Posted on 04/28/2012 6:03:19 AM PDT by orsonwb
Learn how to utilize a technique called Integrated Pest Management to control pests in our garden...
(Excerpt) Read more at howdogardener.com ...
Zombie rabbits are the worst.
Stinkbugs must put a lot of store in their repulsive stench when squashed, I guess.
They’re so slow and ponderous, they’re almost like some prehistoric throwback.
A couple of years ago I saw some tomato horn worms, (big green things) with white cocoons stuck all over it. Turns out the Braconid wasp was responsible.
The wasp injects the worm with the larvae and they feed on the worm. I actually managed to capture some pics of the wasps emerging from the worms.
Death the horn worms! Actually the worms were on a Passion flower plant, not our tomatoes.
I suspect that many gardeners consider any bug to be a bad bug and then start “spraying.”
I recently learned about the assassin bug, which looks like a very sinister garden pest with a long proboscis, but actually uses it to impale other harmful insects and sucks out their innerds.
Not me. I wish I knew the dance I could do to communicate to the bees in my front yard flowers that there are blooming cherry trees in the back yard that need pollinating.
Last season I experimented with a hotsauce/murphy oil soap concoction vs using pesticides.. It worked fine for me. I had to cover my lettuce with a mesh netting to keep the wasps/hornets from their daily take.
Local DFW organic guy Howard Garrett’s website: http://www.dirtdoctor.com. He’s advocated IPM for years. Trichogramma wasps, Ladybugs, Green Lacewings, etc. to battle the bad bugs. Texas is using the Phorid fly to kill Fire Ants.
Around here we call them tobacco worms lol
Always fun to show a young one their first one,,,they
can get pretty darn big and eat a pretty good part of
a leaf if I get late on a spraying Orthene
The more I study organic gardening, the more I'm convinced that is the way to go. It is more expensive and time consuming to set up but the payoff is in the years following of no tilling or fertilizers.
Garden ping?
” I actually managed to capture some pics of the wasps emerging from the worms”.
That sounds like a scene from “Alien”.
I looked and saw that whatever it was was moving. What it turned out to be were two tiny praying mantis that must have been taken by the breeze.
We relocated them on to a blueberry bush. We bought some mantis eggs about 15-20 years ago and have had them in the yard ever since.
My bees didn't touch my wisteria, they left that to the bumblebees and others, yet they covered the holly when it bloomed, which the larger bees didn't touch. Honey bees don't work red clover at all, but are all over the white and yellow clovers.
I’m a big fan of Diatomaceous earth. Its a completely non toxic controller of many insect pests and can even be used for de-worming of pets. I have a bag of it on my porch that’s rated for food grade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth
One of God’s little miracles.
Chipmunks suck. Yeah, they try to look cute but they can destroy a garden in nothing flat!!
This windy hot dry weather in centex keeps the bugs off, but it dessicates the plants. Even the ones at my favorite nursery are dried out and not wanting to flower.
Speaking of stink bugs one somehow invaded my ice maker and I almost drank it down in my coke.It crunched like a piece of plastic. Very disgusting.
Fortunately, deer are susceptible to lead poisoning and are good eatin".
Poison ivy is evil.
Assassin bug are pretty cool and among other things they eat stink bugs.
You got that right. I don't have a garden, but the chipmunks here chewed a bunch of holes in the siding on my house. They weren't trying to get in, just eating the siding.
When I repainted the house, the remaining survivors appear not to like the taste of the paint and stopped with the chewing.
Wow, those are hunger chipmunks!!
Mine just make tunnel in my gardens, veggie and flower, and eat the plants from underneath!!
I also hate powdery mildew!! I have NO luck with squash, cucumbers, or melons. I get one or two, then the mildew hits and that’s the end. Keep rotating between raised beds, but that doesn’t help.
Hungry? Not likely. With all the birdseed they eat it is a wonder they aren't too fat to move. They are just evil.
If the cats are inside, the chipmunks parade up & down in front of the window to tease them.
If the cats are out, the chipmunks are nowhere to be seen, but I worry about the cats getting run over.
How do you use it? I have a bag of it but not sure what to do. About half my garden has been eaten up. Our yard has been complete organic since we built our house, but this is my first vegetable garden. The bugs are having a nice feast but we haven’t gotten much :-( I tried using Howard Garret’s Garret juice but I think the bugs liked it as a dressing for the lettuce!
I’m not saying this will work for you but it’s cheap and pretty much harmless to humans and did work for me.
Look in your garden and flower beds and find any plant or weed leaves and flowers that aren’t being eaten, pick some and make a puree of them in a blender, add some red pepper, black pepper, garlic cloves, fish emulsion and water, put in hose end sprayer and water your plants with the mix. I used marigold leaves, mum parts, dandelion and other weeds I found around the garden.
LOL. Oh forgot to add I threw a cheap cigar in the mix for good measure.
You can use it to dust your plants with a duster or mix it with water as a spray. I also mix a little in with potting soil before planting plus you can spread it on the ground to control snails and slugs.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5049476_use-earth-safely-pest-control.html
I’ve heard of making a tea of tomato plants and spraying it to keep the critters at bay. Obviously it won’t work with tomatoes but they have few pests anyway.
Thank you! I’ll try these ideas.
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