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MissMeshow
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Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 2:33 pm
Location: Grand Junction, CO

Several buggy problems. Help!

1) < 1" green caterpillars on cilantro and lettuce. Found one inside a curled leaf with web stuff around it.

2) Teensy black bugs scattered on topside of lower leaves of tomato plants. I'd been thinking they were insect poop, but the have legs. They are much to tiny to take a photo of. What are these?

3) Thrips? Silvery patches and holes on lettuce.

4) Grasshoppers. I've seen them and my tomato leaves are being eaten.

Is there one solution for all of these? Would mantids or lady bugs help?

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Probably cabbage worms/ cabbage loopers.

Possibly aphids? Flea beetles? Do they hold still or jump? Are they making little holes in the leaves?

If the holes are roundish and fairly large, more likely slugs.


Wow... that's a lot of different pests to have. Grasshoppers, if you have them in any numbers, can strip a garden (close relative of the plague of locusts).

And no they are different pests with different control methods.

The closest to one treatment for all of them would be diatomaceous earth which would be effective against slugs and caterpillars (like the cabbage worm) and may work against the grasshoppers as well.

Here's a nice article on grasshopper control:

https://www.ghorganics.com/page12.html

In the longer term, you really need to encourage birds into your yard. If you put up bird feeders and bird baths, you can attract a lot of birds. Even seed eating birds that come to the feeders usually also eat insects, at least during parts of their life cycle.



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