The Amazing Effectiveness of BT
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Setec Astronomy
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The Amazing Effectiveness of BT
So I'm taking a year (or maybe 2) off from gardening because my life is a disaster, but even though I didn't plant anything this year, I have some strawberries, and some volunteer ground cherries (you can't not have volunteer ground cherries if you've ever grown them, I get them growing in the cracks of my driveway), and one volunteer tomato that I have no idea (yet) what it is.
So the other evening I went out to look at the ground cherry plants, which I'm trying to keep healthy for my wife, so unfortunately I've had to spray them for spider mites, and squish some three-lined potato beetles, when I see the end of a stalk eaten off, like a tomato hornworm would do. I don't remember ever having any hornworms on ground cherries, but I looked around and didn't see one, but I did see a big rectangular poop, so I figured that must be what it was. (I then recalled that I had picked a small worm off a ground cherry leaf a couple weeks before, but didn't examine it or think about it too much)
I decided even though it was getting dark, and this must be a big worm, that I should spray some BT on GP's, so I mixed some into the Crop Defender 3 that was already mixed up in my sprayer for the mites, and sprayed all the plants. I thought I had heard that when they are big hornworms are hard to kill (maybe I'm thinking of some other pest), but I figured it was cheap insurance for smaller ones (when I grow tomatoes I usually wind up spraying everything once or twice with BT once I see a small caterpillar on anything, I guess I should have done that in this case).
Anyway, last night I borrowed a UV flashlight from work and was going to hunt down this hornworm (and any of his friends) after it got dark, but I forgot all about it, until this morning. I went out and looked and luckily I spotted him on a leaf stem. I tried to pull him off, but he wouldn't budge, so I broke off the stem. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't eating, and he wasn't really moving. I brought him inside and put the leaf down and went and checked on him periodically for a half hour or so...he moved just a little, but didn't crawl or eat, so I guess the BT got him.
I guess I'm just impressed, this bottle was probably a couple or 3 years old (and I've certainly used BT that was much older), I'm just surprised how fast/well it worked on such a big worm, especially since I was a little concerned about mixing it with an essential oil spray that I've never asked about mixing with (that I recall).
So the other evening I went out to look at the ground cherry plants, which I'm trying to keep healthy for my wife, so unfortunately I've had to spray them for spider mites, and squish some three-lined potato beetles, when I see the end of a stalk eaten off, like a tomato hornworm would do. I don't remember ever having any hornworms on ground cherries, but I looked around and didn't see one, but I did see a big rectangular poop, so I figured that must be what it was. (I then recalled that I had picked a small worm off a ground cherry leaf a couple weeks before, but didn't examine it or think about it too much)
I decided even though it was getting dark, and this must be a big worm, that I should spray some BT on GP's, so I mixed some into the Crop Defender 3 that was already mixed up in my sprayer for the mites, and sprayed all the plants. I thought I had heard that when they are big hornworms are hard to kill (maybe I'm thinking of some other pest), but I figured it was cheap insurance for smaller ones (when I grow tomatoes I usually wind up spraying everything once or twice with BT once I see a small caterpillar on anything, I guess I should have done that in this case).
Anyway, last night I borrowed a UV flashlight from work and was going to hunt down this hornworm (and any of his friends) after it got dark, but I forgot all about it, until this morning. I went out and looked and luckily I spotted him on a leaf stem. I tried to pull him off, but he wouldn't budge, so I broke off the stem. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't eating, and he wasn't really moving. I brought him inside and put the leaf down and went and checked on him periodically for a half hour or so...he moved just a little, but didn't crawl or eat, so I guess the BT got him.
I guess I'm just impressed, this bottle was probably a couple or 3 years old (and I've certainly used BT that was much older), I'm just surprised how fast/well it worked on such a big worm, especially since I was a little concerned about mixing it with an essential oil spray that I've never asked about mixing with (that I recall).