There are more than 12,400 species of ants throughout the world. In California, there are about 270 species, but fewer than a dozen are important pests. Ants interfere with biological control. Honeydew-secreting pests, like aphids, supply sweet food to the ants. In turn, ants protect the pests from beneficial insects that try to eat them. Controlling ants is important when attempting to control these honeydew producing pests. Baiting is a low risk approach that interrupts ants’ interference. Once they have found an adequate food source, they create a pheromone trail, a chemically marked highway, to and from the ant nest. More bait stations are not necessarily the answer, but strategic placement is important.
Identification
Ants are close relatives of bees and wasps.
Common wingless adult forms, known as workers.
Winged forms, which leave the nest in large numbers in warm weather to mate and establish new colonies, are often mistaken for winged termites.
Warning: When you do anything cannabis related at home, please look up and read your local and state cannabis regulations. This way you know what your rights and limitations are.
The temperature is warming up, spring is coming. If you’re anything like me, you’re not just daydreaming about what fruits and vegetables are going in our garden this year. We’re also thinking about which cannabis veritals/strain we want to grow this year. But before we put any cannabis seeds in the soil, let’s talk about some things we need to think about when we’re looking for the best place to locate our cannabis garden.
Easily recognizable pests in the garden and active at night, earwigs hide in tight, dark, moist places during the day. True omnivores, they actually are important predators of aphids, insect eggs, but will eat almost all parts of flowering plants, especially soft tissue, like newly forming buds in cannabis.
Identification
The adult body is about 3/4 inch long and reddish brown.
Most species have wings under short, hard wing covers, but they seldom fly.
Two appendages that resemble forceps at the tail end of body are used for defense, mating, and capturing prey.
Leafhoppers feed on leaves and stems with piercing sucking mouthparts that extract a bit of fluid from the plant. Most have insignificant effects. A few species cause small, light flecking/stippling injury may occur at the feeding site. Black sooty mold is a secondary outbreak from their honeydew. Although some leafhoppers transmit plant pathogens that cause diseases of crops none of these leafhopper-vectored plant diseases are presently known to affect hemp.
Identification
Leafhopper adults are slender, wedge-shaped, and less than or about equal to 1/4-inch long. They have varying colors; some species are brightly colored, while others blend with their host plant. Leafhoppers are quite active; they crawl rapidly sideways or readily jump when disturbed. Sometimes leafhoppers can be confused with aphids or lygus bugs: Lygus can be identified by their red-tipped antennae. Aphids can be distinguished by two “tailpipe” structures (cornicles) protruding from their hind end. 1 or more long rows of spines on the hind legs distinguish leafhoppers from most other insects they may resemble.
Most grasshoppers are general feeders, but they prefer young green plants and some annual flowers. Chewing mouthparts make large, round, smooth holes in leaves. Heavy infestations can strip plants to stalks. During major outbreaks they feed on almost any green plant, and damage may occur over a considerably longer period.
Identification
Hind legs, have greatly enlarged femurs, are well adapted for jumping.
Antennae are relatively short versus crickets and katydids, which have long antennae.
Most are winged and are good fliers, although a few species are flightless.
Fungus gnats are common pest of indoor plants in wet environments where algae and fungus grow. Infested plants lose vigor, color, and pesky flies are seen emerging from the soil, especially during watering. Larval stage feeds on tender roots/root hairs and often transmits the soil-borne fungi which cause root rots: Pythium spp., and Fusarium spp, Phytopthera spp.
Identification
Fungus gnats are often confused with shore flies, but can be distinguished by their long, beadlike antennae, their long legs, and their wings which have a prominent “Y”-shaped vein.
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Show Notes: Welcome to Ep. 129. I was out at Lake Casitas and recorded this episode while I was there. Sorry about the wind noise, the rain rolled in.
I hope everyone had a good Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. The election, which states got legal cannabis. And an IPM question. Product review “Peach Ring” batter, thanks to Sespe Creek Collective in Ojai for sending that over. A word about dab straws/ nectar collectors, sticky teeth. Congrats to Justin Benton for his new podcast The Miracle Plant. Yellow sticky traps and cotton balls.
Strain of the Week: Gorilla Snacks – the internet says it’s a cross of of GG4 and Guinness, a Scooby Snacks F3 backcross. 23% THC It has a strong aroma with pungent notes of pine, spicy musk and some sweetness at the end. It was a fun, happy, chatty, high, no racy feeling. It was a bit distracting
Social Media: IPM Spider Mites (SM) during flowering @lonestar_grows. They’re a common pest that is easy to miss because they don’t fly so yellow sticky cards don’t give you a clear picture of SM pest pressure. Regular bush bean plants do very well at attracting mites and help me monitor them better. Keep bean plants in a small pot or cup that can be removed for the grow space. I also go for predator, ladybug common but seasonal. I use Green Lacewing eggs/larvae because they’re available to me from RinconVitova. Predatory mites like Phytoseiulus persimilis and Amblyseius californicus, and a predatory midge called Feltiella acarisuga can be put out as soon as you see spider mites on the bean plants. I don’t spray anything on my flower plants, doesn’t matter how many weeks of flower are in. The moisture could help certain molds and fungus take hold and ruin the bud. It could also change the taste of the bud. A buddy of mine swears by pyrethrum foggers but no later than week two of flower because it could leave a taste. The most important thing to do is break down and clean the grow space. Figure out how they got in and what helped them thrive. Start your IPM with correcting that and build from there.
Yellow sticky traps – mimic a dying weak leaf or mimic a yellow flower.
Cinnamon Oil – thrips, leafminers, Japanese beetles
This is a short video of me husking some seeds from a small plant (The Cool One). The seeds are an F3. Donate $1.00 USD to this video at patreon.com/inmygrow. SUBSCRIBE to the channel at youtube.com/inmygrowshow.
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