Plague locusts and canna?

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Wondering if anyone has ever had cannabis plants in flower when plague locusts have come through their area?  Wondering how much damage they do, and if they eat everything, or just the shade leaves and leave the buds alone? 

 

We have plague locusts in the region, but not at my local area, yet.  But the numbers of the small hoppers in my grow area are on the increase, and we are a chance of getting hit by the swarm.  Plants are all well in flower, between 2 and 5 weeks off harvest.  It's too late to spray with eco neem, and wouldn't want to spray anything on the buds at this stage anyway.  Being a guerilla grow, it's probably not realistic to use some form of physical protection like nets etc either, but I'm open to suggestions. 

 

If it turns out they only eat the shadies and don't do any damage to the buds, that wouldn't be the end of the world.  But, if they eat or destroy/damage the buds, then I might have to do something. 

 

Feedback on anyones experiences of these things would be appreciated.

[Jagged]

Mate i saw them things on the news, good luck looks like they stripped everything in sight. try covering it up.

[Dingo-2008]

They eat the lot Hashy an will leave you with a nice clean stem sticking outta the ground.

 

I have seen what they did to a mates 10 plant 4 foot tall an all in head ready to be pulled in about a weeks time.

 

The fuckers striped the girls with in 1 hr nothing but a stems left sticking outta the ground.

 

Only way to keep the buggers at bay is to wrap the girls in shade mesh an make sure they can't get in to the plants,an make sure you seal the bottom of the shade mesh to the ground as well an seal the top.

 

 It's the only way you will keep them out.

 

When I used to travel out bush working I used to hit plagues of them we would have to stop the 4x4 an wash the window screen every 20km, An they stink to high hell.

 

Some times they would fill the front wheel rims full of dead hoppers an the wheel would become unbalanced an wobble like the wheel alinement was out , We would have to try an clean them out of the rims  as well.

 

Every time I would leave a mine site I would get 5 large bottles of window cleaner to clean the fucker of the wind screen they stick badly if you let them dry out on the wind screen.

 

Sorry about me rambling on .

 

Regards Dingo-2008. 

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Thanks Dingo, not what I wanted to hear, but that's the info I needed.

 

2 are in flush, and the 2 big girls are getting close enough that I can harvest in an emergency, so I'll just keep an eye on where the evil little bastards are moving and react if needed.  Might need to look for something to cover the other 2 plants in case they pay a visit as they are nowhere near ready yet.

[Dingo-2008]

Glad I could help Hashy,They sure are nasty little bugger's them Hoppers.

 

All the best Hashy an I do hope they don't  pay  you a visit.

 

We get some big mother Hoppers over here in the West biggest I have ever court was around the 15cm mark long & just on 3 cm deep body.

 

I can't remember the name of them at the moment,I have some photo's of one on my lappy some where if I can find it I will post a photo of it here in this thread for you.

 

All I can say is thank fuck they don't eat meat or we would be in trouble.

 

              Regards,Dingo-2008. 

Edited March 21, 2015 by Dingo-2008

[Sir PsychoHashy]

All I can say is thank fuck they don't eat meat or we would be in trouble.

 

              Regards,Dingo-2008. 

 

Doesn't bear thinking about.

 

We don't get em that big here, but I have constant numbers throughout the season where I grow from the little bastards up to about 7-8cm.  Probably the biggest problem for my outdoor grows.  I can fence off for rabbits, wombats, goats and roos, but not the hoppers.  Eco Neem stops them doing any real damage once the plants are established, but they still eat little bits, problem is I neglected to give them a final spray in early flower and it's too late to spray now.  The plague's don't normally hit us properly here, they usually stay more on the plains and we only get the fringes occassionally, but this time they have hit the hills not far from here so it's looking a bit of a risk.  Just another of the joys of outdoor growing.

 

Wouldn't mind seeing a pic of your giant mutant hoppers.

[Dingo-2008]

Hi Hashy I had a look through all the photo's on this lappy an can't find the photo's of that big hopper,It must be on one of the other 2 lappys I have so will try an find it for you as soon as possible sorry about that.

 

Bugger me I was bringing in my rubbish bin after  it  was emptied this morning an out jumps 1 of them hoppers from my garden,so I grabbed  the bugger an killed it so i will take photos tomozz for you.

 

It is not as big as the other one I told you about but it is still a big fucker just about as long as the plam of my hand.It's that time of the year that they start  to come outta the ground an start to grow bigger very quickly.

 

I am so glad that I grow indoor up here or they would just lwave the plants looking like a stick sticking outta the ground.

 

I hope that I can find a bigger one in the garden to take a photos of for you.

 

Regards,Dingo-2008.

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Cool Dingo.  Yeah, I was surprised at how much a 3cm hopper can chew through in less than 30 seconds, so I'd hate to think about what they could do at that size.  I find the Eco Neem stops em eating too much, but doesn't stop em having a taste, certainly good enough protection for an established plant with our standard sized hoppers.  Handy that they come out over there coming up to the end of the outdoor season.