I have black caterpillars on my cone flowers. How can I get rid of them without harming bugs like lady bugs?
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I hope I am right in saying that a spray of 50/50 water and alcohol will drive them away. Add a little liquid detergent --a few drops only. I have just bought a cone flower and I hope I don't have this problem--but the water /alcohol spray works for some of my other plants. Will the cone flower bloom all summer?
Lightly sprinkle flour on plant when the flower is wet. When they crawl onto the plant they'll become coated by the flour, suffocate & drop off. I've used this simple method successfully on my cabbage to get rid of cabbage loopers.
Good luck!
The only thing not armful is to use Bacillus thuringiensis sprays. see the following for details.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect...
Available in all good garden center (may be on the web).
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