A couple days ago, I went out to water the garden. I found some flowers were infested with moth eggs. Pretty typical for this time of year only a bit heavier infestation this year compared to previous years. I hand picked 25 eggs off one small bud,most of the others had 6 to 10. There are 2 plants, One is 8 feet tall and the other is 5 1/2. They aren't giant trees but kinda too big to hand pick stupid little moth eggs that will turn into little bastard eating machines. So I broke out the Safer brand Caterpillar Killer. This year I mixed it with Dr. Bronners Salsuds Soap as a spreading/sticking agent. Dr. Bronners also has essential plant oils that act as a repellent and insecticide. So I got up this morning and went out to the garden and found black spots on the fan leaves. At first look I thought, Is that mold? Closer inspection shows it looks more like a bruise. More apparent on the top than on the bottom. I've used Dr. Bronners with neem oil before and never had any ill effect. I mixed 5 ml. Dr. Bronners and 15 ml. Caterpillar Killer to 1 gal distilled water. The plants are all organic, grown in the ground. Soil amended with lots of compost, worm castings, azomite, perlite and coco coir. The only thing I've fed these plants is water from the hose. Feed the soil not the plant. I live in a desert environment so I've never had to deal with mold problems. Maybe I wouldn't know black mold if it came and sat in my lap. I'm going to post pictures as soon as I figure out how to. On a side note for all that are interested in boosting native predatory insects. After squashing a hundred or so eggs I noticed a bunch of yellowjackets hovering about. Yellowjackets are a predatory wasp that are common around here. I started watching then and saw that they were picking off the moth eggs. I think they smelled the scrambled eggs or something. Anyway the next day most of the eggs were gone. I think the moral of the story is; Don't fuck with mother nature or let nature take ts course. I probably wouldn't have black spots right now.
You most definitely would still have them. You can irradicate moths and eggs with safer brand garden dust for caterpillars. Its a bacteria powder that causes bacterial infection and without antibiotics the bugs die. Use it only at night, as the sun will destoy the bacteria. To eradicate yellow jackets or wasps from their nests, simply spray wd40 on any nest you see or even as a prevatitative. Obviously, you dont want to spray it on your plants....but if you have a nest near or attached to your home, they will not return after you spray wd40.
Thanks, I've got the Safer Brand B.T. and I want the yellow jackets to stick around. They are beneficial in that they kill and consume the caterpillars, moths, aphids etc. Just don't piss them off. Their stings freakin' hurt.
So here are some pics of this mess. First dark spots on leaves. Then leaves drying up and curling upward. This happened in 2 days time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if these come up as links. I can't figure out how to post pictures. Yay it worked!!!
Id wait til lights out then soak them from top to bottom with neem oil and drench the roots They look like they got too hot to me and also a ph issue. Im thinkin root issue.