I have a few enemies at the farm. Most of them are easily conquered with my "magical" concoction of dish soap and water. As long as I apply a daily dose, I can usually keep them attacking in small enough numbers that the plant can "outgrow" them. The adult version of a plant isn't as tasty as the baby version. They eventuality give up.
This bean beetle loves my newly sprouted green bean, Lima bean, dried bean and edemame plants. Three weeks of daily soapy spray defeated them.
You may have met some of these guys or gals in your baskets. They love to chew holes in cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale leaves. If I had a small garden, I would put row covers over the plants when I put them in the ground. Row covers are expensive and a pain to work with. I have a few sheets of the netting, but I haven't mastered use of them yet. I thought my soapy spray would control these worms, but in a matter of a week, they chewed the leaves of the Brussels sprouts and broccoli down to the veins. Literally, there was NO leaf left on half of the plants. Yikes!! Time for plan B. I found a citrus spray that seems to be working. There's lots of new growth on all of those plants. I'm calling that a win.
As far as the potato beetle....still battling with my soapy water, but the plants don't look nearly as healthy as they did last year. I suspect my harvest will suffer. I have found a spray called Take Down Spray, but it may be too late for this year. I'm not calling it a win or a loss....this is a draw.
Squash bug eggs. Ugh! No problem. I removed the eggs and killed any adults I found, sang a little "I'm smarter than a squash bug" jingle and went on my way.
Bottom line....I usually win.
Here's my hit list:
I remember as a kid getting paid a dime for each one of these Colorado Potato Beetles I picked off my mom's potato plants. Back then I was sure she did it simply to get me out of her hair for hours a day...well worth the pile of dimes. I didn't realize how much damage they did to potato plants, but I'm learning. I started to battle them with soapy spray, but I was only giving a half-hearted attempt. There is only so much time in the day and the picking/washing/planting and weeding also need to be done. It seemed like the bugs went away after a few days of spraying. They didn't. They must have just gone away to get the rest of their family and friends. The numbers multiplied overnight!! I decided to fence some of the laying hens in the potato patch to eat the bugs. I don't know how many bugs they ate, but they flattened each plant out to make a nest in the middle. Not cool. We gathered all but one of those gals back up & moved them out to the pasture where they could scratch and peck away. One escaped and appeared in the garden every few days. We named her Fugitive. It took weeks, but Luke eventually caught her in the horse pasture.
The squash bug....the Devil.
This guy won our match last year and I thought I'd outsmarted him this year.
Nope.
I've been inspecting the leaves of the pumpkins, squash and cucumbers for weeks now shouting words of victory. Then I spotted these:
By the end of the day I had one dead zucchini plant. This is WAR!!!
Next day started with an early morning squash bug hunt. I geared up in my "squash bug killing" clothes, played some loud Guns 'N Roses music to pump me up, grabbed my duct tape and went into battle.
I found about 40 patches of eggs, many adult bugs and even some of these...
Babies. Devil babies!!!! I was severely outnumbered and possibly outsmarted, but I was determined. After a few hours in my squash garden, I'd gotten every egg, baby and adult I could find. WELL into the hundreds.
By the end of the day...another dead zucchini plant.
I'm losing, but not surrendering the battle. I've asked the practically 12-yr-old expert at the extension office. His advice..."Ma'am, that's what pesticides are for." Pretty sure my tax money is paying that guy's wage!!
I think I'm going to try to dust the plants with this concoction of ground up fossils. It is the only thing out there that I am willing to use. It causes death by dehydration.
Justice.
Should sprinkle some on that extension office kid........kidding:):)
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