What's eating my plants?

[navyguy14420]

Here is some pics of a bug I see on the leaves. there were earwigs around my plants and I thought that might be what was doing it, so I bought Safer bug killing plant soap and loaded the plants and soil with it and a few earwigs came up from the mulch and ended up dying pretty quickly. But my plants are still being eaten. there is another bug that looks just like this one, only a hair longer and it sticks it's butt in the air just like and earwig when threatened. I think they may be baby earwigs. but, could these pests be eating my plants to destruction? This is an outside grow from clones of romulin from a buddy of mine. I put them in foxfarm ocean soil. I'm guessing the soil is attracting a lot of bugs. the soil was infested with bugs on one of my other plants, but I got rid of them with the spray. that spray also took care of my white fly issue in 24 hours. I don't see any snails, slugs or catapillars on any of the plants or in the vicinity. they have been in the ground for about 4 weeks now. any help would be appreciated. I am a total newbie. Maybe someone can tell me if anything looks wrong with the leaves besides the holes, with nutrients I mean.

 

[Snype]

Those bugs in your pics look just like the Thrips that I have. You can get rid of them by putting some AZAmax in your feed.

 

[twiztidbudsmoke]

could be a number of bugs including aphids, or grashoppers. look reel close and you could see the aphids are little I think there is one on the leaf in the first pic. Increase your beneficial inscect population with praying mantis and ladybugs from the garden center, and dont kill your spiders!

 

[navyguy14420]

ok, I was thinking they may be thrips. I don't think grasshoppers are doing it. I check on them several times a day and the earwigs are the biggest bugs I have seen. I haven't seen any pics that look like my bugs exactly. I have tried "zero tolerance" and "safer insecticidal plant soap" and these bugs are still here. It's just hard for me to believe these little bugs do as much damage as there is. That's why I was thinking the earwigs were eating it because the damage is proportionate to their size. My bugs are way small compared to the leaf damage. Maybe I will try the lady bugs. I saw some at Ace Hardware. I'll see if I can get some of that stuff to put in my feed as well. Thanks

 

[Snype]

This should make it easier for you to see that you have Thrips. Here are some pics of what my Thrips look like:



And here is a pic from stitch's thread to show you what the damage from thrips looks like:



I can't tell you what is giving you those holes in your leaves but the spots that you have look like the spots that the Thrips leave when they suck your juices out of the leaves. If you believe that you have Thrips you can spray down all the plants as the sun is going down (don't Neem your plants in direct light or you will burn your plants) with a solution of 2.5 teaspoons of 100% Neem Oil per liter of water and make sure to add a wetting agent so that the Neem Oil mixes into the water. You have to Neem them every 5 days for at least 2 weeks. If you don't want to spray your plants then you can give them AzaMax right into your feed. Thrips will cause a lot of damage but not as much as Spider Mites but it is up there so if you have Thrips don't slack on them or you'll get some shitty harvest.

 

[navyguy14420]

yeah, those look pretty close to my bugs. I'm sure that's what they are. I'll try the neem. what do you mean by using a wetting agent? I get the point that oil doesn't mix with water, but what do you use?

 

[mk6]

but what do you use?

Monterey Garden Insect Spray it has spinosad,
the most effective killer for thips that i have found and its omri listed

 

[grapeman]

ok, I was thinking they may be thrips. I don't think grasshoppers are doing it. I check on them several times a day and the earwigs are the biggest bugs I have seen. I haven't seen any pics that look like my bugs exactly. I have tried "zero tolerance" and "safer insecticidal plant soap" and these bugs are still here. It's just hard for me to believe these little bugs do as much damage as there is. That's why I was thinking the earwigs were eating it because the damage is proportionate to their size. My bugs are way small compared to the leaf damage. Maybe I will try the lady bugs. I saw some at Ace Hardware. I'll see if I can get some of that stuff to put in my feed as well. Thanks

thrips don't eat like that. They suck, usually from the underside of a leaf. They don't take chunks from a leaf. They leave brown dots from where they suck. Plus, the bug in the picture is bigger then a thrip. At least the thrips I've been killing in my farming operation for the last 40 years don't eat or look like that.

Not thrips.

 

[navyguy14420]

ok, thanks guys. No new bug damage on the plants today. but if you could please check out my other post a few threads down about some brown spots on my leaves, that would be great, thanks

 

[Snype]

yeah, those look pretty close to my bugs. I'm sure that's what they are. I'll try the neem. what do you mean by using a wetting agent? I get the point that oil doesn't mix with water, but what do you use?

If you look at the bug near your thumb, it looks exactly like the thrips that I have, including the size. The holes are from something else but I don't know what. For a wetting agent, I use Coco Wet but other people use liquid dish soap. You only want to use as many drops as it takes to get the Neem mixed into the water. You want to avoid using soap with too much detergent in it cause it will burn your leaves. This is what I use:

 

[navyguy14420]

ok, that makes sense. I went to Ace today and I didn't see any neem oil, but I saw the spinosad by monterey. I did some research on both products and what I found is info that said neem only keeps the population under control and will not kill "all" the bugs. The spinosad is a neurotoxin to certain bugs and will kill them all better than any other product. It also kills catapillars that feed on foliage. May not be my problem. But I will give it a try. If it doesn't work, I will get the neem. I'm gonna slowly start cutting off the leaves with holes in them to see if there is any more damage.

 

[Snype]

ok, that makes sense. I went to Ace today and I didn't see any neem oil, but I saw the spinosad by monterey. I did some research on both products and what I found is info that said neem only keeps the population under control and will not kill "all" the bugs. The spinosad is a neurotoxin to certain bugs and will kill them all better than any other product. It also kills catapillars that feed on foliage. May not be my problem. But I will give it a try. If it doesn't work, I will get the neem. I'm gonna slowly start cutting off the leaves with holes in them to see if there is any more damage.

The Neem doesn't kill the mites but I don't think your spray kills the eggs either. You can get rid of all the mites with the Neem but you have to spray every 3-5 days cause the eggs will hatch and they take a little while to be able to reproduce so you have to get them in stages for 2-3 weeks. It does work but you can't slack on it and you have to put in the work. I think it'll be the same with the Montery spray. I've used it before a few months ago but I liked the Neem better. Good luck.

 

[ZZar]

monterey garden insect spray, dont do the neem!

 

[navyguy14420]

yeah, it doesn't say it will kill the eggs, but they only had the concentrate bottle, so I have enough to make a thousand bottles of spray, lol. I'll keep on them.

 

[grapeman]

Spray some organophosphate. LOL

The name of this thread is "what's eating my plants"?

For those who answered "Thrips", I just have one question. Why would you post an uneducated, maybe eve a stupid answer?

Thrips did not do that damage. In fact, I don't even see thrip damage on any leaves.

What do you guys do? Just come in here and post shit as if you know?

 

[Snype]

Spray some organophosphate. LOL

The name of this thread is "what's eating my plants"?

For those who answered "Thrips", I just have one question. Why would you post an uneducated, maybe eve a stupid answer?

Thrips did not do that damage. In fact, I don't even see thrip damage on any leaves.

What do you guys do? Just come in here and post shit as if you know?

When I look at the spotting on the top of his leaves, I see some thrip damage but when I see the holes on his leaves, I see another type of mite or insect that I do not know. He was supplied with all the pics that he needs to figure it out and now he has to make a decision on what to do and he has some info to compare it on to figure it out. Thrip damage doesn't always look exactly the same all the time. I gave my opinion on the matter and tried to help out. I think your too busy looking at the holes on the leaves and not seeing the whole thing. Did you notice that the leaf that he has is the back of the leaf where thrips usually suck their juices and there is a bug that looks just like my thrip right there. My Thrips are on the undersides too and also on the tops of the leaves. Compare the pictures of mine to his bug that you see next to his thumb. Also if you look at the starter of this threads 4th picture, look at the leaf on the right and you will not see holes, you will see those spots that look just like thrip damage and then you can compare the bugs. Thrips and Thrip larva look very different and maybe the thrips that you had over the years never got to be adults but I'm positive that the bugs in my pictures are thrips. So if you conclude that his bug in his 3rd pic looks like mine, then it is a thrip, if you don't, then there's nothing more that I can say.

 

[grapeman]

Umm, ok. But the minor brown dots on the leaves appear awfully spread apart and a bit too large then the feed points left by thrip to be thrip damage. It could be, but if so, it is a minor infection at best.

It could also be a number of other things other then thrip. If they were my plants, I'd be more concerned about what insect is taking the chunks out of the leaves first.

But that is just me.

 

[Hank Hemp]

If I understand right MGIS does impact the eggs somewhat. Has to be reapplied several times. According to the little booklet it can be used 5 times, waiting 7 days between sprayings. I'm going my the leafy and dried herbs recommendations. I'm going to read up before I use it anywho.