Help! Pests on my seedlings!

[Bulbofett]

They are small, green caterpillar type bugs. I wasn't able to see them until I used a magnifying glass so I can't get a picture of them. You can sure as heck see the damage though. I'm beyond pissed off! I worked super hard on these guys, as they are my first flask seedlings.

I sprayed the seedlings with insecticidal soap. Is there anything else I can or should do?

Pics of the damage.....

[judith_arquette]

Oh your poor babies
Good luck getting rid of them!

[Bulbofett]

Originally Posted by judith_arquette

Oh your poor babies
Good luck getting rid of them!

Thanks! I have no idea if insecticidal soap will even kill them or not. Worms/Caterpillars were not on the list of bugs it takes care of.

[nikkik]

Sorry about your seedlings! I would bet what you described in your post is some type of larvae. If you want something stronger to treat your seedlings, Bayer 3-in-1 should do the trick.

If you want something more organic, completely submerge each compot in water and leave them in there for an hour, don't allow any of the leaves above water. This should drown your bugs and give your seedlings a good watering. If you choose the method, I would repeat this in a week, in case new eggs hatch during this time.

[BettyE]

The soap should kill those worms. I mix my own soap spray...20% dish soap, 20% alcohol (I use the 91%) & 60% water. Works for me every time...BettyE

[czayta]

Originally Posted by BettyE

The soap should kill those worms. I mix my own soap spray...20% dish soap, 20% alcohol (I use the 91%) & 60% water. Works for me every time...BettyE

Should I use this as a perventitive solution or only when the larva are present? Will this work on fungus gnat larva? (little clear fly worm babies )

Also will 70% ISOPROPYL alcohol work if I mix that in 20% of the entire solution with soap and water?

[orchidsarefun]

in my conditions, and with lots of seedlings and mature plants , I have found the ideal is to spray at least every 14 days with a rotating list of pesticides and then a fungicide. Its a real pain but I bought a one gallon sprayer and that made the job much easier. If you have a lot of houseplants like I do, you also have to consider whether they are home-base to some pests.
I use Sucrashield, Safer Soap, Neem Oil and then Thiomyl. I also use a home-mix of Dr Bronner's/rubbing alcohol/water approx every 3 months. I find spraying the plant containers, mix and stands also helps.

[czayta]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

in my conditions, and with lots of seedlings and mature plants , I have found the ideal is to spray at least every 14 days with a rotating list of pesticides and then a fungicide. Its a real pain but I bought a one gallon sprayer and that made the job much easier. If you have a lot of houseplants like I do, you also have to consider whether they are home-base to some pests.
I use Sucrashield, Safer Soap, Neem Oil and then Thiomyl. I also use a home-mix of Dr Bronner's/rubbing alcohol/water approx every 3 months. I find spraying the plant containers, mix and stands also helps.

Thanks for the info. I'll start this. The fungus gnats are getting worse.

[orchidsarefun]

as for fungus gnats - the best solution to that problem are butterworts/pinguicula. Even though I have a rigid spraying regime, I still find a couple trapped in my butterworts' leaves.
Butterworts are also fascinating in that they reproduce so easily - they develop keikis freely, you can obtain plantlets from planting a cut leaf. I had started with 1 and at one stage had over 20 with my propagation efforts. There are a couple of threads on them...

[czayta]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

as for fungus gnats - the best solution to that problem are butterworts/pinguicula. Even though I have a rigid spraying regime, I still find a couple trapped in my butterworts' leaves.
Butterworts are also fascinating in that they reproduce so easily - they develop keikis freely, you can obtain plantlets from planting a cut leaf. I had started with 1 and at one stage had over 20 with my propagation efforts. There are a couple of threads on them...

I also bought 2 butterworts, 2 pinguicula, and a venus fly trap. It seems for me that the pinguicula is much better at trapping the flies than the butterworts.