Gorilla Growing…Bugs, Pests, and Other Animals

A guest post by the Ghost…Written by Jerry

Here are other articles in this series…

Gorilla Growing 101…Introducing the Ghost

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…Security

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…The Soil

Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…Availability of Water

Gorilla Growing…Bugs, Pests, and Other Animals

When growing cannabis gorilla style…bugs, pests, and animals can have their way with your precious crop. So lets discuss ways to protect your crop from them.

I will begin by admitting that I have had very little experience with insect pests in any of my grows. I have always believed that a very healthy vigorously growing cannabis plant can withstand most pests. Therefore all day sun, well watered and fed plants, and siting them where they will have good airflow becomes instrumental in prevention of infestation.

Also nature has a way of mitigating the effect of many insect and bug pests, for instance I have never had mite infestation outdoors, although indoors is another story.

Here is a list of some of the critters one can find enjoying their cannabis plants…

• Aphids
• Scale
• Mites
• caterpillars
• crickets
• fungus gnats
• grasshoppers
• leaf hoppers
• leaf miners
• mealybugs
• plant hoppers
• slugs snails
• thrips
• white flies

Truthfully I have little experience with most of these pests outdoors, I will discuss a few, and would love to hear your input in a comment. Help others by sharing your expertise!

I have read online about folks having issues with caterpillars eating their cannabis, and worst yet defecating on their buds. I would imagine the best way to deal with this is to pick them off by hand, although in a gorilla grow this may not be very doable. I have always been organic and would never spray any kind of insecticides on my medicine. So if I had this problem, I would likely simply try to trim off any affected buds.

Another common insect pest is aphids. And again, I have never had any on a cannabis plant that I can think of. Again I would not recommend spraying anything on your plants you wouldn’t be willing to consume. There are some soaps, and oils that if sprayed early in the season may not affect the final product.

Another way to deal with insect, or bug pests is to introduce some predatory insects such as Ladybugs, Praying Mantises, and Lacewings. They can be helpful, but will certainly not eradicate the pests from my experience.

So in conclusion, I think prevention is the best plan of attack. Grow strong healthy plants in a good environment to help reduce the affect of these kinds of pests.

Please if you have more experience with these kinds of pests, share how you have dealt with them in a comment for my other readers. I will gladly give some extra free seeds for good info, just remind me in a note with your next order.

And now lets discuss what has been my nemesis…other animals.

While I have little experience with insects or bugs eating my plants, I have alot of experience with other critters taking a liking to them.

I will start with the worst critter you may have to deal with…people…thieves…

I have likely had hundreds of plants taken by thieves over the years. I have discussed preventive measures one can take here in this article… Choosing a Site for a Gorilla Grow…Security

A quick story’s about thieves.

I once had an area of say 8 square miles I had about 12 gorilla grows in. Thieves found one of them. So then they began to look for another one…and they found it!

Now they are determined! I could see their trails as they spent hours looking…basically a trail every 15 feet or so, throughout the area.

They were able to find 6 or 8 spots.

I am not one to fight over cannabis, nor do things that would harm people, taking a loss is simply part of the deal.

I now became nocturnal in attempting to harvest the spots they had not found, as they can be people who would simply shoot you to take what is not theirs.

I drove in one night about 3 am, there were no vehicles there, so I figured I was alone. I was wrong, they were hidden somewhere, and likely had nite vision as well.

I hiked out to a spot, harvested many lbs of beautiful bud, got back near my truck in the pitch dark night, stashed the bud, then hiked out to another spot. When I got back this time the bud I had hidden was gone! They had been greedily waiting for me!

As it seems is often the case humans can be the worst.

And, nearly as bad….mice!

I have had mice eat my seedlings, and have had them girdle 10 foot tall plants killing them outright. I hate to admit it but I will use mouse killing poisons at my grows, as well as mouse traps. These poisons such as Decon can kill about anything that eats it, so to be more species selective I always break it into very little pieces, or use one of the small containers sold with the product to contain it. This ensures only small rodents can access it.

It is best to basically eradicate the mice anywhere around the grow.

Rabbits also seem to love cannabis.

I have found rabbits to be a problem when the plants are young and tender. I think the main reason for this is cannabis seedlings are generally put out in the early spring, usually before the native vegetation has had a chance to grow much. Rabbits are looking for tender young growing shoots to eat, and cannabis can fill the bill. I have seen OPP (other peoples pot) grows with small fences surrounding them, although I have never done that. And I have never attempted to eradicate the rabbits either.

I have never had rabbits eat older more mature plants, so the way I have combated them is by simply replanting the spot. Once their normal forge plants begin to grow they have always left my plants alone.

Deer and Elk can munch on your plants.

I have had some problems with deer and elk. I have found if you grow your cannabis in a very dry area, and the deer and elk’s normal forge plants begin to succumb to heat and lack of water, they can take a liking to your well watered and pampered cannabis plants.

The best way I have found to combat this kind of damage is the use of 30-40 lb monofilament fishing line around your grow. I would put it about every 2 feet up to about 6 feet. This will usually deter them.

They have never been a big problem for me however.

I have had grows that late in the season, just before harvest some elk decided to sample the product. They did not seem to like the buds at all (they do not like the taste of the trichomes), but the fan leaves, and the larger leaves on the buds were to their liking, so they would browse those….essentially trimming the buds for me. It was awesome!

Beavers can be a problem.

I have had beavers mow my cannabis plants down to the ground. It looked like some sheep had grazed through there.

I have also had beavers cut down big mature plants, then drag them into, and under the water, as forage for the winter months when the water freezes over. The best deterrent is to plant where beavers are not active.

Bears! Oh my!

I am sharing this story because I found it pretty funny…

I have grow quite a bit out in the deep woods. Once I was up in the mountains along a small creek. I planted 15 plants or so. I used pelletized Alaskan Fish Fertilizer. A big mistake!

Bears love fish, and a big bear (he left huge tracks) dug up every single plant….looking for the fish he could smell!

Needless to say that only happened once…