cupanoodles
New Member
Hi folks, long-time lurker here with some pics. This is 3rd year growth and our first good harvest. My plants were definitely infested with spider mites the last couple years and but this year I was able to stave them off with predatory mites and lady bugs for long enough for plants to grow large. I'm starting to harvest now and finding quite a few cones with holes in leaves near the base of the cone and withered, eaten out tops of the cones. There are small, hard black dots that I assume are excrement from whatever's eating the cones as they are definitely not alive (I crushed a few to be sure). I also found a very small number of the white dots like the ones on my finger there that are definitely egg cases for something. I pulled the damaged center out of one cone and that's what you see me dangling with the black dots attached and the whole thing held together by some kind of web-like material. I didn't think spider mites did this kind of damage! Any advice on what's eating my hops or how to prevent would be greatly appreciated!
