Organic pest and disease control

[Zasso Nouka]

Is it one of these bad boys ?

I’ve tried to send pics from my phone but it says error. I’ll try again after work today.

Might be because of the file size, generally it's easier to upload to a file hosting service like Tiny Pic and let them resize the picture and then copy the 'img' link they give you into a post.

[UshikuDan]

Yes, that is it. Any advice?? Thanks.

[Zasso Nouka]

Not sure what these are called but they infest most members of the Solanaceae family, their preferred natural host is probably nightshade but they will happily munch any on any members of the Solanaceae family. If you have nightshade growing nearby you could spray it with a neonicotinoid and hope to kill off any visitors to it before they reach your nasu and tomato plants.

Cheapest option is to squash them between finger and thumb. Organic bio pesticides are not cheap and currently seem to mostly come in large packs for farm use. Below are the two option I use

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[farmingnoob]

I recently planted three goya seedlings and one plant started looking really sad and limp like it was too hot. But the soil was moist and we didn't really have any heat until this week.

Yesterday I noticed another goya plant was starting to get limp too. So I checked them out more closely and found that some maggot-like bug had bored into the main stems.

They were about 1cm long and beige. Any idea what these bugs are and how to stop them?

[gonbechan]

Not sure what these are called but they infest most members of the Solanaceae family, their preferred natural host is probably nightshade but they will happily munch any on any members of the Solanaceae family. If you have nightshade growing nearby you could spray it with a neonicotinoid and hope to kill off any visitors to it before they reach your nasu and tomato plants.

That is the 28 spotted ladybird beetle.
This site offers a few experimental ways of dealing with them (at the bottom of the page) But picking the larvae off the undersides of the leaves is going to be your biggest defence against them.

http://www.pestnet.org/fact_sheets/eggp ... le_058.htm

[Zasso Nouka]

Yesterday I noticed another goya plant was starting to get limp too. So I checked them out more closely and found that some maggot-like bug had bored into the main stems.

They were about 1cm long and beige. Any idea what these bugs are and how to stop them?

If you can post a picture I might be abe to identify it but if not no worries. Most of those boring bugs are pretty hard to control organically as they are hard to spot until a plant takes a turn for the worse and by then it's often too late. Most organic treatments are not systemic so won't touch the bug inside the plant but instead rely on pre-emptive sprays to the outside of the plant so they catch the bug as it bores its way inside.

You could try injecting some Spinoace or Botaniguard inside the stem if you can locate the entrance but that isn't a cheap option. Alternatively if the bug is living high enough up the stem cut it off just below where the bug is and hope the plant sends new sprouts from lower down on the stem.

Possibly someone else might have some better ideas.

That is the 28 spotted ladybird beetle.
This site offers a few experimental ways of dealing with them (at the bottom of the page) But picking the larvae off the undersides of the leaves is going to be your biggest defence against them.

http://www.pestnet.org/fact_sheets/eggp ... le_058.htm

Awesome find . Always nice to know the identity of your adversary

[Aquilis]

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with ants? We have millions of the buggers and while some are obviously useful I dont really want to be farming ants!

[Zasso Nouka]

We get problems with them in our vinyl houses over the winter bringing in and farming aphids on our salad, funnily enough customers want to eat pesticide free crops but are horrified if they find a few aphids on a leaf

If the area you want to treat is dry you could try diatomaceous earth around their entrance ways but I've never found that to be 100% successful, sometimes it works and sometimes not. What I now do is use the poison baited 'traps' you can get from home centres, it's not an organic solution but at least you aren't spraying crops with harmful artificial pesticides. Drop some of those down near the entrances of their nests and it will kill off the whole colony.

[Zasso Nouka]

Something for @farmingnoob here perhaps.

These are the parasitic nematodes that attack many types of soil pests



They are particularly good at controlling these little white grubs that eat roots



But also attack Nekirimushi (cutworms) and other soil insect pests.

Further details at SDS Bio

Order them through your local taneyasan or JA.

[DocDoesFarming]

We get problems with them in our vinyl houses over the winter bringing in and farming aphids on our salad, funnily enough customers want to eat pesticide free crops but are horrified if they find a few aphids on a leaf

The oil and soap mixed with water spray seems to help, at least with cucumbers it does, I would test it on one plant first before doing others just in case your plants die.