Marijuana, like every other plant, is susceptible to hungry animals looking for a farm feast. So identifying your plant’s rivals is the very first step in defending them, whether you’ve been growing both outdoors or indoors.
When you plant marijuana, you’ll almost certainly come across marijuana insects or diseases at some stage during your growing process.
Insect pests, grubs, as well as fungus midges are among the rodents that attack marijuana plants. Also, it’s susceptible to diseases that affect cannabis plants, such as rot disease, plant decay, and the infamous white downy mildew.
Identifying such complications as well as how to combat them is critical to long-term growth; either you grow marijuana indoors or outdoors. This guide discusses all the most dangerous pot diseases and pests, as well as how to classify, avoid, and manage these in the growth.
Things you can do in order to Prevent Marijuana Diseases and Pests
Spraying some organic pesticides or insecticides on marijuana is normally not an alternative. When inhaled, certain chemicals face a dangerous threat. In addition, whenever it refers to hemp, the finished solution is mainly inhaled. Several pesticides that are licensed for use on crops haven’t been checked on marijuana.
What will happen if the plants have a trace on them? As marijuana is smoked in a pipe or joint and inhaled, it poses a serious threat to the health as well as your respiratory system.
Marijuana growers who worry about the quality of the finished product, as well as the safety of all those who consume it, must pay careful attention to what is going inside their plants, particularly when they are in growth. The best methods are organic and biochemical. That’s why it is recommended to use a Pest Management strategy.
Organic Products Or Chemicalized
It’s not difficult to see that organic products are superior to those made from chemical products. Chemical products can seem to be more powerful at first, and they’re not reliable. It’s impossible to predict how your plants will react, but it degrades the consistency of the fertilizer you’re growing in.
Insect pests develop a natural tolerance to chemical agents over practice, but if you’re using them incorrectly, you can finish up consuming a few of the stuff when you eat whatever you’ve developed with them.
Types Of Marijuana Pests And Bugs And How To manage them
There are many different types of marijuana insects and bugs, but the majority of them are difficult to control. The details below will tell you about the different types of marijuana pests and bugs, as well as how to deal with them.
1. Ants
Ants on marijuana plants could be an issue. All these types of insects wreak havoc on the plant roots, lowering total plant growth. What’s worse is an ant outbreak typically occurs before an aphid infestation.
Though insects prey on the marijuana leaves, ants focus upon on honeydew produced by the plant. As a result, ants will often defend the pests, enabling the insect population to develop.
There are many other remedies to prevent the ants from attacking your marijuana plant but one of the most common solutions is cinnamon. Cinnamon is a very well-known ant remedy for those that have small gardens. It acts as both a pesticide as well as an exterminator because it repels and kills insects.
Gardeners or farmers should apply it to the land in which they are growing by sprinkling or watering it in. In addition, though, there are not too many alternative treatments that can absolutely eliminate ants. Common pests such as frogs and sluggish worms will be encouraged to attack the plant by growers. Farmers should grease their plants and tree roots or submerge them in a liquid moat. Ants would be unable to reach the greased sections as well as the water.
2. Grasshoppers And Crickets
This loud and annoying bug is a typical marijuana pest that lives in the branches and feeds extensively on the leaves.
Crickets and grasshoppers are two types of outdoor marijuana pests that can be recognized by the noises and bite marks on marijuana leaves.
A drug name Spinosad can actively target and destroy the marijuana pest. While coping with grasshopper and cricket infestations on hemp plants, neem oil, bug sprays soaps, or pyrethrin-based items are also recommended.
3. Moles And Gophers
Moles and Gophers are two underground rats that pose a number of obvious problems. You take the danger of root destruction if you have a nesting critter. Luckily, moles stay away from marijuana roots the entire time.
Plants are uninteresting to them. Moles, in particular, will help your marijuana grow by aerating the soil then eating whatever insects they come across. On the other hand, gophers are a disaster waiting to happen. Gophers will hunt outside and consume the roots of the marijuana plants. They’ll suck entire plants down into their tunnels if they’re left alone.
Gophers could be dealt with in a variety of ways. When gophers appear around the plants, you may attempt to attract natural enemies such as birds or hawks to the location. Using the herbs or castor oil to that area will help you work with them compassionately. You should still put up fences for gophers as a very last option.
4. Cutworms
Cutworms are the most harmful when the marijuana plants are only seedlings. Cutworms could completely kill seedlings, but they’re even quick. They just come at night to consume your seeds, and that you’ll probably never see them in reality. Check for cutworms if the bases of your plants seem to have been trimmed by someone other than you.
Cutworms aren’t that impossible to get rid of, fortunately. These, like some other pests on this list, have quite a diversity of organic predators, so that they can disappear without further interference. Cutworms may also be eliminated simply by tilling or growing sunflowers across the perimeter of your marijuana yard. Tilling is indeed a great reactive step, but sunflowers become preventative, enabling you to hold cutworms out until plants become large enough to no longer be a problem.
5. Leaf Miners
Leaf miners, as the term suggests, dig tunnels through the leaves of your plants to eat and produce eggs.
These leaf miners consume the tissues and leaves of the plants after causing immediate damage, leaving long gray residues upon on marijuana leaves. The gray lines are also the alarm sign you have to watch for if you want to catch the unwanted pest early.
Grown leaf miners could be prevented from laying more eggs, which is a good thing. Sticky tape strips must be placed near the plants by a professional grower. To cope with the eggs, one may either physically extract the pest or use pesticides like spinosad, a biodegradable ingredient generated by a fungal pathogen that is poisonous to insects like leaf miners.
6. Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats are not quite as dangerous as they seem, and they’re hardly harmless. Fungus gnats, like the other pests mentioned in this article, will wreak havoc on your plants’ roots and stems. Fungus gnats consume weed in both their tiny larval stages.
They begin by consuming fungus only at the plant’s root and make their way deeper into plant roots. Clearly, this is bad for the plant growth since it will be slowed, as well as the plant’s structural strength will be compromised. The soil’s runoff would also be seriously harmed.
Fortunately, although fungus gnats could be difficult to detect, there is indeed a simple way to look for them. To trap the larvae, everything you must do is place an adhesive pad at the root of the marijuana plants. That won’t really solve the issue but will eliminate a large number of them. To end, mix a small amount of peroxide with water and add it all to the fungus gnats’ hiding place.
7. Mice And Rats
The most common predators are mice and rats. While they aren’t attracted to marijuana plants explicitly, they become omnivores that will consume the plants if they may not have a better choice.
Throughout the situation of rats, they may simply chew on the marijuana plants as an instinctive behavior to keep their upper teeth from rising out of reach. Rats and mice all have exceptional perceptions and are afraid of humans. It’s possible that you won’t see them or be knowledgeable of their presence.
To prevent mice and rats from your marijuana plant, as with so many of the insects mentioned in this article, it’s wise to take preventive measures rather than reactive measures. You can do whatever you can to build an experience that makes them want to stay away. You’ll need other threats to support you with this, however, you can use traps too.
8. Spider Mites
Red spider mites wreak havoc on marijuana plants by draining the moisture from their leaves, quickly destroying the harvest.
Check for white patches on the leaves of the marijuana plant to see if they have been infested with red spider mites. For both sides, there could be green or dark spots. These signs, though, may be mistaken for a deficiency of nutrition. A magnifying glass should be used to be certain of the source.
Red spider mites survive in dry conditions and spread rapidly in hot weather. A very well room with moisture of 55-60% as well as an air temperature under 25 degrees will be ideal for mite-free rising. As soon as infected leaves have been identified, they must be handled by applying a solution of isopropyl alcohol and water to the affected areas. Sodium soap, oils are several other items that can be beneficial.
9. Whiteflies
Whiteflies are really a common insect that attacks marijuana plants by extracting the moisture from their leaves, weakening them.
The emergence of small flies each time the leaves are shook is an apparent sign of whitefly pests on marijuana leaves. Yellowed roots with white coating mostly on the underside are also signs of colonization.
It’s hard to get rid of the tenacious whiteflies. Planting repellent seeds strategically positioning yellow sticky lines or treating them with oil or sodium soap or oil are all effective ways to handle them.
10. Snugs And Snails
You’ve already struggled with slugs and snails before if you grow marijuana outside. For marijuana farmers, slugs and snails are a popular nuisance. They’ll create glinting sludge tracks all over the place, and they’re normally very conspicuous as a result. Slugs and snails often live in the soil matter, and if left alone, both will do a lot of harm to the plant.
Snails and slugs are better controlled by creating an atmosphere that is conducive to insects like frogs, as frogs are prey species. This can be accomplished by including lakes or waterfalls around your plants.
If that’s too difficult, or whether it just isn’t an option, you should use salt to make the development process uninhabitable and unsafe for slugs. Interestingly, alcohol could be used to keep slugs and snails away from your marijuana plants.
Final Thoughts
Prevention and control steps are essential for thousands, if not millions, of pests and fungus species will be able to inhabit a Marijuana plant. The collection of strains is the first step. Choose mold-resistant strains that are appropriate for your environment.
Next, take into account the climate. Unmanaged extreme humidity, increased ventilation, as well as other changes to the surrounding climate can make it uninhabitable to bothersome visitors.
And at last, think about organic pesticides tactics. Farmers must reduce the dangers faced by synthetic pesticides when marijuana is both inhaled as well as swallowed. It is for this reason that organic alternatives and biological measures are prioritized.
Follow these two points to keep your marijuana plants safe. Check your plants every day for indications of fungus, mold, and pest infestations, particularly while growing. Sterilize all appliances and resins before usage to keep the grow room as sterile as possible.
These two things taken together should decrease the incidence of rodents or fungus infiltrating the foliage.