Need help! Unknown pest problem!

we recently bought praying mantis egg with aprox 300 babies in it and it will hatch in 1-2 weeks(it said 2 weeks and it’s been about half a week) we were using “dr enzyme” and “Fox farm bush doctor miticide” alternating around one each week or biweekly which helped some but not much honestly. I think it helped and when the end of the week came up it was just so bad that it didn’t seem like there was much progress. So we bought the egg or cacoon I would call it and I’m afraid to use any of that bug spray stuff that we previously used but the bugs are really eating and affecting our plants a lot. Some things I noticed is that it doesn’t matter if it’s old growth or new growth it’s pretty random with the lower leaves being more likely to be completely covered with bite marks and then hat looks like mini droppings, I’m clueless to what the bugs are also thinking maybe we haven’t even tried to kill them yet also I’m worried the bugs are too small for the praying mantises to eat.

-Need help with identifying the bugs:
1)There are/were these very small almost bright yellow thin bugs that hid in the folds of the very small new growth when the plants were younger, I’m thinking they were babies of something that looks different when it’s bigger and I haven’t seen them that recently but maybe because I am not checking sex anymore and have determined the sex of the plants already because that’s where they used to love to hide.
2) a few weird flying things that seem to come in all shapes and sizes, but mainly the black ones that I once thought were thripps but I am most likely mistaken.
3)these are the ones I am thinking is doing all the damage, they are very small and black with like one or two white stripes or dots on them. They don’t seem to have wings or fly. The leaves are severely damaged and could be from multiple species of bugs, I thought it was thripps causing it because of the dusty appearance that I saw online but now I’m very unsure.





-Need advice on how to get rid of-without harming our soon to be baby Matises

-And need any advice on the praying mantis anyone has, like will they help a lot and solve our problems and are bug sprays harmful to them?

Thanks a load in advance!! Can’t wait for the praying mantis, even if they don’t help they will be sure little creatures to observe, although I did learn that they do bite which is kinda off putting hah!

those look like fungus gnats, which aren't really hurting your plant. it looks like you have leaf miners, which are the larva of several types of bugs. they live inside the leaves, eating and leaving trails behind them till they hatch out. they usually won't kill a plant unless it's a severe infestation. the best thing to do is just remove and destroy leaves with trails on them.
the other problem looks like it might be russet mites, which are a royal pain in the ass to get rid of. they live in the roots of the plant, and don't respond much to traditional mite remedies. predators are useless against them, as is spraying the surface of the plant.
'since those aren't in flower yet, i'd do 3 or 4 drenches with some spinosad, then give them at least a month to burn up any residual pesticide before you put them into flower.
let a few other people chime in before you flip out and do anything drastic, i've been known to be wrong....occasionally...

Everything you are showing in your pics relate to one pest in perticular.


THRIPS.

You have western flower thrips.

The black and white bugs are thrips.

The black dots are their shit.

The whitish silvery scratches are their feeding marks.

The small yellow white bugs you mention early on are thrips larvae.


Fucking fungus gnats really and leaf miners?
@Roger A. Shrubber ???

jondamon said:

Everything you are showing in your pics relate to one pest in perticular.


THRIPS.

You have western flower thrips.

The black and white bugs are thrips.

The black dots are their shit.

The whitish silvery scratches are their feeding marks.

The small yellow white bugs you mention early on are thrips larvae.


Fucking fungus gnats really and leaf miners?
@Roger A. Shrubber ???

Click to expand...

looks like you're right, after looking again...those do appear to be thrips. my apologies to the OP, my only defense is that it was early and i was still waking up.
Jon, you could learn some manners....i can admit when i'm wrong, but it's a lot easier when i don't want to bitch slap the person who points it out because they're fucking rude

Roger A. Shrubber said:

looks like you're right, after looking again...those do appear to be thrips. my apologies to the OP, my only defense is that it was early and i was still waking up.
Jon, you could learn some manners....i can admit when i'm wrong, but it's a lot easier when i don't want to bitch slap the person who points it out because they're fucking rude

Click to expand...

I’m sorry bud.

I was having a bad day!

I hate bad advice being dished out and I could have been more tactile in my response.

It’s happened on a couple of threads now so I’ll give my head a wobble and stop lashing out.

Don’t you just love it when people can work out disagreements so easily and well mannered. I like that guys thank you. Also thank you for the advice I am seeing now that they are thrips, I just didn’t know there were so many different types of thrips.

Anyways does anyone know if I can spray the plants one last time before the praying mantids hatch? I don’t wanna kill them but the infestation has gotten pretty bad.

are you in veg? are you outdoors?

idk about killing the mantids but honestly i would spray. idk if biocontrol is gonna be enough to get rid of thrips like that.

i'd get capt jacks spinosad and safer soap (potassiums salts) and alternate spray every few days

also take off those leaves that are covered in them. kill every bug you can see. spray. put up sticky traps. then kill bugs again. then spray again.

pulpoinspace said:

are you in veg? are you outdoors?

idk about killing the mantids but honestly i would spray. idk if biocontrol is gonna be enough to get rid of thrips like that.

i'd get capt jacks spinosad and safer soap (potassiums salts) and alternate spray spray spray spray spray

also take off those leaves that are covered in them. kill every bug you can see. spray. put up sticky traps. then kill bugs again. then spray again.

Click to expand...

I have bush Dr miticide is that good or should I go out n buy the spinosad? I've heard that name a few times now I'm assuming it's better than what I got?

I am taking off the damage to the news is good correct? Because that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m hoping that it’s not making them attack all the better leaves or something like that

Ah I’m too impatient I sprayed them a bit since the sun isn’t out today. Sprayed them in the center of the plants and the bottom. I tend to fuck shit up when I’m impatient like that. Hope I didn’t fuck shit up tho ha

MarijAndrea said:

I have bush Dr miticide is that good or should I go out n buy the spinosad? I've heard that name a few times now I'm assuming it's better than what I got?

I am taking off the damage to the news is good correct? Because that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m hoping that it’s not making them attack all the better leaves or something like that

Click to expand...

that stuff will work. i like to use two different active ingredients in rotation.

i think bush doctor is made from essential oils, so it suffocates the bugs. which is good.

you could add a 2nd product tho with spinosad (capt jacks) or potassium salts (safer soap) to add a 2nd active ingredient into the rotation.