Be Aware of the European-Corn Borer

[Lester Freeman]

Just keep hitting them with Spinosad and BT. You'll be alright.

As for BT having an "outbreak" in India, that sounds more like disinformation. BT cannot live in a human stomach its acidic and BT needs a alkaline environment to survive. It also is just a bacteria that is naturally in soil found in many places. Spinosad is similar.

Yeah Jimmy, I'm apprehensive about spraying liquid solutions as I have seen them promote stem rot/mold in my plants (proximity to the ocean), so now I'm gonna try the granular form of BT (garden dust). I haven't had problems yet, but it's always deep into flower when they're looking 1-4 weeks out from harvest do I find they've already drilled into the stems. I'm afraid if I don't inspect the buds for 3 days I'll come back to a massive infestation, which is reality because I cannot inspect every cola every day. Just have to hope things are better this year

 

[Jimmycricket]

Yeah for you this late into flowering that could certainly be a issue.

Around here I could drench full sized buds with a spray from my hose and in 20 minutes they dry. Which is why I don't sweat spraying unless the buds are huge and just a week or two away from harvest.

Infact tonight its Spinosad time caterpillars going DOWWNNNNNNN

 

[Lester Freeman]

Lucky! I dream of those dry conditions!!

 

[trichomes]

Hope all is well in the garden. I have to check for moth eggs more often, this was just crawling on my soil.

Unfluxing believable, never seen them this early!

His slow torture calmed me down.

 

[trichomes]

Hawk Moth daily fly by time 5:55 PM right on cue, I got so lucky with my one kill, it was a garden hose in jet-mode take down, from 20 feet.

 

[trichomes]

Ok Les, moths this early? I just was sitting in the sunset, plant, moth & bat observation chair when BAM! a big fat moth just buzzed my face and startled me a bit!

Instantly, I thought of you & this CORN-BORER moth! I 'm curious, how often you see this species, time of year, & time of day & frequency please!! I think I saw this enemy several times last year, not the fat ones that come out just after sunset, I think I saw this type during daylight??, almost as big as the brown, but much less, in mass, skinny body, beady eyes, almost as big as a half dollar or a quarter minimum?

Thanks Les, I know we share bugs, & we both did well last year (aside from the egg removal hours), time for us to coordinate sightings & gang-up on all moths this year, reducing hours of eggs inspecting in 2014.

What do you think, this is my/our/the moth update & sighting thread??, provided you can tolerate my occasional rants

 

[Lester Freeman]

Nothing is going to change the way nature works. There will be moths, insects, bugs, fungus, mold, the entire works, we will have to be diligent with plant inspections in order to minimize these probabilities, but like I have said before, a healthy and high brix plant along with companion planting will help confuse them, as well as make them more resistant to outbreaks. It is going to be inevitable to get a few worms and mold... as long as it gets taken care of promptly and is not allowed to spread via permitted by weather.

Temperatures and mating times can change based off your location and extended temperatures, but I will say I have seen a lot more moths just recently too which suggests the peak flight times may be sooner than expected for our specific area, which is good, and should shift the peak #2 flight time a little bit forward, which may save us a few big buds in the end. Either way, no point in going crazy every time you see a moth, it is just a part of nature, it's not like we're going to wipe them off the face of the planet, however, as long as we do what we can to keep them away from our lovelies than we won't need to deal with a massive infestation. Certain worms have a higher probability of forming mold on the plant tissue, based on their composition of mucus and saliva. There are certainly some very terrible moths that give out these bad ass mothertruckers, some are not so bad - like the day time butterfly 'pillars typically aren't the worst except that they do munch through the buds but don't leave behind nearly as much mold. Yada yada yada... all we can do is hope and pray that they don't launch a tactical strike on our buds at the most important time, which can happen... we are at the mercy of mother nature when we grow outdoors buddy.

 

[Jimmycricket]

I have these white moths all over. I am going to spray with spinosad tonight. Moths are the worst.

 

[Lester Freeman]

I have these white moths all over. I am going to spray with spinosad tonight. Moths are the worst.

Preaching to the choir lol

 

[trichomes]

big "common" brown 6:10pm

huge hawk flying 3' from my face 6:15pm

zero kills

 

[trichomes]

CAN YOU ID THIS FOR ME/US, OR DO i HAVE TO GOOGLE IT?

fOUND IN TOPSOIL TODAY, MANY THANKS!!

 

[Lester Freeman]

No idea, looks big and nasty.

 

[trichomes]

nasty and mean, he's slowly dying in direct sunlight, couldn't find him on google,

but I did see the hawk/sphinx moth larvae (size of a AA battery, called a tomato worm. Eggs 1.5mm oval,

if an egg hatched at midnight, he would eat FluxyLady to a stump, before sunrise. horrifying pic

 

[David Bowman]

Looks like a mealworm to me.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Indeed, looks strikingly similar with the segmented body. Ya got any big black beetles around there trichs?
Mealworm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[trichomes]

lol, not many beetle sightings, but I think Colo nailed it! thank you both.

 

[trichomes]

He was early today

and he got away

6:05 pm, my hose needs more power to take down the elusive Hawk moth. Do you see these? Today he actually landed on a flowering shrub, usualy it's a 2 second fly by.

 

[Lester Freeman]

It's just nature

 

[trichomes]

First Bat of the year showed up tonight, very hungry, he put on a moth-kill-show, under the streetlight several times tonight,

he got at least 3 moth kills in front of me.

Hawk moth did a his flyby @ 7 sharp, that thing is so big, I thought it was a bird.

What's new in your backyard? Hope all is green!

 

[trichomes]

found this on a plant today, (next to a match-head) ever seen one this hairy & small? I have not seen an egg yet, in 2014, thanks lester!