caterpillars moms and butterflies not the most common pests you gotta worry about but you
still gotta be aware of it i just wanna say that i'm eternally grateful for everyone that likes
shares and subscribes to this video let's go ahead and get into it come here to perfectgardens.com
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guys a healthy insect population is also a healthy sign of biodynamics again i'm always talking about
it it's always something i'm always pushing people in that direction because i think it will make
you a better grower overall if you learn to work with life versus trying to annihilate it however
caterpillars are definitely one of those insects that look pretty but could definitely do some
damage in your grow room or should i really say your growth space because normally you're going to
be seeing these issues when you're going outdoors or in greenhouses whenever dealing with pests i
think the most important thing to be become aware of or learn to do is identify the subtleties each
pest leaves behind when they are using your plants as a host for food shelter or laying their eggs so
first off laying their eggs on the plants you can see these eggs on the stems and on the branches
and even on the leaves and they look like little spots usually black in color and very often not
they'll be circular dots if they're on the leaves they'll be circular dots that kind of
line the leaves and you'll see a whole bunch of little dots connected you can see anywhere from
10 to 15 all connected and you really won't notice it but it's it's normally right on
the underside of the leaves another good way to identify caterpillars is caterpillar poop but i
guarantee you we've all seen it it's something that we kind of look at and we're wondering
is this mold or something we wipe it away and it's normally not a big deal but definitely becoming
aware what caterpillar poop looks like is a great way to identify that you have caterpillars in your
grow room chew marks they are actually different chewing patterns from beetles to caterpillars
caterpillars will actually just chop down on your leaves they normally don't have a pattern
to it they're going to jump around from one spot to another spot so that's also another really
great way to identify if you're having caterpillar problems is erratic holes throughout your leaves
i'll get into burrow species caterpillars in a little bit although these bugs will actually
burrow into your flowers or your stems looking to eat photochemicals photochemicals basically help
plants prevent diseases and this is what some of the caterpillars that are burrowing into your your
stems are actually looking for it normally causes stem cankers and it looks like this i know we've
all seen it just lit holes in your stems and if it gets really bad your stem will actually break
completely off the sad thing about this though is even if you solve the problem because it's making
these large holes burrowing into your stems it leaves a way for other pests and other diseases
to actually get into your plant it's really interesting actually everybody kind of has its own
flavor it's always looking for something specific and if you know what that specific is it's easier
to identify the problem and properly treat it because obviously if you misidentify the problem
and you treat it with something it's going to slow down the progress which gives more and more
time for the damage to create a longer lasting effect real quick guys just a big warning watch
out for the caterpillars in your flowers when the flowering it could be very hard to notice that
these caterpillars are burning in and actually laying their eggs in your flowers i've seen this
happen a number of different times where growers actually crack open their flowers and then lo and
behold it's just completely filled up with larvae or caterpillars that are hatching and coming out
of your flowers i've also actually noticed this happen more often not if the grower is using a
high phosphorous product things like the hulk or things like that especially when they're growing
outdoors in the greenhouse for some reason a high phosphorous product especially those seems to
somewhat attract the caterpillars to munch down on them just be aware if you're also growing a
vegetable garden and you're growing cabbage kale lettuce tomatoes i can almost guarantee you you're
going to be having some caterpillars moths or butterflies more often than not the reason
why you're having moth problems or caterpillar problems is because you're attracting them into
your grow room a lot of growers will actually try to extend their season by putting in supplemental
light in their greenhouses or outdoors and that outdoor light is actually a beacon for mobs so
obviously there's pros and cons just be aware that if you do something for every action there is a
equal and opposite reaction the moms are going to be more present during the night and butterflies
will be more present during the day just little things to be aware of so some caterpillars that
are most predominant in this industry are going to be the cabbage looper the corn borer and the
hemp borer it's actually really easy to deal with caterpillar problems first and foremost is really
just be paying attention if you see moths flying around just know that they're going to land on
your plants and if they land on your plants day after day it's going to lead to a problem remember
caterpillars represent the larvae stage of all mobs and butterfly species to allow your room
to get an infestation with caterpillars or moths really means you have to be not paying attention
there are four stages in a moth or butterfly life cycle the eggs the larva the pupil the cocoon and
the adult most of these species are going to range anywhere from 30 to 60 days so you're not going
to be having this crazy reproductive cycle like aphids or spider mites so like i said you just
being visually aware you're gonna normally be able to solve this problem just by physically removing
them from your grow room if you live in areas like monterey and you have year-round growing cycles
and you want to grow with more biodynamics you might want to think about parasitic wasps
again right i'm always throwing out that word biodynamics biodynamics just means bringing
more life into your grow room another great bike to use is praying mantis if you are using a tea
there's actually two different types of bacterias you can introduce into your tea that will be a
great preventative they are the bacillus thermine inus bt and spinocide products spinocide is made
from the fermentation of specific soil bacterias so as you can see both of these things are
things that you can actually use as a powder you can order them off amazon and actually
just get a little bit of it and add it into your beneficial teas very often a lot of growers they
will be brewing back wano or seabird guano and they'll be put throwing in a couple beneficial
bacterias and fungi but if you want to have even more beneficial bacteria that fungi i can
guarantee you things like this are not going to be in the basic packages like recharge for example
you can also use things like diatomaceous earth the detonation of earth are actually microscopic
little seashells that as the caterpillars crawl across they get cut up and end up bleeding out
diagnosis earth is actually a great amendment for calcium and if you haven't watched my video when
is the right time to use epsom salt down to asia's earth is a great product to use in conjunction
with epsom salt if having magnesium issues also the basic insecticidal soap if you want to use a
natural insecticide you can also use pyrithium normally they have them in foggers or sprayers
last but not least is ladybugs ladybugs will actually enjoy eating the eggs of caterpillars
normally growers that are growing outdoors using greenhouses over stuffing the room and normally
have undermanned operations are really going to be the people that are going to be running into major
caterpillar moth or butterfly issues for the majority of growers you're not going to need
to worry about this too much at least please remember to like share and subscribe i hope the
video was helpful have a great grow everyone and i think you guys are beginning to see the issue i'm
i'm bringing to the service right without that circulation and in that anaerobic environment all
of your microbiology in that bottle dies so what they're selling you is microbiology that is dead