Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have mealybugs and small green worms which are located on the back of the leaves of the pepper and lettuce plants. Not sure what do do for either situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mealybugs can probably be taken care of by spraying the plants with water, letting ladybugs and their larva eat the mealybugs or perhaps wiping them off with an alcohol swab (test a small area of leaf first to make sure it doesn't burn the plant.)

The caterpillars can be dealt with using dipel dust or Thuricide which both contain BT which the caterpillars eat, get a belly ach quit eating your plants and then die a few days later. Used carefully according to the labels should be safe for your AP system. Or you can had pick the caterpillars and squish them or feed them to the fish.

Thanks for the quick reply. I have been taking off the caterpillars off and feeding them to the fish lol. Wasn't sure if that was cool or not. So if the Dipel dust comes in contact with the water, it will not harm the fish? I have ordered some already and should be in this week.

I know others have used dipel and been fine but there was one person who I guess mixed dipel with water or some other liquid and sprayed the plants very heavily and had some problems though it is not clear if the problems were due to the dipel or to some other cause.

You don't need much and you really only want it on the plant parts the caterpillars seem to eat. So long as you don't go dumping lots of it in your fish tank and grow beds you should be ok.

thanks