How do YOU handle bugs and such?

AmateurGrower · Jun 3, 2025

I've ended up with B.T, Lost Coast Plant Therapy and Neem spray to try and keep my outside ladies healthy and bug-free. I'm wondering how you guys use what you use. Do you begin spraying/treating as soon as you put them outside? I've already seen insect activity after 2 days, so I'm thinking just go ahead and start treating now and get ahead of the little buggers.

Do you alternate what you use? I've heard bugs develop some resistance if you only use one method, if going organic. Is that true?

I'd appreciate hearing about how you outside guys and gals approach organic critter maintenance.

D

RhastaBlasta · Jun 3, 2025

Best approach is to stay ahead of it with prevention. I like to use sticky traps, keep the grow area clean, and inspect plants regularly — especially under the leaves. For actual infestations, neem oil or insecticidal soap can help early on, but in flower I usually go with something like lost coast or a light essential oil spray that’s safe for buds. Keeping airflow up and humidity in check also makes it harder for bugs to thrive. It's all about being consistent before it becomes a big problem

amneziaHaze · Jun 3, 2025

Indoors those 2 work great outdoors they judt come back after a few days.maybe the rain washes it or something but basicly useless

Leste · Jun 3, 2025

I don’t spray with anything to prevent bugs, it’s outside, bugs everywhere.

cpurola · Jun 3, 2025

You need to know about the bugs your seeing.
For example, I panicked when I saw tiny red mites crawling all over my plants. Found out they are predators/good bugs and do no harm. So I leave them alone.

Moths and their caterpillars are another story. But to spray BT effectively you need to know their life cycle.
Lots to learn as an Outdoor grower. You become an entomologist by necessity.

You WILL have damage. Outdoors is unforgiving.
Ask me how I know. :/

JIMKSI64 · Jun 3, 2025

The only outside plants I have grown are food. For daily inspections I shake and look for flying I turn over leafs and look. There are only a fewbugs that I treat or prevent in food.
slug traps for close ground food. Slugs that are indemic anda pain some years. Traps work well or a little garlic and pesto makes a good Escargo.
Every single insect that eats food will draw predators. Even a grasshopper on a bean plant will be predated by my fishing hooks. A lot of times this is like an organic grow were the plant fixes its self.
When it does not I have a Sulpher burner. Better in a greenhouse but if you have to kill something overnight and you care enough to send the very best and you do not have an A10 warthog a sulpher smoker burner kills bugs with a high ph coating that last until a good rain. Cheap too.
And yes there are protective equipment to get as you can not breath this shit you can get hurt but hell use a garden hoe the wrong way you can get hurt too.
If you eat a home grown tomato every one in a while you will find a worm. The trick is to make sure you do not find 1/2 a worm

cpurola · Jun 3, 2025

JIMKSI64 said:
If you eat a home grown tomato every one in a while you will find a worm. The trick is to make sure you do not find 1/2 a worm

Did that with my cherries. LOL
Learned to split them open with my fingernails before eating. Honestly, eating the worm itself didn't bother me but their poop grossed me out.

Leste · Jun 3, 2025

Daily inspection of the garden is key. If you see one Colorado potato bug, in 3 days you’ll see the fat babies. Sqwish and go is my technique. Egg plants get them too. No potatoes this year. Caterpillars are easy to find, hiding under sunflower leaves etc. cabbage loppers late in the season are a nitemare on broccoli. I do use that Dr death organic stuff, haven’t needed it for a few years. Weed, pluck as you go, healthy garden equals healthy plants.

AmateurGrower · Jun 3, 2025

Leste said:
I don’t spray with anything to prevent bugs, it’s outside, bugs everywhere.

That’s interesting man. Just based on my one summer, so definitely limited outside experience, but I believe if I had not treated last year with something, my leaves would’ve been eaten up, thrips would have taken over and my already severely limited harvest would’ve been nothing.

AmateurGrower · Jun 3, 2025

JIMKSI64 said:
The only outside plants I have grown are food. For daily inspections I shake and look for flying I turn over leafs and look. There are only a fewbugs that I treat or prevent in food.
slug traps for close ground food. Slugs that are indemic anda pain some years. Traps work well or a little garlic and pesto makes a good Escargo.
Every single insect that eats food will draw predators. Even a grasshopper on a bean plant will be predated by my fishing hooks. A lot of times this is like an organic grow were the plant fixes its self.
When it does not I have a Sulpher burner. Better in a greenhouse but if you have to kill something overnight and you care enough to send the very best and you do not have an A10 warthog a sulpher smoker burner kills bugs with a high ph coating that last until a good rain. Cheap too.
And yes there are protective equipment to get as you can not breath this shit you can get hurt but hell use a garden hoe the wrong way you can get hurt too.
If you eat a home grown tomato every one in a while you will find a worm. The trick is to make sure you do not find 1/2 a worm

Thank you!

Ninjadogma · Jun 3, 2025

Outdoor grower in Ventura County (CA) and we have an abundance of all the common assholes. I use spinosad every two weeks and early in the season I'll use Neem the week in between treatments. The beneficial bugs start really coming around toward the end of June and that's when I will typically stop using the neem and let the predators have a crack at them. Last year the crab spiders and mantids really came through for me. Each plant had its own mantid guarding it for most of July and August. They don't always come through and they don't always stick around.

Natep · Jun 3, 2025

Go to natures good guys website. They have a control by pest section. Buy the bug that eats the bug you are having issues with

Coconutz · Jun 4, 2025

I have my tents filtered at the Inlet with pre filters so hopefully no pests will get in unless on other plants, other plants have been in another tents before so I know there's nothing on them going forward, i don't want to think about pests in flower

I've had fungus gnats before and spider mite on two occasions but stopped spider mite at opening the clone...clones can be a serious threat to any grow exercise caution!!

To get rid of the gnats I put my pots into plastic bags, it needed around 2 full months before they stopped hatching 100%...that might explain why they're so difficult to shake?

JIMKSI64 · Jun 4, 2025

Coconutz said:
I have my tents filtered at the Inlet with pre filters so hopefully no pests will get in unless on other plants, other plants have been in another tents before so I know there's nothing on them going forward, i don't want to think about pests in flower

I've had fungus gnats before and spider mite on two occasions but stopped spider mite at opening the clone...clones can be a serious threat to any grow exercise caution!!

To get rid of the gnats I put my pots into plastic bags, it needed around 2 full months before they stopped hatching 100%...that might explain why they're so difficult to shake?

I actually have a 5 gallon pot full of fox farms soils in a bag for the next run. Had gnants from a bag of soil and threw those 2 out but going to salvage $20 of soil yes

PlumberSoCal2 · Jun 4, 2025

On a serious note you need an integrated system to control the wee beasties. I grow outside so every fking bug that likes weed gets on my plants so I use neem oil and spinosad. Usually the spinosad will get sprayed on the 1st of the month and neem 2-3 x's a month. It works pretty good and I lose few buds these days. I use to lose 80-90% of buds to moth larvae so I had to do something. I tried bt, diatomaceous earth and sulfur and found the neem does the trick but the spinosad is a kill all that works real well but not recommend for weekly use.

Experiment with what's available and within your price range and see what works best for you. You'll find it's a learning experience, constantly

amneziaHaze · Jun 4, 2025

maybe you can try companion plants?

OldBoy25pnw · Jun 4, 2025

AmateurGrower said:
I've ended up with B.T, Lost Coast Plant Therapy and Neem spray to try and keep my outside ladies healthy and bug-free. I'm wondering how you guys use what you use. Do you begin spraying/treating as soon as you put them outside? I've already seen insect activity after 2 days, so I'm thinking just go ahead and start treating now and get ahead of the little buggers.

Do you alternate what you use? I've heard bugs develop some resistance if you only use one method, if going organic. Is that true?

I'd appreciate hearing about how you outside guys and gals approach organic critter maintenance.

D

Yup knowing which bugs you’re seeing is very important, may seem like a hassle but the majority of insects don’t pose much threat and many are beneficial. Do a little research into integrated pest management or IPM before applying materials you may not need…

mancorn · Jun 4, 2025

So far this grow I’ve had mites, thrips, white fly, aphids, worms, grasshoppers, leaf hoppers and miners.

Aphids come early, so I’ll inspect daily and kill by hand, while spraying the big attractants like roses & nasturtiums with water & soap.

Thrips, leaf miners, & white flies I don’t worry about and just pull any infected leaves. (Don’t get a ton of any of these pest.)

Kill grasshoppers & leaf hoppers by hand.

If you have bud worms in your area you have to be proactive. If you don’t, it’ll be too late in flower. I’ve already started spraying Bt and will continue throughout the grow. When the cannabis plants are young they don’t attract a lot of worms, so I’ll also spray other yard plants that I know the worms are going after now. I have Jerusalem Artichokes (tall yellow daisy like plant) and I’ve been spraying them also.

For mites I’m also proactive in cleaning out leaf liter and removing plants that attract them. For instance the two spotted mites love cat mint and dandelions so I’ll make sure to remove any that pop up over the winter. I saw mites in my yard back in February - with the two-spotted spider mites the overwintering females are the ones that are larger and reddish in color. I’ll use spinosad and a home recipe of oil & isopropyl alcohol. Spinosad is only supposed to be used a limited number of times during a growing, so will use the oils in veg and try and save the spinosad for flower (August). Just pulled all my Nasturtiums a few days back, as they’re already fading and also a big attractant.

The worms are the only pest I’ll spray before seeing. Not a good plan to randomly spray stuff if you don’t know what the pest is and how much of a problem it’ll be. If you’re growing in the same area within a few years you’ll know what’s around. Most of the beneficial bugs will show up late to the party, so you don’t want to be killing all them before they can do the heavy lifting.

mancorn · Jun 4, 2025

Forgot to mention yelling - which is an important tool for some pest.

BearWater · Jun 4, 2025

mancorn said:
The worms are the only pest I’ll spray before seeing.

100%!

What do you use for the caterpillars?

How do YOU handle bugs and such?

How do YOU handle bugs and such?

AmateurGrower

RhastaBlasta

amneziaHaze

Leste

cpurola

JIMKSI64

cpurola

Leste

AmateurGrower

AmateurGrower

Ninjadogma

Natep

Coconutz

JIMKSI64

PlumberSoCal2

amneziaHaze

OldBoy25pnw

mancorn

mancorn

BearWater

If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency