ThatOwlWoman (06-04-2018)
Got home from KY last Friday. The bugs are about to carry my garden off. Squash bugs all over my squash plants, some little iridescent green-back bug sucking the sap (and thus the life) out of my cucumbers, ants invading my okra...it’s the invasion of the insects! Oh, and the rabbits had eaten about 1/4 of my green beans.
I dispatched the rabbit with my Ruger Airhawk pellet gun yesterday morning before going to church and have a jar with a little gasoline in it and have started picking the bugs off my squash plants and have used some liquid Sevin on my cucumbers (its several weeks before they start bearing).
IT’S FARGIN WAR!!!
ThatOwlWoman (06-04-2018)
Oh crap, how disappointing. It's too late for this year, but next year maybe if you remove all leaf litter and mulch (if you use it) around the garden.... it should help. The eggs shelter under there over the winter then hatch out for a happy feast in the spring. Also encourage birds to hang out around your place. Got neighbors with chickens? Maybe they'd let them come over for a lunch date. lol
kudzu (06-04-2018)
Special beetles with crosses on their backs destroyed all my asparagus a couple of years back, then some creatures started laying eggs in leeks and other onion-type crops, so we had to give them up as well. The worst thing, though, is that the old people in the flats in front of us keep feeding wood-pigeons in the summer, but don't fancy it in the winter, so the bloody things come and eat all my greens. I am thinking of buying a shotgun and visiting the old people's flats!
ThatOwlWoman (06-05-2018)
It is all about rolling the dice. I plant a wide variety because you never know which will be victor and which will be the vanquished. Saw my first squash beetle and carpet bombed with sevin last week. Other than deer, those are my biggest garden nemesis. I find that having a healthy crop of sunflowers diverts japanese beetles away from the things I want to eat as they really really love them sunflowers to feast on and the sunflowers generally survive rather unscathed.
I do a lot of smaller plots instead on one giant garden which helps as well. If one bed falls victim to something, there is usually more of it elsewhere. I did have to build a tomato pen to keep the deer off them. I tried all the other scent stuff but nothing worked great, so have a 10 foot by 30 foot tomato kennel now I have tomatoes just in cages other places but double rowed that thing, and am running peas, cucumbers, and Christmas beans along the fence and underplanted the tomatoes with beets and chard, so it is working thus far and serves many purposes.
I am also having a potato contest. I planted several in 5 gal. buckets and then planted a 4X8 raised bed of them super dense so I am going to see once and for all which method is better. I am rooting for the buckets because I loathe digging potatoes in July and can just dump them out when the time comes. Potatoes grown in the south just don't keep that well so I don't go overboard with them.
My corn and okra are a complete bust this year. Not sure why. too much rain maybe. I only have a handful of each coming up when I planted beaucoup more than that, but all the hot peppers seem to be smashing it again this year.
kudzu (06-04-2018), ThatOwlWoman (06-04-2018)
iolo (06-05-2018)
Mott the Hoople (06-10-2018), ThatOwlWoman (06-05-2018)
These are quite a bit smaller than Japanese Beetles I think. Also they’re not shaped the same as the ones I have seen. I’ve been looking on the inter web for pictures of the bug but can’t find a match. This bug is about 2 mm wide by 3 or 4 mm long. Anyway, the dose of Sevin took care of them. Now to eliminate the squash bugs. I think I’m getting the upper hand.
Jade Dragon (06-04-2018), ThatOwlWoman (06-05-2018)
leaningright (06-04-2018)
Maybe. Like I said, the Sevin took care of them. I’ve also got some cucumber beetles. Bugs are bad here this year.
Mott the Hoople (06-10-2018)
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