Stick Bugs

Ralphie Boy · Sep 28, 2019

I've had several stick bugs attach themselves to the main stems of my plants.

They're so well-camouflaged they're easy to miss. The tip off was one plant's leaves turned yellow. I found the stick bug and pulled it off.

The buds quickly dried out and began flaking off.

Closely examining the yellowed plant, I found little caterpillar-looking bugs in several of the buds.

I found stick bugs on two other plants.

Has anybody had these problems?

Madbud · Sep 28, 2019

The caterpillars eat the inside of the bud turning that part brown and dead, pulls right off revealing black specs of frass. They’re bad this year all over. Stick bug is probably a predator.

WhackityJack · Sep 28, 2019

Do the caterpillars get high when they eat a bud?

Lord Bonkey · Sep 28, 2019

Ralphie Boy said:
I've had several stick bugs attach themselves to the main stems of my plants.

They're so well-camouflaged they're easy to miss. The tip off was one plant's leaves turned yellow. I found the stick bug and pulled it off.

The buds quickly dried out and began flaking off.

Closely examining the yellowed plant, I found little caterpillar-looking bugs in several of the buds.

I found stick bugs on two other plants.

Has anybody had these problems?

whats a stick bug?

Ralphie Boy · Sep 28, 2019

Madbud said:
The caterpillars eat the inside of the bud turning that part brown and dead, pulls right off revealing black specs of frass. They’re bad this year all over. Stick bug is probably a predator.

A predator on the plants or the caterpillars?

Ralphie Boy · Sep 28, 2019

Lord Bonkey said:
whats a stick bug?

Ralphie Boy · Sep 28, 2019

WhackityJack said:
Do the caterpillars get high when they eat a bud?

I wondered the same thing. Maybe the high is the attraction for the caterpillars.

Jack og · Sep 28, 2019

Lord Bonkey said:
whats a stick bug?

Phasmids: aka stick bugs
Here is a few pics from the ol interweb

Shedhead · Sep 28, 2019

Jack og said:
Phasmids: aka stick bugs
Here is a few pics from the ol interweb

I'd love to have a few of them stick bugs watching over my grow man, looks like they'd do a great job of getting rid of any unwanted bugs that wander into your prized plants. Keep on growing Shedhead!

Madbud · Sep 28, 2019

Whooooo are youuuuu?

Lord Bonkey · Sep 28, 2019

Shedhead said:
I'd love to have a few of them stick bugs watching over my grow man, looks like they'd do a great job of getting rid of any unwanted bugs that wander into your prized plants. Keep on growing Shedhead!

they are herbivores that eat your pot plants arent they?

Ralphie Boy · Sep 28, 2019

Lord Bonkey said:
they are herbivores that eat your pot plants arent they?

Yes, they're herbivores. From what I've read, they eat leaves. But they appear to have drilled into the main stem of the plants and sucked out the water and nutrients that would normally go to the plant itself.

Are the little caterpillars a completely unrelated attacker?

IOW, the stick bugs and caterpillars have nothing to do with each other?

QuestForZest · Sep 28, 2019

Ralphie Boy said:
Yes, they're herbivores. From what I've read, they eat leaves. But they appear to have drilled into the main stem of the plants and sucked out the water and nutrients that would normally go to the plant itself.

Are the little caterpillars a completely unrelated attacker?

IOW, the stick bugs and caterpillars have nothing to do with each other?

They are unrelated. The tops of your buds turning brown and drying/dying= caterpillars

Never had stick bug but I read about them on wiki and it seems like they attack leaves not so much "sucking" of plants or stalks..

BT or BT variation should help the caters don't know about sticks!

Ralphie Boy · Sep 29, 2019

There are about 3,000 species of stick bugs. I haven't seen the species on my plants fly. Their bodies don't seem wide enough to hold wings. So my guess is they're walking stick bugs. If so, they had to do a lot of walking to get to my plants. The plants are in buckets on a balcony two stories above ground. Maybe the bugs walked to the balcony railing and jumped to the plants, or walked up the buckets from the balcony floor.

In any event, they were very firmly attached to the plant stems. I had to grab them with big tweezers and yank them off. That's where my assumption they had drilled into the stem came from. Stick bugs are said to be leaf eaters. My stick bugs didn't do that at all. They were attacking and apparently feeding off the stems.

The caterpillars had to have grown from larvae deposited by flying adult moths, butterflies or the like. Have growers seen what the caterpillars develop into? What's their next life stage?

royfree2grow · Sep 29, 2019

Ralphie Boy said:
There are about 3,000 species of stick bugs. I haven't seen the species on my plants fly. Their bodies don't seem wide enough to hold wings. So my guess is they're walking stick bugs. If so, they had to do a lot of walking to get to my plants. The plants are in buckets on a balcony two stories above ground. Maybe the bugs walked to the balcony railing and jumped to the plants, or walked up the buckets from the balcony floor.

In any event, they were very firmly attached to the plant stems. I had to grab them with big tweezers and yank them off. That's where my assumption they had drilled into the stem came from. Stick bugs are said to be leaf eaters. My stick bugs didn't do that at all. They were attacking and apparently feeding off the stems.

The caterpillars had to have grown from larvae deposited by flying adult moths, butterflies or the like. Have growers seen what the caterpillars develop into? What's their next life stage?

Usually moths. Use spinosad and fast unless you want all your buds contaminated and ruined by cats frass (and subsequently budrot).

QuestForZest · Sep 29, 2019

royfree2grow said:
Usually moths. Use spinosad and fast unless you want all your buds contaminated and ruined by cats frass (and subsequently budrot).

BT will do the trick..spinosad close to flower might not be safe?

Ralphie Boy · Sep 30, 2019

What is BT short for?

Madbud · Sep 30, 2019

Ralphie Boy said:
What is BT short for?

Bacillus thurengiensis, btk for caterpillars, bti for mosquitos. There are many other strains too.

royfree2grow · Sep 30, 2019

QuestForZest said:
BT will do the trick..spinosad close to flower might not be safe?

Probably... It's just that spinosad has a much broader range of treatment when it comes to cats. and IMO is much more effective in these situations.

In tems of safety, all the sugessted products are microbiological agents, its true that spinosad is more "harsh" but--IME-- it can be sprayed directly on buds if necessary. All in all, b4 spraying anything you should factor in the severity of the infestation vs. the proximity to harvest.

Best of luck

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