War is War. For the last two weeks I have found some holes in my leaves, leaf puckering on several plants and leaves nearly eaten all the way off some others. While digging around I came across what I believe to be spider mites and some thrips and aphids. At first I thought that the leaf puckering was coming from a lack of calcium but I used Bloom Along bone meal when I transplanted my seedlings. There is no way they were lacking calcium. Today the bug war began, the first step was moistening the soil, then scooping trenches in between the rows of plants and lastly adding soil prepared nematodes to the trenches then covering them with soil. The nematodes ought to take care of any pests that may be threatening the roots or laying eggs. Then came in the lady bugs. The last bit of light was nearly gone so I quickly added a couple of lady bugs to the base area of nearly each plant. My wife made a video which I may put up. I didn't realize how disheveled I looked with my shirt buttoned wrong but whatever. I'll probably add a video a little later. The temperatures in southern ct have been in the upper 90's and 70% humidity for several days and the neem/dr. bronners therapy that I was applying was burning the plants leaves leaving a nasty lightbrown burn that would rot the leaf. grrrr. So the army of lady bugs (army infantry and air force) will fight alongside the nematodes (my navy and marines) and get us to the harvest!
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pests The Bug Battle Begins
- Thread starter troutbum
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nope they eat bad bugs from what I read you can buy bags of good ones
there are good and bad nematodes.
An example of a bad one is Round Worm...
Nematodes have successfully adapted to nearly every ecosystem from marine to fresh water, to soils, and from the polar regions to the tropics, as well as the highest to the lowest of elevations. They are ubiquitous in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, where they often outnumber other animals in both individual and species counts, and are found in locations as diverse as mountains, deserts, oceanic trenches, and within the earth's lithosphere.[sup][3][/sup] They represent, for example, 90% of all life forms on the ocean floor.[sup][4][/sup] Their numerical dominance, often exceeding more than 1 million individuals per square meter and accounting for about 80% of all individual animals on earth, their diversity in lifestyles and their presence at various trophic levels point at an important role in many ecosystems.[sup][5][/sup] Their many parasitic forms include pathogens in most plants and animals (including humans).
ohmygoodness Cayennimist! That was awesome. Yes, the nematodes will not eat the plants but will borrow their way into any pesky insect that is threatening my pepper plants. They will stay there the entire season, in fact if the climate is moderate they can stay for two years and keep reproducing. With sprays etc, some insects become immune and not only that to keep spending money on sprays is expensive and not that great for the plants themselves. The lady bugs worked all night cleaning up the plants and soil. I had placed about 50 or so in the garden to take care of 24 plants, in the morning there were about 8 left still working away. Sort of a Lady Bug cleaning service. For the next two weeks I will be applying lady bugs directly to the plants as if I were applying a spray. The main problem that I have found with sprays in the summer is that they dry up quickly. Once they are dry they are for the most part ineffective.
You sure they were spider mites. This is what they can do once infestation starts. I know this is a tomato. But sure goes same for all plants.
My friend I wish you well. We all are having bug or viral problems right now.
My friend I wish you well. We all are having bug or viral problems right now.
We have Ladybugs that just showed up and volunteered to patrol the peppers. Now that's the spirit! I see the purple and orange larvae every morning patrolling the plants.
Yes sir I read the same article awhile back but, the ones I believe he is talking about are the good ones that many companies sell commercially. =)
The mites that I am seeing are these little red or orange dots that move around quickly. At first I was seeing damage to the leaves but not as much anymore. The damage was puckering and browning to the leaves. This morning I noticed some little webs but the webs could have come to these parachuting yellow spiders that are infesting my deck. After losing all of the leaves on one plant and a bunch of leaves on others I have become paranoid.
I purchased them. For some reason they are not as abundant in our yard as in previous years. We did have a very mild and dry winter and a fairly dry spring but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. We have had some years when there were so many that you would find them all over your house. I saw that you can purchase ladybirds through amazon but I opted to get them from a local shop. I keep them in the fridge and they should do well. For the past two days they have acted as a personal garden maid service. I swear these gals get going at 7pm and don't leave until about 9 the next morning. So far I believe they are doing a good job. I no longer see mites rolling around on the top of the soil and the leaves look better. I am imagining that all the leaf puckering is permanent and I will have to see what happens on the new sets of leaves to see if they are ok. It looked as if these plants were being savaged. I hope this works.
I believe they were spider mites at times there would be a very light web and they looked like these little red or orange mites running around in the garden soil. I also noticed these little white buggers that were about three inches down in the soil. They are too fast and small to get any decent photo of.You sure they were spider mites. This is what they can do once infestation starts. I know this is a tomato. But sure goes same for all plants.
My friend I wish you well. We all are having bug or viral problems right now.