A new Garden Invader in my state.

[journey11]

Insecticidal soap sprayed on does help repel those flea beetles. You have to keep reapplying though. They can wipe out a transplant or a seedling early on, so that's when I patrol for them. They really like turnips! Once the plant reaches a good size, I don't worry about it as much. I think they like the tender seedlings best anyway.

The grey stink bugs only started coming inside maybe 2 years ago. Catching them in the garden is so difficult, I prefer to spray a time or two just after fruit set to knock back their population, especially on my tomatoes. They hide really well too on the undersides of the leaves. It's very disappointing to finally get a ripe tomato and find that they have sucked the juices out of large areas of the skin. I can't bring myself to eat a part that they have touched and that makes for a lot of time and tomato wasted on paring.

The harlequin bugs resemble the grey stink bugs, but they prefer brassicas.

We've been dealing with the Asian lady beetles for about 15 years though. Hateful little things. I've had them land on me in my sleep and bite me. We used to find them clustered by the 100's in the corners of south-facing windows and all you could do was vacuum them, but now they've dwindled to a couple here, a couple there.

 

[Mel]

My pest problem are minimal compared to other places which I read about. The normal lack of snow cover during the winter in combination with multiple bouts of extreme cold has a lot to do with it. Frost line rumored to be at eight feet this year.
Last average frost - May 20th, by mid July the rains stop and the heat is on, then back to frost chances as early as late August Not much of a enviroment for pest or plant to develop.

Forgot to mention... 10+ inches of snow over night along with 50 mph wind gusts. No travel advised through most of the state today. Had to high step through 3ft deep snow drifts to get to my henhouse this morning.

 

[buckabucka]

Oh, sorry about the snow, Mel. Your garden season sounds a lot like ours.
Flea beetles are the reason I start all the brassicas indoors. They will do some damage every year, but as long as the seedlings have a head start, they pull through just fine.