Plant Diseases: Leaf Miners

it seems there's a lot of problems with my garden today. I checked my tomatoes plants and I saw that some of the leaves of the tomato have these odd "worm trail"

I have no idea what to do, so we just yanked off the affected sections including the stem. After consulting Professor Google, I learnt that my tomatoes were having a leaf miner infestation! ಥ_ಥ

So what are these awful creatures called leaf miners? Well they're actually larvae of moths and other insects that eats a certain layer of the leaf. 

It's so disgusting. After having nightmares with tapeworms, I get leaf miners!! (ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

 It's not really harmful to plants per se, since it will only eat the leaves. But they do result in poor harvest, slowed growth and a weakened plant. I consider my plants as my pets, and seeing them having these infestation really worries me. I'm sure no owner would want their pet getting weak. 

There are also reported cases that pathogenic bacteria and fungus would invade the trail.... not often, but there are cases.  

If you're growing veggies like I do, you need to get rid of them. By that I meant you must KILL them, or else, they will simply move to another leaf and spread its evilness there.

If there's an organic method, i would go for that. It's not because I'm a hipster vegan whatever that is into the latest health fad. I'm Asian, so, I couldn't care less if they bombed my food with pesticides, as long as it is safe and FDA approved. But, I'm scared to use pesticides cause I don't know how. I'm scared of getting scalded with these chemicals, inhaling the product then suddenly dying and other silly nonesense that people made up to scare children (I believe them unless proven otherwise). If you like pesticides though, you will need to look for the right one for these or else, you'll just end up polluting air cause these larvae are inside the leaves, with a barrier. Also be careful with pesticides as you shouldn't mess up the ecosystem in gardens. If you end up killing their predators, you'll only worsen the infestation, or you might invite leaf miners over to your gardn.. 

One organic method of killing them is by simply squashing them. Just look at the trail and find the yellowish moving larvae and SPLAT! That is if your leaf has a minor infection. If it's killing up the leaf, it's best to just get the leaf and squash that nasty thing, then leave it for compost. One lady from Youtube suggested to feed them to fishes. 

If you don't have the heart to squash them between your fingers, you can use a rock or a smooth pebble. It might damage the leaves if you're not careful though

squashy squashy

 

In my case, I panicked and killed it with fire

Aromatic Candle from Bath and Body Works in Twilight Woods. Burn you nasty SOB!!

Since it's evening now.. I'll resume the hunt tomorrow. I hope it doesn't infect the rest of my plants. 

Pet Care: Protect+ (Fipronil) Spray

WARNING: Can make you queasy from the creepy crawlwa

I'm a huge fan of animals. As of the moment, we have 5 dogs, a cat, and 2 chickens.

Appa, my little boy

Occasionally, we get dog guests (my cousin's dogs) as well as visiting stray cats (from the creek). And if you're an animal lover like my family, one thing which you will absolutely curse are the ticks and fleas. Scary, creepy little crawlies that bursts into a frightening scene when you try to kill them.

Do you know, fleas are arachnids? They have eight legs. And like spiders, nobody likes them. Nobody.

the jumpy ones. please jump to some fire. 

the crawly ones. please slit your throat

the blood ball!!!!!! 

I prefer spiders though since they help out with mosquito control but fleas? ugh! useless bunch.

Since my puppies have decided to be friends with the chickens, the flea problem became worse. Britney, my baby chihuhua, loves to sun bathe at the chicken coop, while Appa loves to play with our cock. It is inevitable for them to catch fleas.

hello worms, hello fleas

Since three of my dog sleeps in my room, I am bothered by these creepy creatures and honestly, I have lost sleep recently from paranoia. The ticks and fleas fall off wherever they lie down and past midnight at 2 am, you can see them going up the wall, towards the ceiling. This isn't paranoia, since I had to clean blood off of my wall at 3 am.

Just plain disturbing.

What's worse was Appa developed tapeworm. How do dogs develop tapeworm? from ingesting these fleas!!! Fleas are vectors to a lot of diseases! It almost wiped out Europe!

One late night, when I fed the dogs late, Appa thoughtfully brought me his worm infested stool. I know my dog loves me, but thanks to this sweet gesture of his, I've been having nightmares. Go google what a tapeworm infested dog poop looks like. I would go to sleep and see those images plus ticks and fleas! o(╥﹏╥)o

So I asked my cousin for help, and she lent me her spray.

So here comes my review regarding this spray.

Aside from the list above, Protect+ is a brand for the generic fipronil which serves as a pesticide for our beloved pets.

I am aware that there is such a thing as Frontline, It's probably the innovator brand, I am not sure, but, I will use that one as a "control" or as the standard for comparison.

The Frontline that I have used is the one that you put on your dog's nape. It's very effective and it works as a poison to fleas and ticks of all stages and they literally fall off of your pet. A warning for using Fipronol drops is that it can make your dog sick if ingested. If you have one dog, or have them caged up, I would recommend it, but if your pets roam the house, full of energies and weird antics, then that's another story

And let's face it. Frontline is WAAAAAAAAY expensive. I can't afford to buy 6 tubes of Frontline. I can't even afford to buy one easily, it's just too expensive. Plus I'm not even sure if it is effective with chickens! not to mention, how do I put that to the stray cats that try to kick out our house cat? And the Spray kind is just as expensive! 3-4x as expensive as the spray.

To use Protect+, all you have to do is spray it on your pets' fur, including the belly and paws' and ears' crevices. Also, remember to massage it to their skin for better effect. Just spraying is good, but rubbing it is better. Ideally you should use it after bathing, but, yeah, in my case, I just wanted to use it as soon as possible. I haven't noticed ANY difference so think it's just as effective as well with or without a bath.

The scent isn't horrible. I imagined it to smell like bad medicine, but instead it has an odd fragrance. Something citrus, yet powdery, like powdered lemonade. The scent isn't strong, but its simply smells clean.

When I used Protect+, I didn't notice an immediate effect, but give it a day or perhaps a few hours and you'll see little dead fleas and ticks on your pets' fur. Some of them just completely disappeared, hopefully died somewhere and brought their friends with them to kingdom come. So I can safely conclude that its efficiency is similar to Frontline.

Safety wise, my dogs love to wrestle so after biting at each other's fur, none of them got sick. No vomitting was noted during the treatment as well, so I can say, this is VERY GOOD.

What i love the most with Protect+ is that it's really cheap, compared to Frontline spray, I think the difference is 50% more or less, and that is a big deal. And although the spray bottle seems tiny, it's actually A LOT. My cousin has 20 dogs, 3 house cats plus the puppies and kittens that come and go, plus my 6 pets, plus my grand mother's dogs, plus my other cousins' dogs. All of them went through that Protect+ Spray, and the spray isn't half empty. I used some of the spray on my bedroom walls and floors, and it looks as if it didn't use a lot.

You get Protect+, everyone gets Protect+!!!

You really get the most out of your money.

So the pros:

• inexpensive
• smells nice
• packs a lot of product for a small bottle
• efficient.
• SAFE 
• easy to apply. 
• fun to use! You can chase them around while holding the bottle!!  (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ 


•  (don't try this if your pets get stressed easily) 

Cons

• the fact that it is a spray may scare off your pet. Remember to be gentle, and to apply it while your pet is on the ground, otherwise you'll get a sprained puppy and a broken heart. 

Overall, if you're on a budget, or simply looking for an alternative from the innovator, I really recommend you get Protect+! IT DOES THE SAME JOB, SO WHY WASTE MONEY?

It's really a great investment not only for starting dog owners. but to veteran owners as well. 

Will I buy it? If ever the product gets used up, which I doubt, I will get it again. After all, a stray cat may come by, or a few dogs might come over. But at the rate of things. I'm guessing the bottle will 

exceed its shelf life before I need to buy it again. 

Not only did Protect+ helped my pets, it alleviated my stress and my anxiety and I can get back to sleeping peacefully. No more nightmares of ticks and worms.

Obviously, this isn't sponsored. ^^, my cousin bought this stuff with her own money.