Removin Borers

So a couple of days ago i discovered about 5 holes in my plant with brown stuff comin out of it. I started goin through this forum to know what was causin it and what the solution was.

Turned out it were stem borin larvae and people just cut open the stem/branches and took it out. Now i didn't want to make these big cuts in my plant so i tried another way. And it worked! Just i thought i should share this with you

I took a string from an electric guitar cuz its made out of one string wrapped around another and from the one on the outside i could make like a small fishhook. I just cleared the entrance of the hole, poked the string as deep as i could and pulled the larvae out. 4 out of 5 came out, so thats 80% less cuts i have to make! It was very easy to do so you dont really need a guitar string i guess, but it looked like one of the easiest strings to do this.

Hope this helps some of you out

cool man, nice find. suck that you have borrers but hey atleast you're dealing with em.

thanks. i found another hole and i got the sucker out so thats 5 out of 6 already! i love my little piece of string As long as the wire is a bit strong and sharp and flexible enough to enter the tunnel it should work

Great idea! I read another article that suggested using a wire and poking it in the hole and just killing them and leaving them, but I was afraid they might decompose and damage the plants.

Yea I was thinkin the same thing, was afraid that if i just poked inside the hole that they would decompose too. Plus you wouldnt be sure that you really did stop them.
I just checked out the plant and the one hole that i couldnt get one out has no more brown stuff comin out of it so i think the borers are defeated

I hope other people with borers try the same thing with succes, so good luck to all of you

goin today to get a guitar string...wish me luck with these persistent bastards

If you're gonna buy one, be sure to take one for an electric guitar and go for an E, A or D string (those are the ones that are made out of one string wrapped around another). Between those three its up to you, dependin on how flexible you want it to be.
And let me know how it worked out for you, good luck!

Did you poke up or down from the hole to find the borers?

down from the hole was where mine were.

You have to poke at the whole in different directions and feel where the tunnel really starts, it can be pretty hard sometimes

I battled stem borers on a outdoor guerilla grow several years ago. I used systemic insectides with poor results and finally ended up using a common sewing needle. I poked straight throught the stem in several suspect areas and didn't bother with trying to extract the larvae. The plants were healed within 10 days and resumed normal growth. Not sure I would risk further damage to the stem by cutting into it.

And if you do it that way, do you know when you killed one? like do you see some guts or something on your needle?

project45 said:

And if you do it that way, do you know when you killed one? like do you see some guts or something on your needle?

Click to expand...

yeah typically, I fucked mine up obviously, I just taped the hole shut with masking tape...

the plant basically ignored the injury and kept growing great, it was in bud when it happened...

when I looked at the bored hole after the plant was dried and harvested... I found mold wtihin the stem.. but none escaped because of the tape... highly recmomend you guys tape the hole so no fungus or disease spreads to the buds...