Be Aware of the European-Corn Borer

[trichomes]

cant even sit in my chair

hawk moth aggression, right now, they are now a nuisance here

 

[Lester Freeman]

Ya, sounds like it. I don't see them that much at all. If I do they're flying high, Or I am

 

[trichomes]

saw big common egg layer/bad moth last night, 1st sighting, thanks for keeping me up to date on your moth score, you have me shutout at this point! 4 zip,

i ordered that stuff u mentioned for my garden thanks again

 

[trichomes]

11 am

11:50 am

 

[Lester Freeman]

Wow!

 

[trichomes]

corn borer?

lmk, when you get the link u sent me, it was misplaced, link msg results from these pics is your call,

I have provided half the work here, lol. yes im lazy!

 

[Lester Freeman]

Those are not corn borers. Most likely caterpillars from butterflies, or from some kind of big moth like the tomato worm

 

[David Bowman]

I agree with RL. The ECB have a dark shiny head do they not RL?

 

[Lester Freeman]

Typical infestation pictures:

(Note: First two pictures are viewing the hollowed out stem from above)

They'll have an orange/brown head and a flesh-colored body. They are also very very small so making them impossible to track. Did I mention their saliva literally induce botrytis? To add, you can see in the first picture they are small enough to burrow UP into a cola as if it were a pipe, that was the stem of a one gram cola.

They also have strategic tactics. For instance, exam picture #4 and see the strategically placed worm exit/entry hole. The fecal matter is also spread in combination with the saliva forming a "super-compound" that will turn fresh plant tissue into a rotted mess within hours. High humidity and temperatures accelerate this process. Often times, since they are so small... only a matter of millimeters in length, 1 cm at most for an adult pupae... they will get into this stems without you noticing. So at first glance the buds look fine, but then when you see the bud has fallen over, or is already dead by the time you noticed. They are absolutely by far the worst possible cannabis pest in existence IMHO.

I have also witnessed their expert ability in traveling through the branches using their silk strings (cacoon material), they are very good at it. They do it like tarzan in the jungle. Other moth/butterfly species as trichome showed are much less adapted to the true treachery, so to speak. They are large, they lug around, and are easily spotted.

 

[David Bowman]

I remember those nasty things from my years in the Midwest shucking corn. It was always a shock to me when I found one, or one of their holes.

 

[Lester Freeman]

I must admit, the pictures of the worms I posted I don't believe are actually Ostrina Nubilalis, however I have not yet found out their actual species name, since they acted almost entirely like an ECB would I had no idea what to call it other than that. These things are worse than corn borers because of their small size, and ferocity. I should have taken more time to find out the real species name, either way...

 

[David Bowman]

Gotcha! I remember the ECB being much larger with 1/4 inch holes in affected corn, I thought you were talking about a smaller specied of CB. Back at ya!

 

[Lester Freeman]

Yeah, I was thinking it was a phenotype that is unique to my region, a very rare one...

 

[trichomes]

Thanks Les & Colo appreciate those shares. I cringe everytime I see that picture, you got me again Les!

I'm doing a very thorough yard clean right now.

 

[trichomes]

Lester, hope you don't mind me using your corn borer thread, for our "bug yard".

I've noticed that the day after I feed any type of organic "tea" or guano or castings, the gnats/ little tine flies appear like magic.

I just want to be sure that I don't have to worry about these, they seen to go away when I use a little SNS 203.

here's my latest intruder, he has friends too, they only appear where the poo is used.

 

[Lester Freeman]

As with outdoor gardening, most bugs become a nuisance or a pest in one way or another. Hell, I even had too many ladybugs last year at harvest time and ended up finding dead ladybugs all over the place in some buds. Point is, you'll want to make sure no unwanted pests are running around on the plant, because eventually those trichomes will start acting like fly paper and it takes awhile to clean things up.

You can always put a layer of sand on top of the organic layer to help prevent things, however they tend to find a way underneath it and burrow into the root zone. A good tactic for that is to use diatemacious earth which will cut them into little pieces, yet it feels smooth to humans. Don't even think about putting sea sand on your plants though, the salt in there would kill your plants immediately. Clean play-box style sand can be used.

To sum up, yeah they are annoying lol.

 

[trichomes]

thanks Lester, I'm gonna look into that Dia-earth, I've heard that befeore, about it's "cutting" ability.

Fuzzy is interested in what brand of sandal you use on the bad moths, Birkenstock?

 

[trichomes]

I did not know that all the s a b o posts have been removed, no wonder I can't find the first, lethal sandal post, hmm

thanks again for the gnat share

 

[trichomes]

Beheaded moth Re: Be Aware of the European-Corn Borer

Beheaded moth found in mint condition this morning,

I'm thinking the BAT got him in mid air, he was lying on Fluxys moth barrier net that i deploy at night.

This is the fastest moth in the world & one of the biggest, Hawk aka Hummingbird aka Sphinx Moth.

they are not harmful to cannabis plants, shown on smartphone for scale (Les) lol

Les the yesterday bug is gnat like, correct?

 

[Lester Freeman]

Wow! If you still have the specimen try to get some more clear pictures of the abdomen for me I would love to see it up close and personal. Very interesting and neat find! Crazy to think a bat could swoop in on one of these fast little things.

About the fly image, sure it's gnat "related" because its a fly, but I don't believe it to actually be a fungus gnat because of the yellow marking, it's some kind of unwanted nuisance. You'll find there's lots of little bugs like this out there