Harvesting CATERPILLARS!

YesMamNoSir said:

That is EXACTLY what the worms look like. All about the same size, two inches. They also blend so well into the buds. I put one of the plants in the dark last night and only found one caterpillar on either of the plants last night. My 3rd biggest bud on the plant has finally worn the stem down and is barely standing up and not dragging the floor. Thanks to caterpillars trying to hollow out a couple stems.

Last night I put some BT on my herb garden that was getting pestered, and I'll know how that worked in a couple days. I do know I found two dead butterflies in the yard. My daughter would not be happy if I became the murderer of butterflies.

I saved 4 of the bud worms and have them under lock and key. I gave them an assortment of basil, jasmine, oregano, sage, and mint and in two days the morphed all the leaves into little black pellets of poop. Tomorrow I will be sectioning them off and starting the trials :}

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YesMamNoSir said:

That is EXACTLY what the worms look like. All about the same size, two inches. They also blend so well into the buds. I put one of the plants in the dark last night and only found one caterpillar on either of the plants last night. My 3rd biggest bud on the plant has finally worn the stem down and is barely standing up and not dragging the floor. Thanks to caterpillars trying to hollow out a couple stems.

Last night I put some BT on my herb garden that was getting pestered, and I'll know how that worked in a couple days. I do know I found two dead butterflies in the yard. My daughter would not be happy if I became the murderer of butterflies.

I saved 4 of the bud worms and have them under lock and key. I gave them an assortment of basil, jasmine, oregano, sage, and mint and in two days the morphed all the leaves into little black pellets of poop. Tomorrow I will be sectioning them off and starting the trials :}

Click to expand...

YesMamNoSir said:

Well I'm back with some results. The fact that it took so long shows that some of my harvest was successful. When I brought in the two plants that were bug ravaged I only found one more caterpillar beyond the original scare that brought in a dozen bugs. I thankfully saved them in little containers with some tomato leafs in them. A few days later my garden in the front yard was totally devastated by slugs snails and caterpillars. So I had a lot of chances to test products.

First Test........Neem Oil alone did nothing, but make the bugs smell like Neem Oil. It did help with some little mold spots on a couple roses and other flowers though.

Second Test......Pyrethrin did work on caterpillars and other critters but you had to really dowse them in it which may have affected big buds ready to be harvested.

Third Test....Dipel Dust. This one I was really hoping would work because I thought it fit in well with organic gardening. I covered the leaves in the cage with the budworms in it aggressively. The budworms ate all of the leaves with the dipel dust and continued eating them for two days before they rolled over and admitted defeat. This would not be good in a real world scenario because if your garden was plagued by these critters after application they could still torment you for days before you see any effect.

Fourth Test....Sluggo. Sluggo was only used on my outside flower garden and it worked marvelously and even made my passion flower swell up with blooms after a week of application because of the iron and phosphorus in the Sluggo. Will use every couple weeks on flower garden. Will not use on veggies or edibles it has been stated that the Iron they use in sluggo is an EDTA and not listed because it is an inactive ingredient. This may be false but just in case I'll keep using it on the pretty inedible flowers.

5th Test....Diatemaceous Earth/Bentonite Clay. This worked very well as ground cover and to sprinkle around area and in hiding spots would not coat the plant with it though.


RESULTS......After endless research what I've ended up doing with my now vegging plants and as well with my outside garden is this....Take 1.5 TBSP of Neem oil. 1/2 TBSP Pyrethrin. Put these in a shot glass and mix with eye dropper. Then Take 1/2 tsp of DynaGro Protekt (or any potassium silicate) and add to shot glass and suck it back in forth using the eye drop this will emulsify the neem and will change it to a milky color. Mix with a Gallon of H20. Apply this to the plants RELIGIOUSLY till they are dripping wet....top/bottom of leaves, stems and around base of plant. And then take the DE/Bentonite and spread around the garden perimeter and any shady spots that bugs would like to hang out in. ( While cleaning out my flowering room There was a little pile of leaves that I had collecting in the corner and I found several worms and spittlebugs hiding, so keep room clean of debris and take away any cool shady hiding spots for these bugs!)
PLEASE if anyone else has anything to add to this do so. I got really lucky this time and caught it early but if it would have happened a month earlier when I was out of town and not staring at fully developed buds everyday the conclusion would have been different.

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