Early Season Pest Control

I don’t want to think about it but my dahlias are telling me I must. As I inspected our overwintered dahlias this week, I began to see it— Thrip Damage!! UGH!
But with temps in the high 80’s multiple times since early March, I shouldn’t be surprised. But I have to admit that I’m still wrapping my mind around having to worry about dahlia pests this early in the season. So if you are there too— you aren’t alone!

Well, what to be done about it?? Here’s how I am approaching it.

Number one- identify your pest. You have to know what you are fighting first. We’ve got thrip damage as the major pest right now. We also have a little bit of slug damage on emerging shoots and some our potted up cuttings in the hoop house.

Current Level of Thrip Damage

I mentioned earlier this year that I wanted to have a better pest control program this year. I wanted to be more pro-active than reactive. So since we are already seeing problems- it’s time to get on it. I did some research on different pest control products. One of my favorite places to start this process is the Arbico Organics site. They have a very wide selection of products (a lot of OMRI - organic- listed stuff too!) They also have articles on different pests and the products you can use to control them. Then I begin searching other sources on the internet - a quick google usually returns some good results. I tend to look for research papers, industry articles- those types of science/experience based information. I don’t usually find information of any use on lifestyle blogs/magazine publications- these unfortunately come up higher in the search results so sometimes you have to scroll down.

My go to pest control for many years has been a spinosad based spray. The Capt’n Jacks Dead Brew Bug is a popular option for this. You’ve no doubt heard me recommend it and I still use it. It’s still in my rotation. But you need more than one thing. You want to rotate and not spray the same thing every time. You can end up building up a resistance if you always spray the same thing.

After researching I settled on 2 new products to try. BioCeres WP and NoFly WP. (WP just stands for “wettable powder”) Why did I choose these? Few reasons: They both target multiple pests. The main pests I’m concerned with for my dahlias are thrips and spider mites- they both control thrips and NoFly does spider mites as well. They are also affordable. If you’ve looked into multiple pest control options, you’ve no doubt seen that some things can be expensive. Neither of them are knock down sprays so you have to wait several days to see the effect. They both work from the inside out on an insect which means they take time. The BioCeres takes the most time and is best used as a preventative or when pest levels are low to prevent further pest outbreak.

We will begin trying these in our rotation over the next few weeks so I will let you know how it goes.

My other favorite method to use really early on in the season is to spray with Surround WP. If you are growing commercially, this is a really good option. If you are growing for beauty and pleasure in your backyard, then this may not work for you. Your plants will be a slightly whiter shade of green for the rest of the season but it’s a great method of early season pest control. It has so many benefits: cools your plants, helps to keep powdery mildew away, keeps pests levels down. It’s a really good all in one option if it works for your growing situation. You can read more about it here in this blog post.

So whether you are ready or not, the pests have come to play early this year. Time to get your game face on!