worms

[rolaslo1]

I have worms that are eating into my plant. Not on the leaves, but on the stems, which is making my stems swell up. My plant is in the second week of flowering and it is an outdoor/indoor plant. How is this going to affect the outcome of my plant and how do I get rid of these worms?

[Fing_57]

worms live in the soil not up eating stems :rolleyes:

are they larve from a pest?

ant pic's

[rolaslo1]

Will post pics soon as battery is charged for my camera.

[rolaslo1]

Well wife just told me that they are larvae. Is there anything that would get rid of this?

[Fing_57]

looks like a pest nested in the plant

is that a HOLE in the stalk in 2nd pic? bottom of pic

[rolaslo1]

yes-where u c brown, ther is a hole. how do I get rid of them w/o ruining my plant or changing its chemical compostition? Or am I just screwed? Can it survive? I dug out as many as I could see, but there are alot more inside the plant. Can u tell me what to do about this plz.

[rolaslo1]

No not there but every where i doug out 1 of them little bastards is 1

[Fing_57]

reading in a book

need a WAY better pic of the bugs and a description of them
color any lines on them size

[rolaslo1]

I didnt save any of them. They are medium brown not real dark or lite. Have like 4 lines on 1 end of them. I would say like 3or 4 cm in size./ At least the one i got w/o damaging.That was the one in pic. I guess from this point ill just get some pesticide and spray. I was just seeing if any 1 here would have any suggestions on what to get. The plant has lots of white hairs on it.(thats the start of flowering right) Is there any products out there that i could treat without damaging the plant.

[CB]

I was just seeing if any 1 here would have any suggestions on what to get.

was hoping for a better pic to try and figure out what it is and then what to use.. anyway you can snag another one and get a good close up?

peace

[CB]

Borers in plants are notoriously difficult to control once they have established colonies within their hosts. Non-systemic pesticides have no effect since the chemical does not reach its target; and in many instances, systemic pesticides are not much more successful. This may be partly due to the poison being too diluted by the time it reaches its target, or not actually reaching the affected region at all. Systemic pesticides also are very toxic, and for this reason their use is discouraged. Another possible side effect of highly toxic pesticides is the creation of new pests, which can breed up in large numbers if their natural enemies are killed off by these chemicals (see below).

If you are lucky, the borers may only be present in a lateral branch or stem, in which case the problem can be solved by pruning and removing the affected limb(s). In the case of a large tree, a qualified arborist/tree surgeon should be employed to do the removal safely. Usually, however, the borers are well established in the trunk or main stem of the plant by the time they are discovered, so control by pruning is not feasible. The plant then usually has to be removed before it becomes dangerously unstable (if it hasn't become so already), and before it infects other susceptible plants growing nearby. If you need further information, the National Arborists Association of Australia (ph. 02-9970 7899) can recommend either a course of action or a member arborist who can evaluate your problem at first hand on-site.

The best way to control borers, whether beetle, moth or wasp, is to prevent plants from becoming stressed or weakened by other factors, such as poor nutrition, attack by other insects or mites, pH imbalance, mineral toxicities, lack of water or any combination of these. A healthy tree is more likely to fend off borer attack. Some eucalypt species respond to borer attack by producing protective resins in large quantities that flood the borers’ galleries. This can often be seen as runnels or streams of reddish-brown resin pouring down the trunk: if you see this phenomenon, it is highly likely that the affected tree is being devoured from within by one (or more) species of borer!

Beetle larvae can be killed reasonably easily if their tunnels open out on the surface of the stem or trunk — although by the time the hole has appeared, they have probably caused considerable damage. Some control is better than none, however, and may prevent further damage and subsequent loss of plants. The larval insect can be stabbed by inserting a straightened coat hanger or a similar length of light gauge (e.g. 14 or 16 swg) fencing wire down the hole.

Other bud-boring moths have even greater impact on agricultural crops such as cotton. Cotton Bollworms (Helicoverpa spp.), the world's most significant agricultural insect pests, have become resistant to most pesticide types through overuse and misuse, a feedback system now known as the ‘pesticide treadmill’. One of the most spectacular examples of this occurred in South America in the 1950s and 1960s — an entire regional cotton industry collapsed when pest insects became resistant to even the most toxic and persistent pesticidal chemicals available at the time. Over-application in both amount and spray frequency led to increasing resistance in the moth populations, which in turn led to the use of increasingly toxic pesticides at higher rates and at increasing frequencies, which again led to further increases in moth resistance, and so on. Hitherto harmless insects also became severe pests in both cotton and food crops, as the counterbalancing natural enemies of these new pests disappeared in the face of the enormous pool of persistent chemicals entering the food web. The ramifications affected the human population rapidly, not only as the result of total crop failures, but also in the form of many deaths from disease borne by pesticide-resistant parasites such as fleas, lice and ticks.

Controversy still surrounds the use of pesticides in the cotton industry: in Australia the potential buildup and harmful effects of highly toxic pesticides and their residues in inland waterways such as the Murray-Darling river system are currently causing much concern. Many attempts have been made at developing biological and integrated pest management systems in the cotton industry worldwide to achieve long term sustainability, but marked success and wide acceptance have so far been elusive.

Occasionally, as in the case of the Sirex Wasp in Pinus radiata plantations, an effective biological control agent is discovered and successfully used to control a pest. The organism which now has Sirex under control in South Eastern Australia's pine plantations is a nematode or 'eelworm', a tiny threadlike organism (quite unrelated to segmented worms such as earthworms) which infects young wasp larvae and renders them sterile. This nematode has been spectacularly successful in controlling Sirex, and is specific to this wasp, so there are no harmful side effects.