Hi, I’m a Jasmine Sambac farm owner. I face a lot of problems with budworms. I have tried spraying chemical and also organic pesticides but still can’t manage to control them. Is there any advice or special pesticides to control them? Thanks, Keith
Since budworms are easy to control, you must be doing something wrong. My first word of advice is to use the BIFEN we have listed in our BUDWORM CONTROL article. This active works great on budworms and is second to none.
Second, it’s very important that you treat the ground under the plants with activity. So if your jasmine are being grown in a container, be sure to drench the containers every time you spray. This will get any foraging larvae stage otherwise missed.
Third, treat as frequently as they come back but don’t space your treatments more than 2 weeks apart. This will insure you don’t miss any lifecycle hatching. You see, the egg stage cannot be killed so if you let too much time lapse between treatments, hatching larvae can easily get to their pupae stage which would enable them to continue on and on. So to defeat them, you must remain consistent with your treatment program and don’t let up – even if you don’t see activity.
Lastly, if the area involved is larger than 2500 sq/ft, get one of the foggers listed in our article. It will prove instrumental because it will get much better coverage compared to spraying a liquid and when it comes to small pests like budworms, this could be the difference in getting complete control or just managing the problem.
Bifen IT: https://bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/liquid/bifen
Budworms: https://bugspray.com/budworm-control.html
Keith Mclaughlin says
Thanks for the reply. I plant in an area of 1 acre, directly into soil, but the thing is that I do have butterflies flying around each day laying eggs everywhere. Can the BIFEN control the butterflies as well?
Tech Support says
Yes and no. Generally butterflies will avoid treated areas so when you spray, they’ll most likely move away. Some people call this “control” but really it’s a type of “repellency treatment” and not a control.
That being said, are you sure these are all butterflies? I ask because many budworm adult moths resemble butterflies and they can easily be confused with one another. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of what you’re seeing are in fact adult budworm moths and if that’s true, the Bifen will no doubt get rid of them too which would dramatically help solve your ongoing problem.