Bugs on my amaranth

[Cultivator]

Are these webworms? Something similar? They're all over my amaranth leaves but nothing else in the garden is affected. They skeletonize the amaranth leaves. I've tried removing affected/infested foliage and spraying the plants down with diluted neem oil and with insecticidal soap, but nothing seems to work. Ideas welcome!

IMG_20200906_095318_621.jpg

[pepperhead212]

Good luck! My amaranth was a magnet for something that ate it up just like that. Yet, I couldn't find anything! It wasn't slugs, because I had sluggo in the bed, and low plants weren't bothered. I finally pulled it out, and composted all of it.

[bower]

What a shame! My potatoes are under attack by some strange thing. The damage looks really similar. When I shake the bushes these white looking things fly off. I caught one with great difficulty by waving a sticky trap in one hand while shaking with the other. Looks like some kind of a spotted leaf hopper with translucent wings - at least that's my best bet.. they're so tiny it's hard to see even with a picture to zoom up.
This has been a crazy year for leaf hoppers here - the bigger kind which are brown all over. One got indoors probably by hopping on me, then into the seedling area. I couldn't believe how it completely devoured a pot of baby bok choy in the span of an hour. They are way more destructive than I thought was possible.

[bower]

This link says Bt will work on the webworm:
https://www.pestnet.org/fact_sheets/bee ... rm_345.htm

[Cultivator]

Thank y'all! We had leafhoppers all over the amaranth earlier in the summer as well, and treehoppers infested my first run of pole beans (fingers crossed they don't get my fall run too). Dang ol bugs. Oh well, anything worth eating is gonna get eaten, right? Gonna order some Bt spray asap. I used to water with mosquito dunks in the watering can to get Bt to plants that way, but I'm out of dunks as well. I'm pretty sure I've seen teeny little green inch worms in these webs, the black bits are just poop I think because they don't move.

[bower]

[mention]Cultivator[/mention] make sure you get the Bt for moths or caterpillars. I use the mosquito dunks too, for the dreaded fungus gnats, and it works great. I had some other stuff in the cupboard from long ago, which isn't the same, so I had to go find dunks for that. The one for flies or mosquitoes is Bt-i, and I forget what the name of the other one is, but it's specifically for caterpillars.

[Cultivator]

@Cultivator make sure you get the Bt for moths or caterpillars. I use the mosquito dunks too, for the dreaded fungus gnats, and it works great. I had some other stuff in the cupboard from long ago, which isn't the same, so I had to go find dunks for that. The one for flies or mosquitoes is Bt-i, and I forget what the name of the other one is, but it's specifically for caterpillars.

I hadn't realized there was a difference! Good to know!

[bower]

Yep, just looked it up - the one for flies is Bt israelensis, the one for caterpillars is Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. So look for Bt-k instead of Bt-i. Caterpillars will be mentioned on the label!