Preventing bud caterpillars?
- Thread starter sutra1
- Start date
GAME
Member
BT is good for killing the dreaded "bud worm" . I have also used Sevin, which isn't the most friendly product to use and you would want to discontinue use once flowering is underway. Then, I prefer to use the powder form since I have a "dust mill" powder applicator and a little dust goes a long way........ otherwise you usually waste alot trying to applicate it. Every time it rains good, you have to reapply and this kinds blows, but it beats dealing with losing buds to a damn worm. Best of luck
Hey sutra
For me, whether a plant is succeptable to borers or not is one of the factors i use to determine if a plant is suitable for outdoor. Indoor strains are generally very succeptable to borers and its difficult to grow many indoor strains outdoors at all due to borers. Ak47 is awful, a magnet for them. Nothern Lights can be bad.
Rotenone/pyrethrins concentrate will kill any that are on/in the plant and their eggs, but within 2 weeks theyre back again if the plants succeptable. Many growers express fear of the Rotenone/pyrethrins formula, but ive used it for 20 years. The chemical compound while highly toxic when applied, is unstable and begins to deteriorate rapidly when exposed to air and light. Test show that vegetables can be consumed within 24 hours and testing at 7 days can detect no trace of the substance. I usually dont spray within a week of harvest but before that its fine.
Good luck
For me, whether a plant is succeptable to borers or not is one of the factors i use to determine if a plant is suitable for outdoor. Indoor strains are generally very succeptable to borers and its difficult to grow many indoor strains outdoors at all due to borers. Ak47 is awful, a magnet for them. Nothern Lights can be bad.
Rotenone/pyrethrins concentrate will kill any that are on/in the plant and their eggs, but within 2 weeks theyre back again if the plants succeptable. Many growers express fear of the Rotenone/pyrethrins formula, but ive used it for 20 years. The chemical compound while highly toxic when applied, is unstable and begins to deteriorate rapidly when exposed to air and light. Test show that vegetables can be consumed within 24 hours and testing at 7 days can detect no trace of the substance. I usually dont spray within a week of harvest but before that its fine.
Good luck
BT works fine if applied every 3 days... im not a fan of the stuff, outdoors it really does not have long lasting effect. i use a grub control product called garant. just water it in like it tells you, and its about 2 months with no issues. the problem i have outdoors, is when they shit and it gets wet it gets moldy and the mold spreads very quick in humidity, me and strain hunter use this stuff, very effective indoors and out. and SAFE
http://cgi.ebay.com/Garant-2F-gener...742?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cef3c82b6
http://cgi.ebay.com/Garant-2F-gener...742?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cef3c82b6
GAME
Member
You made a believer out of me, purchased.
Kushed_
Member
This is where I buy them:
http://www.naturescontrol.com/nemavictims.html
I have two books I will get out and reference some info on predatory nematodes and BT.
I have used the predatory nematodes and don't get tomato worms at all, and has greatly reduced the "bud worms", which where I live are called corn worms (this according to the County Ag Dept.).
I use the Spinosad less often than the BT. Spinosad kills bees so I use it sparingly.
Kushed: That is where I buy my nematodes. Been using them yearly in a successful thrip control program in soil, but I have never seen anything indicating their use in the foliar zone against caterpillars who hatch frog eggs laid by moths on the undersides of leaves. My understanding (and I have just done a bit of reading to confirm that my understanding wasn't just an assumption that had slipped through) is that nematodes don't do well in dry conditions or UV making them ill-fitted for controlling caterpillars or their eggs in the foliar zone.
Nematodes do their thing only at a certain stage in their lifetime and can only do it to their prey at a certain point in its lifecycle... It would follow that they are best use as prevention, encouraging a healthy colonization of the soil ready to take out the prey when it shows its fleshy bits.
BT, also degrades in UV light, but its a contact killer against hatched caterpillars. So if you apply in the evening, any caterpillar that gets hit or eats plant matter covered in a BT solution dies that night. I do this weekly from the end of stretch to the time when flowers are really starting to form... BT, from what I understand, does not kill caterpillar eggs.
Enter: the Trichogramma Wasp. They are tiny predatory wasps you hatch from cards hung in your canopy. The wasps then lay their eggs inside the caterpillar eggs... when these eggs hatch, the wasp larvae eat the pupating caterpillars as their first meal. Each season I have found some of these eggs, unhatched, as I trim out the insides of the plants as stretch nears its end. For this reason, I deploy the wasps about 2 weeks after stretch begins and have done it once because we were seeing a ton of little white moths fluttering about the garden all the time.
I have never had any budworm damage. I also have never done a real experiment with a control garden that went untreated... I may just live in a spot with no caterpillars.
I'm no etymologist, but that is my basic understanding of the prevention of bud worm rot problems. Wide open to any other opinions. Any links u can provide to foliar nematode info are welcome.
Kushed: That is where I buy my nematodes. Been using them yearly in a successful thrip control program in soil, but I have never seen anything indicating their use in the foliar zone against caterpillars who hatch frog eggs laid by moths on the undersides of leaves. My understanding (and I have just done a bit of reading to confirm that my understanding wasn't just an assumption that had slipped through) is that nematodes don't do well in dry conditions or UV making them ill-fitted for controlling caterpillars or their eggs in the foliar zone.
Nematodes do their thing only at a certain stage in their lifetime and can only do it to their prey at a certain point in its lifecycle... It would follow that they are best use as prevention, encouraging a healthy colonization of the soil ready to take out the prey when it shows its fleshy bits.
BT, also degrades in UV light, but its a contact killer against hatched caterpillars. So if you apply in the evening, any caterpillar that gets hit or eats plant matter covered in a BT solution dies that night. I do this weekly from the end of stretch to the time when flowers are really starting to form... BT, from what I understand, does not kill caterpillar eggs.
Enter: the Trichogramma Wasp. They are tiny predatory wasps you hatch from cards hung in your canopy. The wasps then lay their eggs inside the caterpillar eggs... when these eggs hatch, the wasp larvae eat the pupating caterpillars as their first meal. Each season I have found some of these eggs, unhatched, as I trim out the insides of the plants as stretch nears its end. For this reason, I deploy the wasps about 2 weeks after stretch begins and have done it once because we were seeing a ton of little white moths fluttering about the garden all the time.
I have never had any budworm damage. I also have never done a real experiment with a control garden that went untreated... I may just live in a spot with no caterpillars.
I'm no etymologist, but that is my basic understanding of the prevention of bud worm rot problems. Wide open to any other opinions. Any links u can provide to foliar nematode info are welcome.
Last edited:
