green ladybugs??? AHHHHHHHHHH

[fred_zepp]

i've got these green ladybug impersonators that are eating the crap out of my hops. i saw one or two a few days ago...now there are hundreds.

can't remember what these are actually called... but they are chewing up the leaves of my hops with impunity.

already sprayed a home-made insecticidal soap today....now i'm gonna do a nicotine spray (soakin a can of chew in water - -spray with pump sprayer).

anybody else got any ideas?

first it was spider mites...now these little b@stards.

 

[bsay]

I heard that you can capture some, put them in a blender with water, blend them up (with a few short bursts to "frustrate" them into secreting a special hormone. Pureed dead friends I guess deter them.....either that or I've relaxed, not worried and had too much homebrew.

 

[fred_zepp]

hahaha

yeah, yeah i get it.

but i have twenty five plants to worry about...i've put a lot of time into it... and i want them to produce some hops...not get eaten by green frickin bugs.

 

[EvilTOJ]

A picture would help, but the only green bugs I know of are aphids. Aphids are way smaller than ladybugs though.

 

[fred_zepp]

i did a litttle research and found out they are cucumber beetles. they most likely just migrated from more southern areas. they like to eat all kinds of stuff.

ways to fight em:

real ladys bugs will eat cuke beetle larvae.

plants that are bug repellent, such as african marigolds, broccoli, etc.

build bat houses...bats eat bad bugs. (already wanted to do this anyway)

 

[abstonhops]

bats rock! we have several around here and i believe that is the reason we don't have a severe bug problem....knock on wood!

 

[Trubadour]

I planted broccoli this year and bugs ate the hell out of them - I don't think they're bug repellant

 

[fred_zepp]

i'll probably go get some african marigolds, lady bugs and bat houses...right after i spray again.

 

[android]

plant some squash nearby and they won't be interested in the hops.

are they striped or do they have spots?

 

[fred_zepp]

they are spotted....look exactly like lady bugs, except bright green. about the same size too. i spoke to my wife's grandpa, a local farmer... and he was all too familiar with these bugs.

 

[android]

yeah, they're a pain in the ass. huge problem for cucurbit farmers as they harbor bacterial wilt, so they not only feed on the foliage at all stages and the fruit, but they transmit a virus that can kill entire crops. there is a striped version also. if you care to and if you can find some, Sevin is an insecticide that can help control them. Malathion is another chemical that will help, but i don't know if these will have any effect on hop plants... most of the published stuff has to do with cucurbit crops.

 

[fred_zepp]

just got back in from applying the nicotine spray... the numbers of bugs seem to be more on the order of "tens" rather than "hundreds" before i sprayed, so... it looks better. it seems that my insecticidal soap spray did something as well. i've also been blasting the bines with water to knock the spider mites loose. they also seem to be on the decline.

 

[fred_zepp]

latest update:

For the past two days, there seems to be only a few cucumber beetles left. I've seen four or five each day. I may spray again, just to be safe.

 

[Homercidal]

Those can be nasty. We've had that kind of bug in our garden when I was a kid. Luckily I haven't seen anything like that on my hops yet, although I DO see some of the leaves are damaged about 1 foot up and for a couple of inches. Might have been frost I guess.

 

[fred_zepp]

well, this morning, it seemed those little green bastids was on the rise again. i sprayed em wit some more tabacky juice. checked em just now and saw 8 of em...smashed all of em with my fingers.

picking up ladygubs from the hardware store tomorrow.

 

[penged]

How do you make the tobacco spray? I have not seen any this year but they seem to kill my cukes every time I plant them (which breaks my daughter's heart) so I know its a matter of time.

 

[fred_zepp]

checked again yesterday...0 count for ladybugs.

this morning...2 count.

i have enough tobacco spray for 1 more application...can't hurt i guess.


the spray is made by soaking 1 can of chew in 3 gallons of hot water for a ew hours, then straining and loading into pump sprayer.