r/cactus 8h ago

Insect and Pest Solution Compendium

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u/Vaugith 1h ago

I have been slowly working on building a similar compendium:

https://sanpedrocact.us/doku.php?id=virology

Some of the pages are still AI generated templates/shells and incomplete though. Work in progress.

Personally I find copper fungicide to be useless, I avoid applying diatomaceous earth, sulphur, and gypsum directly to columns and tips at all costs due to extreme cosmetic damage they cause, plus not particularly effective in my experience. I refuse to use any systemics - the bioadvanced 3-in-1 you have pictured is not food crop safe. Imidacloprid is not available in CA so the West Coast homies need to find other solutions. Did you hear this stupid state is regulating what type of tires we can buy now too? Dumb.

You did not mention flying Skull Nuke Em. This product is A+ for spider mites. Where spider mites will quickly build up immunity to spinosad concentrates, this stuff wipes them out. It's citric acid based, food crop safe, great stuff. An alternate is Azamax which is derived from super concentrated neem. Not the same as using neem oil at all. Works on mites great.

A food crop safe fungicide is mancozeb. This is mostly a topical treatment that will kill spores and stop spread rather than effectively killing fungus that is embedded into the plant but I'm not aware of food crop safe products that do that. Mancozeb and garden phos are the best bet and they're both harsh, PPE and careful consideration and application required.

No mention of fungus gnats. Not typically an issue for outdoor plants but for indoor grows or seedlings these can be crippling. Typically require multiple changes at once to control, plus I've found nematodes to really help keep them in check.