stem? They eat your buds from the inside out.
 
anomolies said:
fuck... how do you get these caterpillars when they're super tiny and hiding inside the stem? They eat your buds from the inside out.
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Spray Bt every two or three weeks beginning in June.

The eggs are layed on the outer leaves.

The tiny worm eats its way into the interior of the bud. If you've been spraying regularly, they eventually find the Bt, and die of indigestion.

Check post #697.
 
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