Common Pests of Hemp and Cannabis Plants

The cannabis industry has steadily grown over the years, and with that expansion comes a remarkably diverse set of insects that want a piece of your crop. Some studies have reported over 250 insect, mite, and mollusk species that live on cannabis. While not every species living on the plant eats cannabis, there are several of them that can cause damage and negatively affect your yields. 

Sap-sucking pests

Well-camouflaged aphids

Some of the most common pests in hemp and cannabis feed by piercing plant tissues and extracting sap. This feeding weakens plants and can spread pathogens.

Aphids – Aphids can be challenging for many cannabis growers as there are several species that can cause damage, including cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii), potato aphids (Macrosiphum euphorbiae), green peach aphids (Myzus persicae), and the cannabis aphid (Phorodon cannabis). Heavy infestations can spread viral diseases and cause sticky honeydew buildup, which encourages sooty mold growth.

Spider mite infestation

Spider mites - These tiny arachnids feed on leaf cells, producing yellow speckling and eventually bronzing or leaf drop. Under hot, dry conditions populations can explode quickly and severely damage plants. 

Thrips – These small, slender insects scrape plant tissue and feed on plant fluids. Species include western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis), onion thrips (Thrips tabaci), and impatiens thrips (Echinothrips americanus). Thrips cause leaf and flower deformities. 

Hemp russett mite damage

 Mites that target cannabis

Mites are especially concerning because of their small size. You may not even notice you have an infestation until you look at the plant with a hand lens. 

Hemp russet mite – Tiny mite that causes leaf curling, bronzing, and stunted growth. 

Broad mite – These mites are extremely small and usually go unnoticed without magnification. The symptoms of their damage can often resemble nutrient deficiency or herbicide damage.

                     Chewing pests

Several chewing insects can also damage hemp and cannabis crops. They are much easier to detect than mites and can cause considerable damage if left unchecked. 

A very hungry caterpillar

Leaf miners – Leaf miners chew between the layers of the leaf in a serpentine pattern. Keep an eye out for tomato leaf miners (Liriomyza bryoniae), pea leaf miners (Liriomyza huidobrensis), and American serpentine leaf miners (Liriomyza trifolii).

Caterpillars - Hemp moth (Grapholita delineana) and the Beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua) and other budworms feed on flower buds and developing seeds, tunneling into plant tissues and leaving behind frass and damaged buds. 

Borers - The European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) or Eurasian hemp borer (Grapholita delineana) may tunnel into stems, weakening plants and disrupting nutrient flow.

Indoor vs outdoor pest pressure

The types of pests you meet often depend on the growing environment. Indoor and greenhouse hemp production tends to see higher pressure from mites, aphids, thrips, and fungus gnats. Outdoor crops are more likely to be affected by caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, and stink bugs. 

Because hemp is a relatively new commercial crop, growers have fewer pesticide options than growers of many other agricultural crops. That makes prevention, monitoring, and biological control especially important.

Conclusion

The best strategy for controlling damaging pests is to start early. Consistent scouting, careful monitoring of leaves and buds, and the use of beneficial insects can help prevent small pest populations from turning into serious infestations.

Luckily, ARBICO offers a wide variety of pest control solutions aimed at the cannabis market. We have everything from beneficial insects to fungicides, nutritional supplements, neem oil, fertilizers, beneficial organisms and much more to help your grow. Check out our dedicated Hemp/Cannabis page here.

 

Snow & Gardens

The winter of 2025-2026 may well be remembered as The Winter of Snow. In the U.S., one potent storm after another hit and dropped copious quantities of the white stuff. In the Far East of Russia, Kamchatka (no stranger to snow) experienced the largest snowfall in 60 years, which left snowdrifts of up to 40 feet. (Here’s a short video.) As impressive as these snowfalls may have been, they are by nature transient. Eventually the snow will be gone and what is underneath will be revealed. If it’s your garden that’s revealed, you may have concerns over whether the snow damaged it or how the snow affected the soil. First of all, snow is not the menace to a garden that you may fear it is. In fact, there are benefits to a snow-covered garden. And getting a garden back in fighting shape requires only a few simple steps.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, snow can provide some clear benefits to your garden:

It can add nutrients – Snow is sometimes called “The Poor Man’s Fertilizer” because snowflakes attract nitrogen and sulfur compounds as they fall through the atmosphere. It is then slowly released into the soil as the snow melts.

It protects plants – Snow provides excellent insulation for over-wintering plants and soil. It can also protect plants from temperature fluctuations that are common in the spring, can regulate the temperature of soil, prevent soil heaving, and can aid in water retention.

It can increase fruit and flower yields – Many plants that produce fruit and flowers require a good freeze in the winter. If the winter is cold enough to produce snow, the plants will respond by gearing up their production. In addition, snow can provide a buffer that keeps buds from popping out too early.

It provides excellent hydration – Plants and soil can suffer from the dryness of winter, especially when the ground is too frozen for watering. A blanket of snow will naturally water the soil as it melts, without needing additional watering.

While snow has its good points, you will need to wait until it’s melted before turning your attention to gardening. The same rule applies to ice. Once the ice and snow are gone, the following steps should lead you to a successful garden.

Clean-up – Gently brush off any snow remaining on plants and discard it away from the garden area. Remove any standing branches, leaves and random litter. Thoroughly dispose of any salt or other deicing agents as they can be deadly to plants.

Assess – Once you have cleaned the area, get in there and assess the condition of your plants. Inspect the leaves and pluck off any dead ones – look for those with mushy texture, or whose color has darkened. If possible, carefully check roots as well. These steps are for winter vegetables as well as other garden plants. For dormant perennials, check the plant crowns for healthy-looking growth.

Trees – To get a proper, full assessment of your trees you’ll have to wait for spring growth to appear. Until then, you can trim up broken branches with a quick clip, but do not prune heavily. At this stage, there is a danger of inadvertently removing live tissue that the tree needs to recover.

Soil – This is the time to get your soil right. The weight of snow can compact your soil, so you will want to aerate it well. Additionally, snow melt can cause soil to become saturated, so make sure you have good drainage. You may want to test your soil at this point – here are some test kit choices for you. Depending on your test results, you may want to add a soil amendment or two (we have an extensive selection here).At the very least, add some microbes - they are an advantage for any soil. Hold off on fertilizing until it’s time to plant. Lastly, you should add a fresh layer of mulch to hold onto moisture and ensure a consistent soil temperature.

Now that you have cleaned, assessed, trimmed, amended, and mulched, all you need to do is wait until the temperature is right for you to plant. Exactly when that is depends on what you are planting and where you live. There are seemingly endless articles and opinions on this topic; you will have to decide for yourself what advice to follow.(Here is a short article on when to plant.) Consulting your local Cooperative Extension Office is always a smart move (Find yours here.) But no matter when you plant, you’ll want to have a soil thermometer – they are on the same page as the soil test kits (here).

Enjoy! 

 Pam

Great New Products From A Long-Time ARBICO Partner.

Here at ARBICO Organics, we would not be able to provide consistently excellent products to our customers without the support of our trusted vendor partners. Of all these partners, BioWorks® is one of our most trusted. For 20 years now, we have been working with their knowledgeable, innovative, and professional staff to bring you a line of exceptional products that help create extraordinary plants. We have continuously carried their tried-and-true products, like SuffOil-X, MilStop SP, and Molt-X, and eagerly embrace their new products as they come along. Right now, we have two great new products to offer – Principle™ WP and EpiShield® O. Keep reading to hear more on these two, and when you get a chance, go to our vendor page for BioWorks and see the whole line of their products. One more thing: we have two additional BioWorks products in the pipeline. They will be presented here in our blog in the not-too-distant future.

                PRINCIPLE™ WP           

            

Although this is a new BioWorks product, its active ingredient is one that has been used for some time now - Beauveria bassiana (Strain BW149). This live fungus has been used for decades and its best-in-class efficacy in controlling some of the most damaging crop pests is undisputed. What makes organic Principle WP a novel product is its wettable powder formulation – it improves mixability, dissolves quickly in water, is low dust, has minimal leaf residue, no phytotoxicity, and is resistance-free. OMRI-listed Principle WP controls multiple life stages of aphids, beetles, cabbage loopers, grasshoppers, diamondback moths, mealybugs, psyllids, thrips, weevils, whiteflies, and more. It can be used in fields, landscapes, nurseries, and greenhouses. 

           

                           EPISHIELD® O                       

Omri-listed EpiShield O is a botanical insecticide and miticide made from a proprietary blend of peppermint and clove essential oils. This new formulation has been developed to provide ease of use for growers, high mortality rates of targeted insects, low application rates, no risk of resistance or residue tolerance, and various modes of action. EpiShield O has a relatively low oil content, which offers less chance of phytotoxicity and more flexibility with applications. This concentrated product can be used indoors or outdoors on a wide range of agricultural and commercial crops and is effective against aphids, mealybugs, mites, spider mites, thrips, whiteflies and more. Exempt from REI & PHI. And it smells good too!

                    Submitted by Pam