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leaming_irnpaired•

the 3rd picture of the group is a leaf miner. Harder to kill than bugs on the outside of the plant because most topical stuff won't get to them. Best bet is take a toothpick or your finger nail and follow the trail to the little black dot inside which is the bug, and just squish it.

Other bugs I'd recommend using a spray of water from the hose to dislodge what you can, then either diatomaceous earth, sevin dust, neem oil, or spinosad. Spinosad has a benefit of being a usable for topical or systemic control.

Just make sure to follow label suggestions for frequency and quantity to apply whatever it is you choose. Some things have a limit to when you can apply to edibles and still be able to safely consume then.

also, howdy from Corpus!

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DolpheusOP•

Woo hoo, howdy neighbor!

Thank you greatly! I’ll check those out to see which might be best for now - I’m trying to minimize damage to bees/butterflies/fireflies, but I’ll report back with the choice I go for.

Thanks again!!!

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leaming_irnpaired•

Neem may be the best bet for you.

It comes in two 'varieties'... clarified hydrophobic extract of need oil, and Azadirachtin (the ingredient in neem which must be ingested to work)

The clarified type is oil from the Neem tree which has been processed to remove the Azadirachtin from it. The resulting liquid is a smotherant. The Azadirachtin is the one that must be ingested to have effect.

both have more or less specific use cases and so be sure to use the right one for the right bugs.

also, when you have the time, call Bexar's county extension office. They are a university program (my local is A&M, so is yours) designed to educate locals on insect management, crop health, crop sciences, etc. The fat lot of their services are free.

My local extension office even did soil testing for me, and let me know the health of my dirt, and what it amendments it lacked. I think the cost was less than 15 dollars, though it was a decade ago.

also, your S.A. botanical gardens is a living encyclopedia of plant knowledge. Mine here is staffed by Texas Master Gardeners who will quite literally bend over backwards to answer questions and have extensive knowledge about the local flora.

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DolpheusOP•

I'll give those resources a shot - thank you for the tip!

Here's a brief summary of what I found:

Azadirachtin

  • Targets sucking and chewing insects by interfering with molting, sterilizing, and preventing eating. Safe for bees and butterflies; not so safe for the caterpillars I want

Neem Oil (hydrophobic extract of neem oil)

  • suffocates, largely on soft-bodied critters and mites
  • Due to it washing away and it having a UV degradation, reapply as needed, perhaps up to weekly for 5-6 weeks?

.

Because of these things, I will initially not spray parsley, dill, or milkweed (trying to keep the black swallowtail butterflies and the monarchs happy). Given that, it seems like I don't necessarily need to get just the extract; one with the azadirachtin still in it should be fine for my goals/intended application.

Does that about line up with what you'd expect?

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leaming_irnpaired•

sounds exactly right. best of luck!

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DolpheusOP•

Correction: Okra plant

(The okra is next to the cucumbers, from which I just took a striped garden caterpillar off of, sorry for the confusion)

Location: San Antonio, TX

Plant: Cucumber (part of my veggie/herb Garden)

Experience: About 3 weeks... used to grow stuff when I was a kid, but this is my first more serious gardening

As you can see in the imgur album, there was a leaf with some marks that made me want to look under it for bugs. And holy moly there were.

I cut that leaf off to get decent photos as it had the worst amount of mites or whatever they are on it. Most of the rest of the leaves have this to some degree.

any advice/identification/other help is greatly appreciated!!!

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