I broke the blog.......I don't understand why the stuff from the sidebar is at the bottom, now....Anybody got any ideas?
If you plant a garden, there's one thing for sure - harmful pests will find it, and thwart all of your efforts of having a successful garden (if not dealt with). Well, my battle has just begun, and I consider myself to be the champion of my dreaded nemesis....The Squashbug. These bugs show up quite early in the season, and start reproducing like crazy. The biggest problem - carbaryl (sevin) won't kill the adult, so I choose to eradicate them manually. Yes, I climb right in there with the plants, and search diligently for adults, and also the eggs they lay on the undersides of leaves on a daily basis. Sure...it's alot of work, but very effective - and I don't eradicate my pollinting bees in the process. If you detect them early, you can kill the adults before they are able to reproduce (this is a good thing!). Anyway, after browsing the plants the other day, I found a total of 5. The first 2 were on my butternut squash plants in the 18 gallon swc, and they were doing "the happy dance", before I abruptly interrupted them. Ha! They don't look so happy now! BTW, my fingernails are always dirty.....sigh.
Photo below - here's 2 more, that were copulating on one of the zucchini plants.
Photo below - here's 2 more, that were copulating on one of the zucchini plants.
Here's one by itself, that was on a crookneck plant. It was off with it's head, as well...heh.
Here is a bug that I found, and haven't identified yet. I saw tons of these last year....
Leaf hopper, which is a sucking insect.
Mysterious bug on the corn....It's not a click beetle, but i'll find out what it is.
Lastly, Here is a welcomed sight in the garden. An assassin bug, which pierces it's prey - then sucks the juices out. Cool! It even had a tiny baby beside it, and they love aphids....
In gardening news, I pulled the cabbage today, because 3 of the plants had rotten stems. I figured it was best to harvest it, than to have more get damaged. The heads of cabbage brought my total harvest weight up to more than 31 lbs. The homemade sauerkraut will start fermenting this weekend! Woo Hoo!
In closing, I'd like to say thanks to all of the readers who left encouraging comments for me on the tomato post. I feel better about it already! Yay!
Take care, and happy gardening!
EG
16 comments:
Hey EG,
Thanks for the post about the garden bugs. Found it very informative.
hmm, not sure what happened with the side bar. Maybe you could remove what was added last and it will go back up. You should post a question on the blogger help about it, that's what I usually do and someone always helps out:
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-troubleshoot/topics
That is some array of bug photos and that assassin bug is cool looking. The unidentified beetle might be a Japanese Beetle.
EG, try clicking on "customize" at the top right of the blog page then dragging the page elements from the bottom back to the side.
You're welcome, Toni
Dan - it's a problem with one of the gadgets...I've posted a question in the help group, thanks!
Amy - it won't let me do that....
Last year I heard so many bloggers complain about squash bugs. So far I haven't been invaded. I hope it stays that way. Right now I'm just handpicking cucumber beetles and squishing their eggs. It isn't even on the cucumbers. The beetles love my tomatillos.
I was just complaining to Granny that her harvest weight is way out of my league and yours is so much higher. I still have weeks before the cabbage harvest, though mine will be smaller. I only have 3.
WOW EG - what a cornucopia of creepy crawlies you have there! I love that you're focused on not harming the bees so you're eliminating the bad bugs manually at this point! You're a closet tree-huggin' redneck, aren't you? LOL.
I've got a floating row cover over all of my squash plants right now, but I think it might be causing some problems. If I ever get a chance to post on my own blog (hopefully tonight) I'll be seeking help!
Thanks for the close ups, they're very helpful.
Daphne - I have so many bugs, it's unreal! Psst...me and granny are having "windowsill wars" later.
Kate - I really care about my bees, and will do whatever it takes to protect them.
Peel - The floating row cover will not keep the squashbugs out, i'm afraid...You're welcome on the photos!
You've got a bug zoo going on there.
I'm with you on the killing the eggs and adults. Good focused pest management.
I remember the first time I managed to really recognize eggs on my plants. It felt like a whole new step up in knowledge. Keeping the bees healthy is a huge deal, and who wants to eat Sevin anyhow? Ugh.
I'm with the others who said that one bug looks like a Japanese beetle. Pheromone traps work pretty well on them. Ugh ugh ugh.
We don't get the exuberant variety of insects here that I used to in Tennessee, thank the heavens, but we get all the standard garden nasties.
I had read to put row covers over the plants starting from when they emerge from the soil until they start flowering in order to fend off the bugs for as long as possible. You don't think that will work? I would think if you had the plants covered during mating time when they would be laying eggs you could avoid squash bugs and SVB.
Squash bugs! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Say it isn't so, EG. Just say it isn't so. :(
Ewww, great post. Bugs. I still have leaf miners, and may have something munching my cukes, but I pretty much have the cabbage leaf moth problem under control.
Great bug catching EG. Did it help they were distracted by the doing the squash bug hibbidy-dibbidy? ;) Bugs are so tricky...we are desperate to take out the bad ones but preserve the peacemakers & beneficials. My family thinks I am nuts for storing things in tupperware until I can get a firm ID. I commend your drive to do it all by hand, that takes much time and patience! Happy bugging!!
Your pictures are really great! And so many insects so early in the season...
Glad to know that I am not the only one to wade right in among the plants to kill the bad bugs! I am usually armed with a little tub of soapy water to drown them in.
Works great on all kinds of bugs and beetles, but it is important to figure out in advance which are good and which are bad.
Oh, I hate those annoying garden pests. Our tomatoes are getting an ever growing population of aphids. Time for a good blast from the hose.
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