If you sprinkle it around the base of the plant it will prevent soft insects crawling up (it can also help reduce fungus gnats), or you can sprinkle it on leaves (it will just wash off) that the caterpillars are crawling over. For caterpillars one of the best things you can do is just observe and remove them physically - the moth or butterfly usually lay eggs on the underside of leaves, the caterpillars will hatch and crawl around - easy to pick off. It depends on the species. Once you know your prey - you can figure out what its nature is and how to manage it better.
This is a Canadian place that I get beneficial insects and such from - it has some good info - I am sure there are many such places in the US.
Wow, Alan from SolisTek here. I was just going to come in here and shamelessly plug Neutralizer in this thread and low and behold it’s already here! Thank you for the support. Please do let us know how it works for you!
I’ll be interested to see what he has to say. Also feel free to invite him to join the community. If he’s interested send me his email address and I can send him an invite.
I thought I cannabis hyperemesis last year - kept throwing up and retching after smoking.
I had been testing (market research) one of the Licenced Medical companies (Canada) range of products and it actually turns out they were using Myclobutanil and hiding it (in the ceiling)… It was the worst tasting pot I have ever smoked - every strain tasted like the perfume a old grandmother would wear. Lemon haze, girl scout cookies, platinum kush, shark shock… every one tasted the same… That same company recently sold for $400+ million. When big pharma business and cannabis collide…
The use of neem oil is totally questionable. Sure it works as a management strategy - but it shouldn’t be taken ingested or taken internally - having neem residue on plants that the consumer then smokes (and it goes directly into the system rather than ingesting and getting filtered in the liver) is ultimately asking for trouble down the line.
If you spray anything on your plants you need to make sure that no residue is left come final processing. Too many shortcuts are taken by impatient people wanting to cash in. Pure organic cannabis that is flushed and washed before cutting should have no residues or toxic crap. It is a healing herb, keep the poisons away.
"Neem oil is not currently part of our list of pesticides that we screen for. We are considering the additional of that, as well as other contaminants to our screening protocol, but I do not know the time line for adding those in.
Temperature and Humidity will dictate how fast things spread and if they’ll even start to begin with. Warm temperatures above 80F are much more likely to cause infestation problems as many bugs like warm climates. As for humidity the plants generally like a range of 50-60% as it will keep you in the pocket of not too low causing the plant stress making it susceptible to infestation and not too high where your molds and mildew will start to form. UV-C (254nM) is definitely something you’ll want to integrate within your indoor air handler as all the rooms air will pass over the bulb killing spores, bacteria and helping with things like powdery mildew. It’s important to note that this method will assist and in most cases stop the SPREAD of mildew however you still need to have a good treatment program in place to localize any issues. Air quality control such as high efficiency filters will help with any buildup in the space of large particulate that can cause havoc in a room as well, but beware you can’t just throw any filter into your HVAC system as they are designed for specific static pressures and could cause your system to freeze, so makes sure to ask the manufacturer.
been fighting broad mites with the following rotation , and spraying twice a week.
Pyganic (pyrethrins )
PFR 97(fungus )
Botaniguard ( fungus)
Grandivo(bacteria)
Spinosad (bacteria)
All organic and Omri
Still fighting broad mites, I am thinking complete coverage is the biggest hurdle in our commercial grow. Although we still get broad mite flare ups, I have not seen spider mites, aphids, or any other bug since we have started this IPM.
