Pestiferous Freeloaders on a Parching Friday.

[beac]

Yesterday was the Invasion of the Vegetable Snatchers in giardino beac.

The day started with the discovery of dozens of tiny caterpillars on the backs of my radish leaves. They were yellow on the side with black & white horizontal stripes on their backs. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there were also little bright green caterpillars hiding in the centers of the leaf fronts. Next I notice gillions of tiny egg clusters of an unknown critter all over my radish seed pods and what appear to be a few tiny hatchlings that looked like grey aphids.

While searching for more of these various beasts, I saw the tell-tale signs of SQUASH VINE BORERS on my yellow crookneck and then on my black beauty zucchini. ARRRGGH! I had already survived one SVB attack by digging out the larva and mounding up soil on the cut, but now it looks like his brothers and sisters are having at it, despite liberal and regular applications of diatomaceous earth to the stems. Tried the cut/mound/DE trick again with crossed fingers.

At this point I have a small container of leaves, stems, pods and drowning insects and think I'd better go check the one romanesco zucchini I have growing in the ground. Before I do, I decide I'd better get a bigger death pool since this one is nearly overflowing. When I go to grab my trusty 5-gallon bucket, out runs a positively huge hairy spider which I think was poisonous but which I squished too quickly to be sure.

Up in the in-ground garden, the zucchini is fine, but I notice my one in-ground tomato looks like it's been munched on by something quite tall. My neighbor mentioned he thought that deer were getting to his tomatoes, so I assumed I was under similar assault. I was preparing to leave the garden and retrieve the clippings from the trim I'd given mr. beac that morning to make cheese-clothed bundles of deer-repelling hair, when I spied an enormous fat TOMATO HORN WORM clinging to one of the branches. Cursing my lack of chickens, I had to settle for the pleasure of watching it drown in the bucket along with its nasty cousins.

Finally, a wasp took up residence on my hummingbird feeder and would not leave for hours. Poor birds were out of nectar, but Waspy wouldn't let me get near it to refill.

Anyone else feeling like the pests are multiplying right along with the temperatures?

[bvar22]

1. Yes.

Out of the 4 seasons we have been here (West/Central Arkansas), this has been the worst for damaging insects.
Potatoes died overnight due to beetles in the hay we used for mulch.
(Our first try at potatoes).

Lots of Hornworms

Squash Bugs everywhere/Vine borers
(I'm especially upset to hear about the re-infestation with Vine Borers....we re-planted Zucchini yesterday.)

Eggplants attacked by Flea Beetles. The leaves are full of holes (ugly), but we did managed to harvest some fruit. (Eggplant Parmesan tonight).

We have some Grape Vines that have also been hard hit by Grape Moths which leaves a small green caterpillar that seems immune to BT.

Enough to make us fantasize about using pesticides.....almost.

Add the HEAT and NO rain = Tough Year


OTOH: No mosquitoes....none.
I sit out in the evenings, and not a single mosquito bite so far this year.

Despite the above, we are having a productive year.
Berries (Rasp, Black, Blue, and Straw) did extremely well this year,
and Beans, Melons, Okra, Cukes, Asparagus all doing well.
The Tomatoes perked up and started making Tomatoes again after we gave then some mid-day shade.

[beac]

2. I wish someone could tell me what ecological function SVBs serve b/c,

as far as I can tell, they only exist to piss me off!

I'll keep my fingers crossed that your new zucchini crop won't mature until after they've quit their mischief for the year.

And sorry about your potatoes and eggplants-- how frustrating.

It does make you realize why they developed all those devastating chemical pesticides... and why organic produce costs so much more.

I wish we were sharing your no-mosquito experience too, but a couple of ponds on the property make happy breeding grounds for the little suckers. Fortunately, garlic spray seems to keep them somewhat at bay around the perimeter of the house, though a walk down to the mailbox at the end of the drive can be a nippy adventure. I got FOUR bites in the space of about one minute yesterday evening.

[hippywife]

4. I just mentioned the no skeeters business

to Bill tonight. I guess it's been too hot for them, too.

Our garden has basically gone to hell. Too hot to weed when we get home and the grass has taken over. It looks like a jungle out there. We're going to go ahead and turn the chickens out into it tomorrow. They should have it cleaned up in a really short time and maybe we can get something more planted in there.

:hi:

[MuseRider]

5. You are south of us

so I can imagine how hot it is there. It is 103 right now and we have had several weeks where the heat index has been over 100, often up to 110. It is not raining here but we water with pond water pumped up to the garden so that is no problem. Ah yes, the heat index is 108 right now. Ick.

Our main problem is that you cannot take a step outside without grasshopers flying up and around you in swarms. They are eating everything that has not been killed by the heat. Funny thing when in the Sunflower state your native, wild Sunflowers got burned out before they got over 2 feet tall. Not one single Sunflower remains. In fact all the wildflowers have burned up.

I hope your chickens take care of your grass problem :-) I still do not have any, I bet they would be in heaven here with all these hoppers.

[hippywife]

6. I just checked the temps at the local regional airport

and it's 106 with an index of 110. There is no going outside to do anything for very long except have a smoke, and a really quick one at that.

The chickens will have that garden cleared out in about a week, and they do love them bugs. You really should get a few, I just know you'd love having them. :hi:

[MuseRider]

8. It is awful!

Our temps out here in boonie land hit around 105 but the heat index was 115. Tomorrow more of the same but with more humidity. Brutal winter and this summer is not getting any better. I would kill for rain. It seems to rain all around us, we hear the thunder and watch the clouds and see the lightning but get maybe a short sprinkle. Meanwhile there are flood warnings all around us. Must be some strange high pressure dome or something. I blame Fred Phelps, we are south of Topeka but not very far. It must be his fault :-)

I would love about 6 hens. My husband knows me well enough to worry about that. Oooh look at that chicken! I want one of those! Ohhh, these are so sweet we should have more of them. I don't think they would be much of a problem, they could bunk with the goats or we could add on a roosting area. The dogs have learned to be pals with the cats and the goats so I would hope we could introduce them to baby chicks and get a good bonding. That would be helpful. I would love them. Do they eat the grass too? Don't they pick at the veggies?

[hippywife]

10. They do eat the grass and other vegetation

as well as eat lots of bugs, even the little ones we don't see like ticks and fleas. But they will eat the garden, yes. We have them isolated from it most of the time until it's time to clean it up and then they really go to work. That is a real labor saver.

Our dogs don't bother the chickens because we've worked with them to understand that these animals are like them in that we care for and keep them, make sure they have food and water, too. Our newest dog is still a pup and she has been raised around them from the start. She likes to chase them once in a while for fun but that's about it.

My husband would be happier if we kept them to about six, too, but I wanted barred rocks and some more buffs. There's really not much work to keeping 14 rather than 6 or 8. ;)

I hope you get some soon. And, yes, they would probably be fine in with the goats with a high roost to sleep on at night.

:hi:

[beac]

7. Garlic spray is a good grasshopper deterrent.

I use Mosquito Barrier (http://www.mosquitobarrier.com), mostly because I ran out of its cousin Garlic Barrier (http://www.garlicbarrier.com/)last year and still have half a bottle of MB left (a little makes a LOT of spray.) It's the same stuff, but the MB is 10x stronger.

There are also recipes on the web for DIY garlic spray. I still see a few grasshoppers here and there but, aside from holes in one pepper and a few Swiss Chard leaves, they have mostly left my garden alone. Diatomaceous Earth is a way to kill them off naturally, but you have to "powder" your plants frequently, which can be kind of a pain to keep up with.

[MuseRider]

9. Thank you!

We have the DE, for the first time ever we had slugs early on the peas. We bought it then. We can sprinkle it on without much problem, especially since rain seems to be skirting us more than not these days. It ought to last. I will try the garlic spray. I had not gotten around to really looking for a viable solution yet so now I don't have to! Thanks.

I HATE grasshoppers! I hate to kill them but I absolutely hate them almost more than any bug. Those grabby legs creep me out!

[noamnety]

3. I feel your pain.

I was looking at my pear tree last week thinking gosh, I remember there being more pears on it.

Yesterday I came home from shopping and saw a squirrel sitting under it chomping away on a pear he had picked.