yellow wormy things won't go away!

Ok so here's the deal- Harris7 and I have got these teeny yellow wormy things on our plants. They won't go away. They are so small you can barely see them, but they are eating our plants badly. We use insecticidal soap on all the plants whenever we spot one, and then we spray all the plants with a diluted neem oil mix every few days. I sprayed a bug with the soap once, waited an hour- and the wormy thing was still there, looking pretty dead to me (wasn't moving). It seems to me that the soap kills these things, but they're still on our plants! How do I get rid of them?!?!?!

ps: does anyone know what they are? i would post a pic but they're too small

Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis is supposed to kill all kinds of caterpillars (I think that's what the little yellow wormy things are), but is it safe to use on pot plants?

FUCK THIS! I just sprayed all the plants with soap REALLY well about an hour and a half ago, i just looked in the room and found at least 10 of those wormy things on two plants alone (small plants, just seedlings)!!! I also noticed a bug that looked slightly different though- it was more of a cream color than yellow, it was slightly bigger, you could see its teeny legs, and it sorta hopped away from me when i went to squish it. PLEASE HELP ME THESE THINGS ARE DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!!

the wormy thnings sound like thrip larvae, and the bigger things sound like thrips - they fly and are quite quick. i used a nicotine/soap solution on em. they lay eggs in soil and when you see adults they are probably breeding already.

hmm that would definitely make sense because we do/did have a thrip problem- now that we have been treating all of our plants with neem oil quite frequently they hadn't been a problem. BUT those wormy things are terrorizing the smaller plants- some are taking it much worse than others- i will post some pics soon of the leaves that are quite progressed with damage and are dying.

Definitely thrips, evil bastards, hate them more than you can imagine, love to munch tender seedlings and low leaves since they breed in the dirt and then the larvae climb up stems to the first leaves they find... EVIL EVIL EVIL!!!!!

Neem is good to protect older plants as you said but you might have to water your pots, ALL OF THEM, with predatory nematodes if you want to kill them organically.

Or you can just bug-bomb with pyrethrin once a week for 2 or 3 weeks and use yellow sticky traps to catch the stragglers.

Did I mention how much I hate thrips?

thanks a lot- i despise them already as well! I am attempting to post pics at the moment to show you all the BEAUTIFUL seedlings we have (best looking ones yet), that are unfortunately being eaten alive by these little buggers.

I would like to get rid of them organically, so I will do the nematode thing.

Also try out diatomaceous earth or an organically-derived pure pyrethrum spray. Good luck finding one though!!!

http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4DM...it/organic.htm
Here's a neat lilnk to info on insecticides that are still considered organic

Ok so I figured out what these nematode things are. Are they easy to find? Or am I gonna have to order off the net?

pretty much you're going to have to order them unless your local nursery supply place is well-stocked... I can get them at a local shop, and not a hydro shop either, so it's worth calling around.

alright well my local store doesn't carry it in the winter or fall, but they recommended Safers End All-its a miticide and insecticide. It's supposed to kill adult and nymph stages of thrips. i think i will try that as it is readily available...i will also put tape around the base of the stem on my little plants to stop the larvae from climbing up to the leaves of the plants.

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Originally Posted by dutch.lover

...i will also put tape around the base of the stem on my little plants to stop the larvae from climbing up to the leaves of the plants.

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oh yeah! Great idea! Double-sided sticky tape! I'm going to try that with my babies too! :D :D :D

haha thats not an original idea unfortunately, i read it on the net somewhere.... BUT i will take credit for bring that piece of advice to CANNABIS!

I think they sell a double sided tape device to prevent gypsy moth caterpillars from going up trees. Could something like that REALLY work on our small stems?

i think just normal tape or double sided tape would do the trick. Buying tape made for big trees would probably be way too big for our kind of plants.

heh, well yeah for sure :)

Maybe a slice of no-pest strip will have more powerful adhesive

haha yea i guess i was stating the obvious, lol. what i am thinking of doing is taking a strip of just regular tape, and making it into a circle around the stem with the sticky side facing outwards.

Sorry i cant post more pics. but the website is messed up and it seems that it just isn't working. WE hva tried to two different computers too

anyone else having these problems

ive got some questions re:my neem oil. the neem oil we have been using is by Safers, but nowhere on the spray bottle does it say it is an insecticide. it was in the insecticidal section in the plant store, but all the bottle says is it is for making the leaves nice and shiny. is this a shitty type of neem oil for killing pests? is this a non-pesticidal version of neem oil, that i have never heard of before?

i dunno about neem oil. you should replace the top inch or two of soil from the pots, its got the eggs in. i used nicotine solution made from soaking some nicorette inhalator cartridges in a pint of warm soapy water - i used 6 which was about 60mg - thats about a pack of cigarettes. i then sprayed every three/four days for a couple of weeks. the idea is to stop em breeding cos they don't live long and its the young uns that do most damage to the plant.

should have said that if you use a pack of cigarettes you need to boil them in the water for a few minutes to kill any tobacco viruses.

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Originally Posted by dutch.lover

nowhere on the spray bottle does it say it is an insecticide. ......all the bottle says is it is for making the leaves nice and shiny. ..... is this a non-pesticidal version of neem oil,...?

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No worries, neem is neem is neem. It has lots of uses- pesticide, leaf shine, anti-transpirant, fungicide, and miticide.

good stuff i was worried that i bought the wrong stuff. i mean, if its such a good pesticide- why dont they market it as such?

Is it okay to give younger plants neem oil? Mine are a few weeks old (one week at my house) and just hearing all the stories of pests I am tempted to get some neem oil and do preventative sprayings once a week or so. Anyone care to comment? Best of luck with the problem.

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i mean, if its such a good pesticide- why dont they market it as such?

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neem is used as an insect repellent (among other things) which is not the same as a pesticide - i.e. something that is toxic to insects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil.

getting back to the thrips, they have now established a life cycle on your plants - they hatch, they grow, they mate and they lay eggs - which means you may be a bit late for a repellent to be effective.

If you still find thrips two weeks after the neem treatment you will need get something that will affect the thrips' metabolism and cause their death and so break their life cycle. nicotine works well as it intefers with insects digestion and respiration - they usually die within a few hours of exposure.

thanks for all the input guys! we used end-all by safers and it seems to have taken care of the problem. unfortunately, the two babies that were attacked the worst looked like they had impatiens necrotic spot virus- which is transmitted thru thrips. because they were only bag seeds we decided not to take any chances so we killed them. im still upset- the little guys are always my favorites and we FINALLY perfected seeding- so they were growing famously!!!! damn thrips!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Also try out diatomaceous earth

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I tried to get some of this stuff. As of right now it is banned in Canada due to the health code. No store has any left. the grow shop by me said it was toxic so the Government Health board has stopped allowing it into Canada.

Just thought I would let the Canuks know...

I used Need oil to get rid of the bastards. Although I only had larva. I have yet to see an actual adult thrip/ I hope to never see one.

I spray neem every two weeks. Mainly just the soil. im lucky my GirlFriend keeps our apartment spotless. No Dust. No Bugs...

yeah for girlfriends....

kd

flash freeze em'! it should be cold enough where you're at, set your plants outside for 20 minutes (or less, be careful!), all those bugs will die very quickly. do it a couple times over a few days. It may stunt your plants, but stunted growth is better than chewed growth and dead plants.

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Originally Posted by kdspecial

I tried to get some of this stuff. As of right now it is banned in Canada due to the health code. No store has any left. the grow shop by me said it was toxic so the Government Health board has stopped allowing it into Canada.

yeah for girlfriends....

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Heh heh yay for girlfriends!!! You're a lucky one... I'm not all about doing housework... used to get Jeff to do all the laundry because it was down 3 flights of stairs and I was already pooped from carrying buckets of dirt and water up to the attic every day!! I DO cook though!

Anyway about the DE, I know why it was banned... the type used in pool filters is VERY VERY dangerous to anything with lungs. For some reason the body cannot encapsulate the particles or expel them and they cause chronic lung disease. I didn't know that the plain garden DE was hazardous... kind of assumed the dust is no good to breathe but not life threatening for sure!

Hey I'll add that to my list for when I come up to Ontario... I'll trade banned garden supplies with ya... If you can find me a few bottles of No-Damp I'll bring you a lifetime supply of DE... deal? :D

Hey guys, after all this talk about thrips I decided just as a triple-check, to post pics of the leaves damaged by them and just have people verify if yes, it is thrips that are hurting my plants.

It would just put my mind at ease to at least know what the little fuckers are, once and for all.

ps: i posted it in Indoor Growing under "Verification"

*love*

I have thrips also...I used a Fox Farm pyrethrum spray. It works good...strong stuff that's all organic if you have 2 weeks or so to let it break down. On the small ones I dip a q-tip in some and apply.