Pest Control

Entry: These are hard to avoid once you know what damage to look for you see them in every outdoor garden. To avoid them you'll want to keep lawn mowers and yard debris away from your grow area. If you walk through a garden or cut grass take your shoes off before going in your tent. Once the get in the adults sow eggs into the flesh of your plant usually where leaves meet stems. This makes them hard to kill as the life cycle restarts if any adults survive.

Damage: Leaves will turn yellow, eventually dry up, and fall off. Left untreated the plant will usually die.

Spotting: You may see adults flaying around the look similar to fungus gnats but fly better. Effected leaves will be turning yellow and often have black tar like speckles of poop on them. Under a magnifying loop you will see light colored larva on the leaves and possibly preflying nymphs crawling around the leaves.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

• Neem Oil

• Sesame oil

Remedies:

Prevention:

• Quarantine new plants for a week well away from your grow area to be sure no thrips hatch out.

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• Spinosad works on contact and through roots as a systemic weapon killing any thrips in the soil and that feast on any part of your inoculated plant. (not used by commercial growers) Couple this with yellow and blue sticky traps.

Non chemical:

• Bonide Insect Soap made with potassium salts of fatty acids from plants kills insects on contact. Ideal for houseplants, vegetables, flowers, & fruits. Suitable for organic gardening. Couple this with nematodes to eat any thrips larva in the soil and sticky traps to catch the flying adults.

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Entry: These usually hitchhike in on you or your pets. If you have poplar trees in your yard these can be very difficult to avoid in the summer time. They infest poplar trees to where it seems like its raining when your sit below. There will be sticky sap all over.

Damage: Aphids suck leaf sap and excrete a clear sticky waste substance called honeydew. out leaving a damaged dried up plant leaf

Spotting: You'll see them walking around the plants and sometimes clustered on the bottom of leaves.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

• Crushing by hand. Sure this works if there are only a few but these bugs multiply fast missing a few will have you squishing loads again a few days later.

• Neem Oil - This does work but other things work as well without smells or residues.

Remedies:

Prevention:

• shake your cloths out before going in your grow area. Treat poplar trees with

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• Bonide - Annual Tree and Shrub Insect Control with Systemaxx

One application kills insects and prevents new infestations for an entire year. Spray or mix and pour at base of plant/tree. The systemic insecticide is absorbed through the roots to all parts of the plant, even new growth, and won't wash off. For use on listed fruit, nut and ornamental trees and shrubs. Do not use in your cannabis, instead use it on plants and trees near by.

Non chemical:

• Bonide Insecticidal soap made with potassium salts of fatty acids from plants kills insects on contact. Ideal for houseplants, vegetables, flowers, & fruits. Suitable for organic gardening. Couple this with ladybugs to eat any aphids hidden from sight and crush the ones you can see.

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Entry: Spider mites usually come from new plants brought from outside sources or hitchhike in on you or your pets.

Damage: Spider mites attack a plant similarly to aphids above. They bite the backs of leaves and suck out its leaf sap. This results in small brown or yellow spots on the leaves which will yellow in full as their nutrition is leached by the mites. If the population is left unchecked they can quickly destroy the whole plant.

Spotting: Often, with Spider mites, you'll see some spider webbing around the plant before you see the mites on the underside of the leaves. You should regularly check the underside of leaves to catch these pets ASAP. However, Broad and Russet Mites are much harder to spot and you'll usually only see the damage they cause. Often, even when armed with a scope, people will swear up and down that they can't find any mites until the infestation is so bad that its too late to effectively treat. The best thing to look for is white colored eggs on the backs of leaves blending in with the stomata. Sometimes, it helps to poke around with a needle or unfolded staple to determine if the white dot is a part of the leaf or eggs.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

• Weekly soapy and water spray (3tbs dish soap per gal of water)

• Alcohol and water mixed 1:3 (1 part alcohol to 3 parts water) to start. Soak a cloth and wipe down each leaf. If the plant tolerates this then move to 1:2. If your plants tolerates this then next use 1:1. applications should be done every other day for a week then as you see mites or eggs.

• Neem Oil - This does work but other things work as well without smells or residues.

Remedies:

Prevention:

• Shake your cloths out before going in your grow area. Quarantine new plants before bringing them into your grow area.

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• Miticides - There are a lot of these. Most can be used on non-consumable plants near your grow area. But the spider mites are resistant to many and may become resistant after several applications. I don't use these for cannabis... this invader has to be fought on the ground.

Non chemical:

• Bonide Insecticidal soap, be sure to apply it daily until you've wiped out the mites.

• If you want something you can use during flower then look at Trifecta and Grower's Ally spider mite control. both may not be as effective as insecticidal soap but are blends of consumables like alcohol, vinegar, herbs and oils that may not mess up your weed.

• Predatory mites - These you can use at any time and they will generally knock down most infestations to where they're not noticeable and can be eradicated with a more mild foliage spray solutions

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Entry: These "flies" don't handle the cold well so they're found outdoors seasonally and often find their own way indoors and into greenhouses.

Damage: Just like aphid above, whiteflies bite plant leaves and suck out the leaf sap leaving behind honeydew. As the infestation grows the plant will wilt and start turning yellow.

Spotting: You'll see them on the bottom of the leaves and they'll scatter around when your brush into the plant leaves.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

• Washing them off with water. This just causes them to scatter and lay eggs elsewhere.

Remedies:

Prevention:

• Ladybugs will prevent or significantly knock down a whitefly infestation.

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• None needed

Non chemical:

• Start with a Vacuum. You'll easily suck up the swarm as it tries to fly away. Follow this up with Bonide Insecticidal soap. be sure to thoroughly wet all leaves this will take care of remaining eggs and larva. repeat every three days until there is no evidence of the pest.

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Entry: These soft-bodied mollusks usually come out in the evenings especially if its damp and humid.

Damage: They tend to eat holes or whole portions of fan leaves. The damage quickly adds up and can really slow your plant growth down or damage yields if you're in flower.

Spotting: You'll often see the shiny mucous trail they leave behind. If you want to catch them in action to handle the issue yourself, you'll want to start looking for them in the late evening.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

• Pouring salt around your pots.

• Diatomaceous Earth

Remedies:

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• Slug & Snail Bait - Garden Safe Brand's contains a combination of iron and phosphate with slug and snail bait additives. After eating the bait, the slugs and snails stop feeding, become less mobile and begin to die within three to six days.

Non chemical:

• Loosely wrap copper mesh tape around the base of the plant stem. Snails and slugs are extremely deterred by copper and will rarely if ever slither over it.

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Entry: These soft-bodied larva are usual left behind as eggs by moths and butterflies. Typically not a problem with small indoor grows but if outdoors or in a green house they can be a real problem.

Damage: They tend to eat whole portions of fan leaves. The damage quickly adds up and can really slow your plant growth down or damage yields if you're in flower.

Spotting: Their poop usually give them away. If you see leaf damage be sure to keep an eye out of small BB size pelts typically in clusters where leaves meet stems.

"Remedies" that don't work well but can help:

Pouring salt around your pots.

Diatomaceous Earth

Remedies:

Bio-Chemical Warfare:

• Skip the chemical warfare, there is a non-chemical bio-weapon that's natural and perfect, see below.

Non chemical:

• BT Spray - This is a bacteria that infects caterpillars and stops them from eating. This is not the same strain of BT found in mosquito bits which controls fungus gnats and will have no effect on them.

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