help! bugs(?) attacking plants! (pics)

these are my first two plants (of 7) about a month old. they were doing fine and a couple of days ago i noticed the leaves are being mutilated. what can i do to keep the bugs away? any cheap quick fixes?



the main damage^

looks like a caterpillar buffet... not much damage, so if i had to take a guess i would say to be on the lookout for something like these..
Google Image Result for http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/images/catalpa_caterpillar.jpeg


as far as how to get rid of them.... i dont know; i have them tearing up my peppers and tomatoes... i know that they make insecticides for them; but you may not be comfortable using chemicals on your herbage

I grow orchids too and had an infestation of caterpillars in my greenhouse. We use BT or Bacillus thuringiensis. The material safety data sheet is at this link. We also use it on tonatos as it kills hornworms. Just wash off after use. It only affects the caterpillars and not the butterflies or other insects. Hope this helps

BTW its not a chemical but a bacteria specially suited for caterpillars

http://www.certisusa.com/pdf-msds/deliver-wg-msds.pdf

greenthumb111 said:

I grow orchids too and had an infestation of caterpillars in my greenhouse. We use BT or Bacillus thuringiensis. The material safety data sheet is at this link. We also use it on tonatos as it kills hornworms. Just wash off after use. It only affects the caterpillars and not the butterflies or other insects. Hope this helps

BTW its not a chemical but a bacteria specially suited for caterpillars

http://www.certisusa.com/pdf-msds/deliver-wg-msds.pdf

Click to expand...

i am gonna have to get some of that for my garden next year... dont know where they came from, but i had 3 hornworms completely decimate about 5 pepper plants damn near overnight... the small caterpillars are just an eyesore compared to those huge green bastards.

Spray with neem oil..

Plant Borage to deter tomato and cabbage worms, it will also improve the general health of the soil in your garden. (it's cool, blue star shaped flowers that are edible, seeds out really well from year to year, I bought my seeds for it off ebay a few years ago)

Geramium also repels cabbage worms , and aphids.

Thyme deters cabbage worms (I love the smell of thyme) (thyme is really easy to clone, I just whack some off, get the ends wet, dip it in some quick root powder and plant it, grows like a charm every time)

Yarrow increases the oil content in herbs and attracts ladybugs, (ladybugs eat ahpids) (yarrow spreads easily and grows wild a lot of places)

Tarragon repels most pests.

Most of these will also create scents to mask the smell of your special herbs.

Cabbage loopers suck! As I recall, you can also hand pick a bunch off, pulverize them, add water (I'd imagine) into sprayer and spray away. I'm sure one could google it.

If you want it to be organic, you can make a very effective tobacco and soap (non anti-bacterial/microbial, please) soap. It needs to be applied every few days, but if you get anything close to all sides of all leaves, it's pretty good. I just need to figure out what I can do with the leftover loose tobacco. Maybe a mulch or something like that.