I'm devastated...most of leaf gone...POOP!

[CrazyConure]

My peppers, half of each leaf is gone. I found poop on the leafs as well. They are large. I don't know what to do. I just applied soap with neem oil. I doubt it will help. What can I do to get rid of ALL types of insects. I don't want a one solution for one bug. I want something that will kill anything that will touch my plant.

I'm starting to give up on organic and bring out the big guns...

 

[Chuck]

My peppers, half of each leaf is gone. I found poop on the leafs as well. They are large. I don't know what to do. I just applied soap with neem oil. I doubt it will help. What can I do to get rid of ALL types of insects. I don't want a one solution for one bug. I want something that will kill anything that will touch my plant.

I'm starting to give up on organic and bring out the big guns...

If you found big poop what you have eating your peppers is a tomato hornworm. Look all over the plant very carefully and you will probably find him. They are experts at camouflage. The best all around insecticide is a spinosad based product. It will take care of both insects and caterpillars. An organic gardener should have 3 products on hand, Neem for fungal problem, scale and some insects. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) for caterpillars and spinosad for everything else. Spinosad works on caterpillars too but not as fast as Bt. When a caterpillar takes one bite of Bt it immediately stops feeding and is dead within 6 hours. It takes spinosad 24.
Today even the chemical gardeners have found Bt and Spinosad superior than any of the products they have used in the past.

 

[CrazyConure]

The poop curls into a circle and is string-like. I see my tomato plant fell down, a closer look shows there's a bite on the middle of the stem.

I was thinking caterpillars. I'm going to show pictures of the damage and poops tomorrow.

 

[CrazyConure]

I don't think it's the tomato hornworm. My plants are still very small. We do have giant snails that I once caught on the tomato plant. The same place where the damage was today.

 

[Chuck]

Is this what the poop looks like?

 

[CrazyConure]

No. I have been looking online, and I can't find anything. I'm going to try to take a picture.

 

[CrazyConure]

Ok. I couldn't find the thin poop that goes around itself into a circular shape, but I was looking around the garden, and I found a poop on my pomagranet tree (it's right next to my peppers). The tree has no damage, but I'm guessing they like to hang out on the tree to poop.

Anyways, here is the picture I took. Yes, I did snip off the leaf and brought it in my room to take a picture.

 

[Chuck]

Ok. I couldn't find the thin poop that goes around itself into a circular shape, but I was looking around the garden, and I found a poop on my pomagranet tree (it's right next to my peppers). The tree has no damage, but I'm guessing they like to hang out on the tree to poop.

Anyways, here is the picture I took. Yes, I did snip off the leaf and brought it in my room to take a picture.

About the only thing that actually eats entire tomato leaves and peppers leaves besides 4 legged critters and grasshoppers are caterpillars, slugs and snails. The above picture looks more like bird or possibly lizard droppings. Slugs and snails normally leave a slime trail though which should be visible. The pic that I posted is a hornworm dropping.

 

[CrazyConure]

Also, I found an image online if the snails we have:




There has been a lot of them lately. With all the rain we have, it's hard not to see a shiny trail of slime on my plant leaves.

 

[CrazyConure]

We posted at the same time.

We have a ton of lizards here. I'm pretty sure they eat insects.

The lizards are too heavy to actually sit on a leaf.

 

[CrazyConure]

I found an image of exactly the stringy poop I was talking about...it's from a SNAIL!

 

[Chuck]

Also, I found an image online if the snails we have:




There has been a lot of them lately. With all the rain we have, it's hard not to see a shiny trail of slime on my plant leaves.

Kind of like this?

 

[Chuck]

Get some saucers and set them into the ground and fill them about 1/2 full of beer.

 

[CrazyConure]

Yes! The poop looks like that.

I did that beer trick the second after my last post. I heard the snails eat at night which makes a lot of sense to why I can't see the damage happening in daylight.

I'm hoping to get some snails tonight. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Chuck]

Yes! The poop looks like that.

I did that beer trick the second after my last post. I heard the snails eat at night which makes a lot of sense to why I can't see the damage happening in daylight.

I'm hoping to get some snails tonight. I'll keep you updated.

The very best way to get them is to use an organic product called SluggoPlus. It's an iron phosphate with spinosad in it that will also take care of cutworms