Tiny slugs eating sprouts

[BarG]

Yeah, fungus gnats were the first thing to come to my mind- they are very annoying. The feed on the roots of plants. When they feed on adult plants it is not a big deal since they do not consume enough to hurt it. Obviously seedlings are a different story. They get in there, eat your roots and you wake up to a wilted plant that looks like it was overwatered or somethingg. Fungus gnat larvae will destroy seedlings. I don't mean to be brand specific, but there is a product called "Mosquito dunks" sold in most home improvement stores which contains a strain of beneficial bacteria which kills them. Costs about $10. They are little disks which are usually thrown into fountains and such to prevent mosquito larvae from becoming mosquitos. I know some people break a little chunk off, crush it up and sprinkle over the surface of the soil. Personally, I would be more inclined to break off a little bit, soak it in your water overnight and then water your seedlings with it. The idea is to get the bacteria into your soil media- that is where the eggs hatch.
Another way to prevent them is to keep your soil media drier as they thrive in moist soil. With seedlings, that can be a challange because you don't want your soil drying too much. Personally, I would avoid salt water for the seedlings sake. BT/mosquito dunks are a safer bet and to my knowledge BT never harms plants.

Best of luck.

[Edit: By the way, I forgot to mention, BT is the bacteria contained in Mosquito dunks]

I still have some veggie starts in the canadian peat medium and they seem to swarm on those trays, the plants are sturdier and don't show as many signs but They may be getting there roots ate. They haven't seemed interested in the reed sedge peat trays yet. I read the adults actualy feed on mold so there must have been some present there to attract. I'll make a solution of the bt and spray in affected trays.

Chicken, I may just arm myself with some BT squirt guns.

 

[CoralReefs]

I still have some veggie starts in the canadian peat medium and they seem to swarm on those trays, the plants are sturdier and don't show as many signs but They may be getting there roots ate. They haven't seemed interested in the reed sedge peat trays yet. I read the adults actualy feed on mold so there must have been some present there to attract. I'll make a solution of the bt and spray in affected trays.

Chicken, I may just arm myself with some BT squirt guns.

Yeah, the veggie starts might be large enough to where they can handle it. In fact, most carnivorous plant growers I know don't really care about fungus gnats other than the annoyance factor. Many are of the opinion that they provide food for their plants (not far from the truth). So they are largely ignored in the hobby, unless seedlings are involved. When seedlings or new clones are involved, most CP growers start taking greater precautions.

In case you are intereseted, here is a bad picture of my Pinguicula gigantea, a few of the specks on the leaves are bits of peat moss- but most are fungus gnats (a couple might be fruit flies).

By the way, I thought about it again. I said a P. gigantea might not attract as many fungus gnats- I would not bank on that. That was a huge maybe.

"I'll make a solution of the bt and spray in affected trays."
Personally, I would water them with it. They need to eat the BT, but if I recall correctly, fungus gnats can dig pretty deep into the soil. The BT is regarded as safe for plants.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I'll bet Diatomatious Earth will kill them quickly, maybe even a soap spray?

 

[deluxestogie]

Has anyone ever tried diatomaceous earth dust to kill aphids on tobacco?

Bob

 

[CoralReefs]

I'll bet Diatomatious Earth will kill them quickly, maybe even a soap spray?

The problem is they live in the soil, so soap spray would be harder to use (would that be hard on little seedlings?). I could see Diatomatious earth possibly working. I would still hedge my bets with BT though.

 

[BarG]

Diatomatious is supposed to be good for hornworms , It's just a little slow, but BT has to be ingested and takes time to take effect also. When sprinkled around base of plant the worm crawls through the particles and it sticks to them or some such thing and cuts em up? It takes a couple few days to kill though. After feeding they crawl back to the ground to burrow and have to crawl through it. It gets em coming and going. Its supposed to be real fine and sharp. It also works on exoskeleton bugs. Does the soapy spray work for aphids? I've seen my neighbor use it on his tomato plants, but one yr. he about burned em up. I've never had to use anything on my tomatos. After this yrs. setbacks I'm scared to even look at my baccy sprouts to hard. I've still got a couple flats of survivors and most all varietys resprouting. I hope I can beat the heat for setting out.

 

[CoralReefs]

Soap spray is very effective for aphids. It basically dries their skin and clogs their breathing holes(forgot technical term) as I recall. Never use it on tiny seedlings though.

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Has anyone ever tried diatomaceous earth dust to kill aphids on tobacco?

Bob

That's worth a try. I use it around my strawberries to keep the garden snails under control since they love to munch on the berries. Well, Duh!!! who doesn't love a fresh strawberry? Won't work for mockingbirds or squirrels, that requires a 12 gauge shotgun. Would you dust the tobacco leaves with diatomaceous earth and of course wash it off prior to leaf harvest?

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Diatomaceous earth are the skeletons of very small sea creatures. So you got it right BarG, the sharp edges 'cut' the skin of worms, snails and such things, and it works by dehydrating them.

Topm TN

 

[CoralReefs]

Soap spray is very effective for aphids. It basically dries their skin and clogs their breathing holes(forgot technical term) as I recall. Never use it on tiny seedlings though.

Oops... What I meant to say here was "I have never used it on young seedlings though."

 

[BarG]

In case I ever do get aphids how strong or weak a soap solution to keep from burning older plants?

That Pinguicula gigantea is a cool looking plant. Are those bugs stuck to it or just attracted to it?

 

[CoralReefs]

In case I ever do get aphids how strong or weak a soap solution to keep from burning older plants?

That Pinguicula gigantea is a cool looking plant. Are those bugs stuck to it or just attracted to it?

I am not aware of soap spray itself burning plants. What I was referring to was just the general advisory against water droplets on leaves in the sun. When I worked at a nursery years ago, we were always advise not to get too much water on the leaves of the plants when watering during the day in the summer. To be honest, I don't think I have ever really seen this cause a problem on an adult plant and have always taken the advice with a little bit of a grain of salt. With seedlings, personally I take more precautions.

That said, since you asked about it I decided to look around and see if I could find any actual evidence that there might be some truth to that and I found this page which seems to suggest that on adult plants with some hair structures on the leaves, it might be theoretically possible.

http://www.livescience.com/6017-water-drops-magnify-sunlight-burn-leaves.html

I know with soap solution, we used to use dishwashing detergent. There was a brand I was always told to avoid and I do not remember which it was. The standard advice on the web seems to be to avoid detergents that contain anti-bacterials. I am not sure why. We would get a spray bottle and add a drop or two- it does not take much and works very well (at least it has for me).

That said, since tobacco produces resin on the leaves, I have wondered how soap spray might affect things (IE flavor and such).

Regarding the pinguicula, they are actually stuck to it. It is a full blown carnivorous plant. It has very small dew glands on the surface of the leaf that produce a glue like substance. When bugs land on it the plant has chemicals which detect the presence of proteins from the bug- it then releases digestive enzymes that digest it. The nutrients are then reabsorbed into the leaf.

I found this picture at the following site that shows a closeup of the dew glands: http://www.honda-e.com/CP_ARTICLES/PinguiculaGlands.htm

If you look close at the picture of my plant, you can see tiny little moisture droplets on the leaves- those are dew glands!

 

[CoralReefs]

"I am not aware of soap spray itself burning plants."

Ack! I take that back. Some species of plants respond very poorly to soap spray. I am not sure if they are "burned" by it (in the sense of other insecticides) or if something else is going on. My speculation is that the plants that are really sensitive to it are also sensitive to fluctuations in humidity and the soap spray is drying them out too much and causing stress. I do not know that for sure though. When I am working in the greenhouse and I want to use a new insecticide of any type on a plant, I always spray it on a smaller portion first (like a leaf) then wait a while to see how the plant will respond. Learned the hard way that spraying plants with something you have not tested can have very bad consequences. (I sprayed some neem oil on one of my plants one time and it dropped all of its leaves the next day..., I found that soap spray works very well on that one)

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I've used soap spray to kill aphids on my tobacco plants. After the first spray I will follow up with subsequent sprays of just water. I've never had an off taste.
Another thing to consider with Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is that you are supposed to only use the Ag grade form and not the swimming pool form. The Ag form is in it's "raw" state and microscopically has all its little tiny razor edges. The swimming pool type has been heated ( and thus annealed) causing it to loose all its sharp edges. I do not know if that is true or not. I've only ever used the Ag form. It works good... real good.

Randy B

 

[BarG]

Yea Jitterbugdude, that should have been mentioned about not using the swimming pool type. The food grade or organic is safe [ag form]. I am surprised at how many different type of garden pests it kills with no chemical reaction but mechanical kill by the cutting of soft tissue and lodging in moving parts of exoskeleton. I might worry about using to broadly due to beneficial insects.

 

[deluxestogie]

Another issue with diatomaceous earth in a powder form is that it is primarily silicon, and can be easily inhaled deeply into your lungs. That poses a real risk of silicosis and lung disease. Most folks ignore recommendations to wear a dust mask when working with apparently harmless powders. I would not ignore it with this product.

Bob

 

[BarG]

Right again Bob, I 'm sticking to the BT personaly, I just got curious and started learning about DE recently. We could compile all benefits and cautions into one post or thread, but that would take some of the fun out of checking the site.

EDIT; You don't want to learn it all at once on a silver platter, You have to expand your horizens and let it flow.