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Bugs on buds

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Pushed the button at just the right time, got the perfect picture. Couldn't try to get the shot, by the time you push the button it's in the air.

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If you're wondering what it is, this is the picture I took a couple seconds earlier.

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If you ever wondered what a ladybug has under the hood. There's a lot of them in my garden this year, larvae as well. The larvae don't look anything like the adults.
 

pipeline

Cannabotanist
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Pushed the button at just the right time, got the perfect picture. Couldn't try to get the shot, by the time you push the button it's in the air.

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If you're wondering what it is, this is the picture I took a couple seconds earlier.

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If you ever wondered what a ladybug has under the hood. There's a lot of them in my garden this year, larvae as well. The larvae don't look anything like the adults.


Thats cool! You cant ever get a good look at them because they fly so fast. Excellent shot! Thanks for sharing! :smoke:
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Next to my ganja plants I've got a hops vine. I haven't been brewing and don't know anyone who does so I've neglected the hops, haven't been fertilizing it or watering it much the last few years. It still grows all over the place, just doesn't produce a lot. The neglect causes it to get attacked by aphids, it seemed to always be attracted to them but this year it's covered in them. The aphids have attracted ladybugs, the hops vine has turned into a ladybug nursery. I've had ladybugs all over my garden in all shapes, colors, and sizes since spring.

I took a bunch of pics one morning. Here's a sequence. It's a ladybug munching on aphids. I've never seen this, a ladybug eating! Look at it's mouth and it's tiny arms, you can see them moving around. It's picking the aphids up, shoving them in it's mouth, then using the appendages like a napkin to clean it's face.

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All the pictures allowed in one post. To capture the sequence I focused, pushed the button a few times in a row. Then refocused and took a few more in a row. I'll have to start another post to show the rest.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
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I've got one flying, one eating, now I need a sex picture. I'll be watching closely like the perverted insect voyeur I am.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
What initially drew me to this ladybug was it's blood red shell. No spots. Las picture is her heading out the door after paying the waiter.

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These are the other ladybugs on the hops that morning.

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There was also an inter-dimensional alien flying machine parked on a leaf. As the ganja increases in potency over the season the bugs mutate and turn strange.

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therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
An example is this leaf hopper. Early in the season they were plain green. Now they're getting all sorts of weird psychedelic camouflage.

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There's been weird flies hanging around certain plants. Maybe the smell attracts them? Check out this orange one.

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For a couple days there was a torrential downpour. Every time I'd go out to look at my plants there'd be a brown leafhopper type bug hanging out in the rain on one of my plants. All the other bugs were seeking shelter on the dry sides of the leaves. For whatever reason it spent the whole storm on the topside of this one leaf, looking wet and bedraggled and miserable. I didn't have the heart to chase it away. Finally after two days I decided to get a picture, got the camera, but it was gone. So I took a picture of another one that looked similar.

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Vesnican

Well-known member
The hops vine has turned into a ladybug nursery. I've had ladybugs all over my garden in all shapes, colors, and sizes since spring.
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Ladybugs nursery, that is what I dream about :) Every time I find one on my garden I bring her on my plants. I have just installed this year an insect hotel to my garden to have more pollening insect for my fruit and vegetables and I plan to purchase one more adapted just for ladybugs recently. I have read that one ladybug in all life stages together (larva and adult) is able to consume 4k of aphids.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
I must see as many insects on my plants as anyone, I grow organic and never spray. Well, I'll probably have to spray for powdery mildew this year but that won't be until the weather changes into autumn and the bugs begin dying off.

I saw this odd traveler this morning. A bee mimic type.

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It had reflectors all over it's body, must be shiny and hard to see in the sun. Probably would make good fishing bait.

The last week or two the garden has been overrun by beetles. I first noticed them on my flowered out fennel, eating the pollen and nectar out of the flowers. Later I noticed them screwing and now they're everywhere. I think we all have the reaction to squish all bugs on site, these guys do look a bit sketchy. I left them alone, they're slow moving and aren't doing any damage to the leaves. It was the right call, I looked them up today and they're Common Red Soldier Beetles. They eat aphids, pollen, and nectar. I'm guessing they also eat leafhopper larvae and eggs. Between the cool weather and my soldier crew there's no longer a swarm of 'hoppers when I shake my plants.

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CannaRed

Cannabinerd
The bug that stayed on leaf in storm- is it possible that it molted and that it is just the shell that hung around in the storm?

I see shells alot. Cicadas and beetle looking shells.

Just wondering.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
That fly looks like a drone fly.

I think you're right. It's interesting all the different morphs you get in the hoverfly family. My fennel plant is in full bloom and it's gotten huge with the spring-like summer we're having. It's covered in all sorts of mason bees, bumblebees, honey bees, and hoverflies of various shapes and sizes.

The bug that stayed on leaf in storm- is it possible that it molted and that it is just the shell that hung around in the storm?

I don't think so. I saw it crawl around a bit on the leaf and by the time I got the idea to take a picture it was gone. I've never seen the combination of bedraggled and stoic in a bug before.

The molted shells can fool you, they're very life-like. I've seen bugs sucked dry by spiders that looked alive. The other day I saw a yellowjacket that had been a meal for a little green garden spider. I was surprised such a small ineffective looking spider could kill such a large nasty looking wasp.
 

Vesnican

Well-known member
I must see as many insects on my plants as anyone, I grow organic and never spray. Well, I'll probably have to spray for powdery mildew this year but that won't be until the weather changes into autumn and the bugs begin dying off.

I am strictly organic grower too. For several last seasons I ran only autoflower in pots, no big plants anymore, therefore I am able to fight aphids manually, if necessary.

Not sure if available at your location, but great organic spray for fungi etc. is Purolyt. I used it to get rid of grey mold on my greenhouse cucumbers this spring.

Green grasshopper visited my plants yesterday. Although she is a predator, she enriches her diet by juicy plant material, I rather moved her to other side of my garden :biggrin:

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Shmavis

Being-in-the-world
This is my first outdoor grow. I have six plants. I've been surprised at how much they all attract insects. But there seems to be something about this one plant (Chem D x Pre-98 Bubba) that attracts more insects than the others. Two days ago there were three monarch butterflies on it, even though the other five plants are in proximity, they only danced on and around that one plant. All the plants seem to attract varying flies, but it’s that one plant I regularly see small crickets (grasshoppers?) on - much smaller (babies maybe) than this guy I found on it yesterday:

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Hookahhead

Active member
Vesnician, how long have you been using the purolyt product? I don’t think it would be considered organic in most places.

From their website:

Purolyt is produced resource-friendly in an electrochemical process from water + salt + electricity. Nothing else!

Purolyt’s principle of operation is similar to the way the human body fights off bacteria and viruses. When the immune system detects a threat, white blood cells are activated which create an antimicrobial substance called hypochlorous acid (HOCL). HOCL is also the active ingredient in Purolyt. It is scientifically proven that HOCL has extremely efficient disinfecting properties.

So I researched hypochlorite acid a bit, but there isn’t a ton of info. I did find this:

a compound, HOC1, that is stable only in the form of a dilute aqueous solution formed by dissolving chlorine gas in water to yield a greenish-yellow solution. An unstable compound that decomposes to hydrochloric acid and oxygen, it is used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant.
 
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therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Here's another beneficial, a garden spider with a pink death head's type marking on it's back. Watch out caterpillars!

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Since my army of beetles has gone on the offensive I'm seeing hardly any leafhoppers. They stick to the far side of the garden on a few isolated plants that haven't attracted as many predators. The soldier beetles look slow and ungainly but when they take flight they're quick. I'd been wondering how they moved around to so many different plants when I saw one take off and shoot across the garden.

The cicadas are getting louder, reaching their peak season soon. Really doesn't feel like summer until you hear them singing. They started at the beginning of July or late June. You think you're hearing things at first. You only hear them through one ear, turn or take a few steps and you can't hear them anymore. It doesn't help when you ask someone else if they hear them and they say they've got water in their ear or shake their head. Now they're loud enough you know you aren't hearing things. They stick to the trees on one side of the yard.
 

Hookahhead

Active member
That’s a cool looking spider! Glad to hear the grasshoppers are staying away. My plants that are ground level have a good many. There is a stray spider here and there, but it doesn’t look like anything is controlling the population very well. Funny about the cicadas they are buzzing right outside the window now.

A friend of mine asked me to stop over and check out his plants. He had two males dropping pollen because he didn’t really know what to do. There was a nice swarm of these little bees flying all over the plant and collecting the pollen.

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Vesnican

Well-known member
Vesnician, how long have you been using the purolyt product? I don’t think it would be considered organic in most places.

From their website:


So I researched hypochlorite acid a bit, but there isn’t a ton of info. I did find this:

Hi Hookahhead,

I have got a sample of it on local Canna fair last autumn. So far I have used it to heal bed of grey mold on cucumber stem and sprayed it on my sage plant, which was suffering of powdery mildew. In both cases it worked well. I haven’t used on my cannabis plants yet.

It is necessary to mention that the company doesn’t claim Purolyt as organic and nor did the salesman on the fair. So it was actually me who did haha. But when I personally was thinking about that and researching the way it is made, I have decided to give it a try. I definitely don’t consider it as typical conventional preparation made of different inorganic compositions. I am growing for more then a decade and I haven’t encountered an organic preparation, which really worked against powdery mildew. I rather always tried to remove infected parts, while using diluted alcohol as antiseptic when possible and try to keep the plant alive until necessary.
 
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