Need to ID pests/diseases and treatments

TheVickster 9/6/2010, 11:51 am

For the most part, our first SFG has been a great success. I would love some sort of resource to help us identify pests and/or diseases and also recommend various treatments. Book or web is fine, but I definitely need pictures! Telling me a 'sow bug' might be eating my beans doesn't do me much good because I have no idea what a 'sow bug' looks like! I've managed to get up close and personal with most of my plants having problems, and I've seen and taken pics of various bugs, but I don't know what to do next.

So, any recommendations for a 'bugs for dummies' type of thing would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

Megan 9/6/2010, 3:35 pm

I would love that, too!

There have been some posts here and there on ID'ing bugs. The other thing I have done is, for example, Google Images for "black and yellow bug with stripes, Virginia". Then sort through the results until I found a match, then posted results here with a request for help. I also go the reverse route and Google Images for whatever insect I see named here, too. Doesn't always work perfectly but I've learned to recognize a few things this way.

ander217 9/7/2010, 7:55 am

Perhaps we could start a bug ID thread here on the forum sort of like the seed exchange threads. Anyone posting a photo of an insect would be asked to move it to there. The title should be specific for the plant where the bug is found, and maybe give some characteric of the bug to be identified, such as, "Green caterpillar eating tomatoes" or "Small black beetles found on eggplants".

Hopefully someone would then post an ID for the insect, and forum members could post helpful ideas on how to get rid of it. It would be the same as now except it would all be under one thread, which would make it easier to search for the unknown new critters that show up in our gardens.

TheVickster 9/7/2010, 8:41 pm

ander217 - ecxellent idea!

So, how do we go about starting a new thread? Think we should keep it regional? The seed exchange section seems 'official' . . .

TheVickster 3/2/2011, 6:24 pm

I got a couple books for Christmas that look pretty promising: Good Bug, Bad Bug (gotta love the name), and The Gardener's Guide to Plant Diseases. Just in case anyone is paying attention . . .

**camprn** 3/2/2011, 6:36 pm

Ander there are a few threads dealing with insects and insecticides from last spring, but I have not had a chance to go dig them up. Sad

I will work on that. sunny

middlemamma 3/3/2011, 2:13 am

To the OP here is a link that Camprn shared last season that I found helpful.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1zQoe0/www.extension.umn.edu/gardeninfo/diagnostics/index.html

Rather than a bug thread we might expand and have a Plant Disease and Pest sub-forum like we have a seed subforum...then individual threads could address individual problems.

Pro's and con's of that idea? I can get started on it after feedback....

Jen

ander217 3/3/2011, 6:15 am

We already have a Pest thread. Most of these types of requests are or should be already posted there. The problem is, the titles don't always give a clue as to what the post is about. The new search feature helps with that, but is there some way you could make that better? Or are you talking about something completely different? (You know how computer-illiterate I am.)

Which reminds me, - what is OP? (Obtuse person?) Embarassed

middlemamma 3/3/2011, 11:21 am

I just meant combine pests and disease into one sub forum, basically add disease to the one we have, and maybe make it a main sub forum, like SFG Talk and Compost is.

OP is "original poster". Smile

My thought on a bug thread is: a thread is great....but new folks are always going to be coming and others will forget there was a thread....so new threads will be started all the time with new titles and they won't all end up in one thread nice and neat like we are suggesting here. (if I understand you correctly?) Seems if we could get them at least under the same category then it would prove more useful than maybe some in SFG Talk and general discussion and maybe pests and others maybe somewhere else?

Am I missing a part of what you are asking?

Jen

middlemamma 3/6/2011, 11:14 pm

Did we want to continue this brainstorming?

**camprn** 3/7/2011, 6:28 am

ander217 3/7/2011, 7:01 am

That sounds like a great idea to me, Jennie. If people forget and post under another thread will you move the post with a gentle reminder that they belong under the Pest and Disease thread?

TheVickster 3/7/2011, 6:35 pm

I love the idea of a 'sub-forum'.

Middlemamma - thanks for the link. So far that site looks very easy to use!

flower

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