mediaOrganic » Pests

Earwigs!

john — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:47:17 +0000

So we went to pick our sole surviving cauliflower today and the damn thing is infested with earwigs. I mean an entire nest of the suckers. I pulled up the entire plant, started shaking it and it started raining earwigs. We then dunked the cauliflower in a bucket of water and more creatures floated to the surface. By this time we’d pretty much lost our appetite for this particular cauliflower and decided that the chickens deserved a special treat. Yummy, earwigs and cauliflower. To a chicken this is fine dining.

Japanese Beetles

john — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:47:35 +0000

Well the beetles are back. Just look at what they did in a day to my poor eggplant. This season is truly turning into a battle royale between me and nature’s pests. Unfortunately, the pests are winning most of the battles.

Japanese Beetle Trap and Bait
The following bait and trap method is to be used during the height of the Japanese Beetle season.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 mashed banana
1 pkg yeast

grasshoppers!

john — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:18:19 +0000

My garden is overrun with tiny grasshoppers! So far they have decimated my marigolds, kale, chard, raab and beans. Oh my poor beans, 45 plants and not a single one survived long enough to get it’s first set of leaves. I did try row covers last week before all seeds had all emerged but I fear that I merely trapped the little buggers in there with a feast.

We are now experimenting with garlic oil spray on kale and marigolds. We are also going to try a bean experiment. In the first part of our experiment we will re-seed half the row and spray the top of the soil with garlic oil in the hope that this will disperse the pests. After a few days we will then replace the row cover. I will start some seeds in the greenhouse and spray with garlic oil when I transplant. We will see if either of these methods proves effective.

Garlic Spray
Target insects: Aphids, cabbage loopers, grasshoppers, June bugs, leafhoppers, mites, squash bugs, slugs and whiteflies. May also help to repel rabbits! Never use oils sprays on Blue Spruce as it will remove the blue waxy coating on the needles! Because garlic contains naturally occurring sulfur it also acts as an antibacterial agent and fungus preventative.

To make: Combine 3 ounces of minced garlic cloves with 1 ounce of mineral oil. Let soak for 24 hours or longer. Strain.
Next mix 1 teaspoon of fish emulsion with 16 ounces of water. Add 1 tablespoon of castile soap to this.
Now slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic oil. Kept in a sealed glass container this mixture will stay viable for several months. To use: Mix 2 tablespoons of garlic oil with 1 pint of water and spray.
When working with oil sprays you want to monitor the climate conditions so your plants won’t get phytotoxic burn. Use this simple equation: Take the current outdoor Fahrenheit temperature then add to this the percentage of humidity, if the total is more than 140 don’t spray.
Example: Temperature of 80 degrees plus humidity of 67 percent equals 147, don’t spray. You also do not want to spray when temps are above 80F.

Pests, pests, and more pests

john — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:49:04 +0000

Ahh the challenges of gardening. I sprayed everything with BTK this morning. I hate doing this because it is fatal to butterfly larvae but we have what’s become an annual infestation of winter moths larvae and canker worms. Not sure the BTK will be effective since it is from last year and may not have overwintered well in the garage. We shall see.

caught in the act!

john — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:45:07 +0000

I’ve been wondering what’s been at my lettuces. I finally have the visual proof. If you see one of these in your garden proceed with caution! They can get nasty when their grazing is disturbed.

boxwood psyllid

john — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:25:37 +0000

While perusing my garden this week I noticed that all of my boxwoods were covered in dandruff and that the leaves were cupped. If I shook the plant it would snow and the ground below would be covered in a fine white film. I jumped on the internet and discovered that my plants were infested with the boxwood psyllid, a common pest that does little damage to the plant unless the infestation is massive. It is too late to address the problem this season. Next season I will have to take preventative measures in late April before they hatch.

use btk to kill winter moths and canker worms

john — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:46:58 +0000

They’re baaaaack! And apparently here to stay. Every spring, winter moths and canker worms appear and begin eating their way through the landscape just as the trees and shrubs have leafed out. They are more than a nuisance as they can completely denude an adult tree forcing the tree to produce a second round of foliage. This puts a lot of stress on the plant. Over time this can lead to plant death. My serviceberry seems to be a favorite target as are the oaks and maples.

There’s not much I can do about the adult trees short of calling in a tree service. For my shrubs and smaller trees I have had good success the a biological insecticide called BTK (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki ). It is naturally-occuring bacterium that kills specific types of caterpillars but is generally considered safe to other animals, even those that eat the caterpillars. As with all pesticides, you should follow standard safety protocols when using it. Wear goggles, protective clothing and a dust mask and spray on a calm day. There are some groups that question the safety of BTK. A good article from Purdue University on the safety of BTK can be found here. If you search the web on “btk safety” you will find quite a few entries from reliable and authoritative sources.