Use traps to protect cannabis

Use traps to better protect cannabis

You can use several commercially available traps to catch a variety of plant pests.
Use sticky bands. These are made of flexible material coated with sticky goo that you wrap around the base of a plant near the soil line. The gooey substance traps insects such as ants, earwigs, and weevils that try to walk across it. Sticky bands are particularly helpful for preventing ants from bringing aphids to your plants. The bands and sticky goo are available at nursery supply stores.
Use sticky cards and traps. Sticky cards are colored sheets of rigid plastic or plywood that are coated with a sticky substance. Mount the yellow, pink, or blue squares on stakes, hang them from lines or place them on the soil. Pests are attracted to the color, land on the sticky substance, become trapped, and die. Yellow traps are effective in controlling aphids, fungus gnats, leaf miners, whiteflies, and the adult flies of root maggots. Blue or pink sticky traps help control thrips.
Use earwig traps. You can capitalize on the earwig habit of hiding during the day in dark, moist places. Give them a place to hide by creating a simple trap made of damp, loosely rolled newspaper secured with a rubber band. Place these around the growing area in the evening, pick up the papers in the morning, and crush the little invaders.
Use slug and snail traps. Like earwigs, slugs, and snails like to hide in dark, moist places, especially on sunny days. Create hiding places by turning flower pots upside down or lying flat boards on the ground. Use pebbles to prop up the pots or boards slightly.
Check the traps during the afternoon, pick out the pests, and drop them in a jar of salt water or beer.

Use live traps.

Some small mammals such as field voles, gophers, mice, rabbits, rats, squirrels, and woodchucks can be caught in live traps. After the animal is trapped, you can release it somewhere away from your growing area in the countryside. These traps are available at many hardware stores, and some animal control departments and humane societies will loan or rent them for a fee. (Note that we do not recommend using poison for any of these animals. Poison enters the food chain and it can kill birds, snakes, and other mammals, including pets.)

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