Yellow spots and shriveling leaves?? can any one help

[kaj621]

here pics of my plants.. can any one please help me.... while i was transplanting my plants into bigger pots.. i found thousands of ants... im not sure if this is the reason but can someone with experience please help me findout whats wrong

thanks in advance

[kaj621]

heres 2 more pics

[kaj621]

stinkyattic, zandor, anyone??

[stinkyattic]

I have NEVER seen a pattern of damage quite like that but it looks MUNCHED by something... but ants? That makes no sense... Their mouth parts woudl not make that pattern even if they WERE interested in cannabis... you say ants, and i know some species of ants hang out where there are aphids... do you see ANY bugs?
WTF!!! That is TOO weird!

[kaj621]

lol... theres also a few tiny grasshoppers but i mentioned the ants because when i was transplanting.. there were MILIONs of them

[stinkyattic]

Grasshoppers?
Ugh those things are plant munchers fo sho.
A light application of neem oil spray makes plants VERY distasteful to insects.

[xxxhazexxx]

i dont know 100% in them bad pics wear the blade has gone that looks like melee bug damage other than that fuck knows im looking for it now

[kaj621]

so its definately a bug??.. i sprayed some Pesticide that was made for fruit and vegetable plants..... ill also try the neem oil

[Uncle E]

It may be Aphids. Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects with long, slender mouth parts that they use to pierce stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts and suck out plant fluids. Aphids may be green, yellow, brown, red, or black depending on the species and the plants they feed on. Low to moderate numbers of leaf-feeding aphids are usually not damaging in gardens. However, large populations cause curling, yellowing, and distortion of leaves and stunting of shoots; they can also produce large quantities of a sticky exudate known as honeydew, which often turns black with the growth of a sooty mold fungus. In some situations ants tend aphids and feed on the honeydew aphids excrete. At the same time, they protect the aphids from natural enemies. Your description of your ant problem makes me lean in this direction.

[Uncle E]

Opps forgot to mention control. If this is a aphid problem a simple "hot tea" will work. Make a "tea" using hot pepers , tabasco sauce, garlic anything you have hot put it in there. Due to there soft bodies spraying them with this "tea" will give them a burning sensation and they will leave. This will not kill them but they will assciocate this burning to the feeding of the leaf and move on. Hope this helps in some way.

[stinkyattic]

you say ants, and i know some species of ants hang out where there are aphids... :D

Problem is, aphid damage is generally right at the base of the petiole where it attaches to the plant, and the peppers and tomatoes that I have seen carrying a heavy infestation have simply dropped leaves when the aphids got bad- there were no visible chew marks on the leaves, because as you posted, aphids have SUCKING mouth parts.

This really does look like the damage of an insect with larger CHEWING mouth parts, such as a grashopper or caterpillar, although damage associated with the latter is often simply half-round missing chunks of the leaf.

[Uncle E]

In these pictures you can see shiny,silver like circles.These circles are caused by insects sucking the chlorophyll from the leaf.The shiny circles are the newly "sucked" areas,later turning brown,then if enough damage caused killing blade or entire leaf.You can see this in all the pictures but even more clearly in the the last two posted.I just woke up and called out aphids due to the ant population, and that the aphids suck rather then chew.I doubt now that it is aphids cause you would have noticed them on the inderside of the leaves.So...next bug up , Thrips. These bastards work fast, make the same damage you have ,and the best part adults have wings.This may be why you don't see them cause they fly off.Look on the underside of infected leaves,if you see small black specs(bigger then spider mites)those are the turds from the thrips.Thrips can also carry and transmit
plant disease.

[stinkyattic]

Thrip damage is very distinctive. It appears as tiny, almost silvery trails less than 1 mm wide and only a couple mm long. Damage is usually most obvious on lowest leaves. You may see the thrip larvae on leaf surfaces; they are about a mm long, pale, and look like a splinter. That is certainly not from thrips.

Next? :D

[Uncle E]

The insect that leaves silvery trails is a leaf miner. Leaf Miners on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferschlick/197612580/)

[stinkyattic]

It appears as tiny, almost silvery trails less than 1 mm wide and only a couple mm long.

Leaf miners leave LONG trails or even maze-like patterns.

[Uncle E]

Can you post some close up pictures of the the underside of the leaves please.

[kaj621]

In these pictures you can see shiny,silver like circles.

sorry i should have said this before , but the color in real life was yellowish brownish, but the flash made it look like its silver

thanks for the info stinkyattic and Uncle.... you guys sound like scientists haha

[kaj621]

Can you post some close up pictures of the the underside of the leaves please.


yea i'll try to get the pictures up in a few hours because I have to go somewhere with my family soon.

[stinkyattic]

. you guys sound like scientists haha
Guess what.... I AM a scientist in 'real life' lol.... and used to work for an entomology lab! :D I <3 creepy crawly things!

I still think that's just the grasshoppers having a snack. You get any more damage?

[kaj621]

Ill post up pics later there hasn't really been anymore damage, but can i still have a good harvest even after the bugs?

[stinkyattic]

yeah i think in your case the damage is mainly cosmetic. make sure you keep weird bugs away from your plants in the future but you shoudl be fine.

[Uncle E]

I agree with stinkyattic in that you should be fine. Not to confuse, but I don't want to rule out a possiable fungal problem. Fungal problems are present spring / early summer. The reason I say this is you say spots are brown first, and it looks like in pictures you have plants outside ( least pics. were taking outside).Leaf spot "may" be a culprit here. Here are some links...leaf spot: Definition and Much More from Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/leaf-spot) http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/rowcrops/pp1244-01.jpg Yahoo! Image Detail for cropsci.uiuc.edu/classic/2002/Article5/frogeye-leaf-spot.jpg (http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fs earch%2Fimages%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dleaf%2520spot%26fr2%3Dtab-web%26fr%3Dmy-vert-web-top&w=450&h=338&imgurl=cropsci.uiuc.edu%2Fclassic%2F2002%2FArticle 5%2Ffrogeye-leaf-spot.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cropsci.uiuc.edu%2Fclassic%2 F2002%2FArticle5%2Ffigure5.html&size=41.7kB&name=frogeye-leaf-spot.jpg&p=leaf+spot&type=jpeg&no=13&tt=10,598&oid=3479af51254c9574&ei=UTF-8) . Oh i'm not a scientist just a landscaper (master gardener is my title) for 14 yrs and a pot grower for even longer. Like I said earlier i didn't want to rule out fungal problems but they are easy enough to correct.

[stinkyattic]

fungal problems could certainly attract ants too!