Maggots?! Mites!? What is in my cones?!

Finally picking hops today, thought they were not ready but apparently they are past due...

Centennials were fine. Cascades have these maggot looking larvae and black moldiness on the inside. I presume these are no longer viable. Don't really want that **** in my beer. WTF happened? They were doing so well. Waited to long? Too wet? They seem fine on the outside or at least some of them do. Inside, nasty.




Guess I won't be getting nearly as large a harvest as I thought.

they look like hop aphids. that sucks - if it were earlier i'd say spray them off with a hose & then spray with neem or pepper+garlic, but if they are in the cones at this poing you're probably hosed.

Zymurugrafi said:

Finally picking hops today, thought they were not ready but apparently they are past due...

Centennials were fine. Cascades have these maggot looking larvae and black moldiness on the inside. I presume these are no longer viable. Don't really want that **** in my beer. WTF happened? They were doing so well. Waited to long? Too wet? They seem fine on the outside or at least some of them do. Inside, nasty.

Guess I won't be getting nearly as large a harvest as I thought.

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weird thing is I have had no problem with them on the plants to this point. No outward signs anywhere. They just appeared in the cones. Only on the Cascades it seems (knock wood) Guess I will pick what I can and inspect them as I go. Bummer.


Got 14 oz. wet of the centennial (first year) and it was looking like 3-4 pounds of cascades (wet) guess not now.

On second thought after consulting homebrewers garden, these are too big to be hop aphids. Also, I looked in another and found some flying type bug which may be another separate critter.

Any other thoughts on what this is. I'll try and get a shot of the moldy looking ones too.

Don't sweat it. The Alpha Aphids er... acids will completely cover the taste of those buggers. Plus, the extra protein will be so slight that you won't even notice it. Brew on!

EDIT: Nice pic, BTW. Macros can be hard, especially hand-held.

I suspect they are whitefly larvae. I'd also just use the hops and boil them up, maybe skip dry hopping with them

Homercidal said:

Don't sweat it. The Alpha Aphids er... acids will completely cover the taste of those buggers. Plus, the extra protein will be so slight that you won't even notice it. Brew on!

EDIT: Nice pic, BTW. Macros can be hard, especially hand-held.

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har har har. Nice.


And thanks, lucky shot really. Full on sunshine helps.


Well, the more pints I have the less picky my picking becomes...

well, too dark to pick anymore today. Frost is a possibility tonight...


Ended up without 3 lbs. wet of the Cascades including some suspect ones. Oh well.

Picked 2 lbs. of wild/feral hops those were fine no sign of the larvae. Just getting a bit brown on the edges.

House is smelling like hops. My wife is afraid it smells like the cousin and we are having a student of hers watch the house for the next few days...

Picked mine yesterday and noticed the same bugs. I live down in Mass for a reference. I just decided to brew a wet hop style beer with mine and not worry about this bugs this time. I hope to do some research to avoid these next year. If you find any information out please share.

Mike

I have reconsidered the evidence and decided they are indeed hop aphids. As mine have been drying the aphids are coming out and amassing on the screens. They are crawling and not stationary larvae as I suspected initially. The other clue turns out to be the black fungus like stuff I mentioned. Turns out hop aphids actually spread this and it is known as sooty mold. So, I did not pick the hops with the black sooty mold. I am not going to worry about the aphids either. I figure I brew with grain and there is no escaping the fact that there are always mealy worm larvae and other critters in grain and that has not bothered me why should some dried out aphid carcasses! :rockin:

I plan on starting a hop pest pictorial thread when I return home in a few days to help others ID these problems. So anyone with pics of pests and diseases can contribute. Would have helped me to figure it out quicker.

I noticed a crapton of these little buggers working their way out of the furnace filters I'm using for drying. I figure, it's pre-boil, they're going to be vacuum-sealed, then tossed in the freezer; I'll be OK, right?

the_bird said:

I'll be OK, right?

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CERTAINLY! I'm not gonna worry. Probably won't dry hop with them as someone else suggested. I have a few lbs. drying with a fan and filter right now. Like you I noticed they were being driven out anyway. I suspect many will leave on there own just because conditions are uncomfortable. So, who knows there may nt be that many in te end anyways.

I can fit about a lb. in our food dehydrator. I noticed the ones done in there the aphids got "cooked", dried out, dessicated...

So I'll probably run them all through there for a bit.

Like I said, aphids, I won't worry about. The cones that got infected with th black sooty mold... YUCK.