Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've got lots of these bugs in my GH.

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/plants/field ... luster-bug

Has anyone else dealt with them successfully?

Suggested controls are all insecticides.

Maybe you could try sowing some sunflowers to try and tempt them away from your produce?

It might also help with physically catching them too....

Hi Stuart

I have never had to deal with them, but this might help..

I grow pomegranates, and there is a similar bug that affects them (False Cinch Bug, Nysius Raphanus). The accepted organic control for them is Ecotrol (rosemary and peppermint oil combo). University of California has this info sheet...

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r621300511.html

I don't know if you can get Ecotrol here, or if you want to use it, but you could try the efficacy of the rosemary/peppermint combo in a more gentle form.

You could try a tincture of fresh rosemary and peppermint in a spray. Pour boiling water over a large bunch of each herb, crushing or bruising them first will help. Allow the mix to cool, and pour into a spray bottle. In that kind of concentration, as a foliar spray, I don't think it would upset the fish?

I would personally add a few crushed chillies and some fresh garlic for added potency.

Hopefully mass bug murder will ensue...

How did you go Stuart?

I thought I saw a thread somewhere that you had a predator for the Rutherglens? Did they bring down the population?

Hi Tsalt.

Only just got my internet working again last night which is when I saw your post.

The predator was a naturally occurring one so is not present in large quantities.

Hopefully with cooler weather over the next few days I'll make up a concoction and give it a go. I'll let you know.