Some Type of Stem Tremor

I'm 26 days into outdoor flowering, and I'm having an insect problem.

Details:

Outdoor - Organic Soil 7g Pots

The plants have had their leaves sprayed with diluted neem oil a week or so before flowering, and a week into flowering. I've started seeing these brown worms, I crushed them all before I remembered I needed them for pictures, but I think their the culprits. As of today, I used the neem oil in a systemic approach. I watered the plants with diluted neem oil, and really soaked the leaves from top and bottom. I've never seen the ones in the holes, once they go in I don't know what the hell their doing.
If it's budworms as I suspect, I'm planning on purchasing some brand of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to treat the problem. My question is, could I get a type of meat injector and inject the Bt in the hole and hopefully force "it" to consume the Bt.

The main question I am asking is, what do you think it is, will Bt be good, and would carefully "injecting" Bt in the wormhole kill, or do more damage than the worms are?


Here's the what those burrowing bastards did to my girls.

Flowering Day 26

The white flakes seem to cover the holes, It must be the insides of the plant.
View attachment 1118132 View attachment 1118121 View attachment 1118127View attachment 1118117 View attachment 1118134 View attachment 1118133

Eggs?

View attachment 1118150 View attachment 1118162

What your helping save!

Afghan Kush Plants

View attachment 1118167 View attachment 1118168 View attachment 1118169

Wierd tall Afghan Pheno

View attachment 1118170



Thanks, I hope we can figure this out!

Peace

Injecting into the wormhole probably won't help much as the hole would most likely be full of worm shit.

Spraying neem oil probably won't help much either as the worms are inside the stem and won't come into contact with the neem oil or the plant material covered by neem oil.

I think you need a systemic insecticide that is absorbed into the cell of the plant, worm eats plant = worm dies.

Visit a gardening centre and explain that you have borers eating your capsicum (pepper) plants and getting inside the stems. Ask for something that will kill them and allow safe harvesting of the fruit ... may need a couple of week "withholding period" before you pick your peppers.

Hopefully you still have 4 to 6 weeks of flowering and any systemic insecticide will have dissipated by harvest time.

Or you can ignore the worms and watch your plants fall apart - harvesting as they kill the stems.


G.O.D.

That's a solid reply, pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.


I'll be heading in tomorrow with the same scenario you set out, seems like a good one. I stood in the isle at Lowes for a good minute before I realized they didn't have what I was looking for. Now I got a good way to go at the people at the nursery, I've went in there before, they ask a lot of questions.

Glad that I can help - usually if you have a believable story the nursery people will be more than helpful.

G.O.D.

Have you ever heard of using Rotenone/pyrethrins to treat borers? A company named Bonide makes it, I was directed to it for the borers.

Well shit, I went to the nursery but all they caried was Bonide EIGHT Insect Control. It has pyrethrins in it, but no retenone. It says it treats borers. They also had a product by bonide, same active ingredient (pyrtherins), but it was labled for borers. Problem is, it was in a 8 oz. bottle and I need 40+ gallons to water.


I'm shook. I need to do something and it needs to happen now. Either way with this stuff I got. It says to spray the leaves thoroughly, how is that going to help me? Should I spray the soil a little for the systemic approach that I desperately need.

Just spray the leaves, it will be absorbed through the leaves just like foliar feeding.

All the best with your crop.

G.O.D.