What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Something burrowed into the main trunk!!!!

OvergrowDaWorld

$$ ALONE $$
Veteran
Theres something that ate a hole into the Main trunk at the soil level. Its eating the entire main stem from the inside out....right at dirt level. We already lost 1 plant, now were on our way to loosing 2. Any ideas what does this? I cant see whats in there??? Im going now to take pics and to spray Azamax and Thuricide into the holes. Ive never seen this. Its not a caterpiller I dont think. Its a grey bug of some sort I think. I opened up the trunk on the dead one and there was a tunnel going up the stem but there was a grey bug in it. Maybe just using the hole the caterpiller opened up??? IDK?
 
M

metsäkana

the stem might also be rotting and bugs just go in there to chill D:

this is wetty outdoor year IMG_2973.jpg
 
If it's right at dirt level its probably a bollworm. Also ECB's tend to focus on the lower parts of the plant as the hemp borers tend to focus on upper part of the plant and the flowers. Basically you're fucked, you can hit it to kill the bugs, but your plants are done for. Sorry
 
G

Guest

I do feel your pain. I logged on this morning to ask about my plant that suffered what sounds like the very same thing happened to yours. I noticed it looked droopy yesterday and thought I might have overwatered. This morning it looked nearly dead. Pulled it out of the dirt and noticed what looked like a beaver had chewed right at the soil line. Been growing almost nonstop for 20 years and never had this happen before. I dumped the plant out into a tray and searched through the soil and found nothing.

None of the other 6 plants have any problem. These have been vegging almost a month.

picture.php
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
If it's right at dirt level its probably a bollworm. Also ECB's tend to focus on the lower parts of the plant as the hemp borers tend to focus on upper part of the plant and the flowers. Basically you're fucked, you can hit it to kill the bugs, but your plants are done for. Sorry
I think he is right :( The larvae are weak to strains of BT but once they are in there, I don't think there is any getting them out, just killing them. In corn they use systemic pesticides to prevent them from taking hold, but I don't want to use systemic anything on my marijuana.
 

CannaZen

Well-known member
put that sucker in some loose organic soil and the micro bacteria may help.
 
Last edited:

P-NUT

Active member
Veteran
Hey keif is that indoors? Ive had roly polies do that before when they had no mulch to munch on. Kinda surprised me but i caught them on there so I know it was the culprit.
 

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Research Borers, such as Squash Vine Borers. You can cut a vertical slit in the stem and haul his/her sorry ass out of the stem or kill critter in place. Plant may or may not recover. Worth a try. You can also inject Neem or any number of insecticides with a big syringe. Good luck. -granger
 
G

Guest

Hey keif is that indoors? Ive had roly polies do that before when they had no mulch to munch on. Kinda surprised me but i caught them on there so I know it was the culprit.



Yes, it's indoors. I didn't know roly polies could do that to a plant but I'll watch from now on when potting up. The rootball was smaller than expected, so something had been eating roots too. Just never had that happen before.
 

OvergrowDaWorld

$$ ALONE $$
Veteran
Something ate the entire way through the main trunk on 1 plant and dismembered the main trunk from the root system like a lumberjack cutting down a tree.
Pulled that one. Going today to look at the soil and root systems left in the pot. Also gonna look into the middle of the main stem on the dead plant. I think its termites! But not 100%. Ill know for sure today. They took out 1 plant. Now they are in another. I sprayed Azamax and Thuracide into the holes with a pump sprayer, but Im not 100% sure about what pest is doing this.
Never seen a more veracious pest in my life!!!
 

OvergrowDaWorld

$$ ALONE $$
Veteran
Some sort of stem borer?
Was the bug you found some sort of maggot ?

No. I think it was a bug that was just using the tunnel something left. I split the main stem in half the long way and only seen that one bug. Ill know for certain today what it is. Im not leaving till I know 100% what Im dealing with. I pray that huge plant isnt dead and the Azamax and Thuracide sprayed into the holes works. Ill know in a little bit here if we got 2 plants down.
 

P-NUT

Active member
Veteran
Yeah sounds like termites. Boric acid works but you gotta be careful you dont over do it. I try to treat around my mounds so I dont poison my plants. Ive found I get them in august or september when the water table rises and pushes them to my mounds. Ive had beautiful 10 foot plants just starting to flower all of a sudden look droopy for no reason then fall over within a few days. I usually found the termites in the center of the stem near the bottom if I got out there before they toppled. If your growing where the water table is high it seems to happen more often but swamps and the edges of swamps are great places for me to grow. Good luck.
 

OvergrowDaWorld

$$ ALONE $$
Veteran
I believe I know what i was. A beetle larvae from a borer beetle.
There was a few 1 inch long fatties under the pot when we moved it. Nematodes should keep em in check.
 

mr.brunch

Well-known member
Veteran
I had this on a seedling before, and once on a cutting that was rooting in water.... I thought, that’s a thick root, and it disappeared back into the stem!
I burned that fucker.
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top