Bugs bug me!!!

[Katie85]

Are there any suggestions on how to keep crops from being eaten by things other then you? I know there are a lot of chemicals out therebut they scare me.. I am new to fruit/veggie gardens!

 

[flowerbug]

learning about what different bugs are, which are problems and what likes to eat them. i've done well here by encouraging diversity. near or in all of the vegetable gardens i keep a few perennial plants growing so that the good bugs can have a place to live during the times when the garden is put up for the winter.

once in a while i do have a pesky bug showing up, but usually i can remove them or trim the plant back. in the worst case i'll remove the plant if it is an annual and i'm not short on seeds/etc.

 

[digitS']

Learning your bugs is a best first step.

Some people are very willing to spread a chemical on their dishes and wash them. They may even use dishsoap in the kitchen to wash their fruit and vegetables. It's not necessarily a bad idea.

Dishsoap may not be the best idea for their garden plants, however. I have found that an "insecticidal soap" is quite effective against bugs like aphids and spidermites on growing plants. In recent years, I've been using something somewhat similar, neem oil spray. Like the simpler dishsoap that I have used in the past, I find that neem oil is a little hard on plant tissue. I think that I will go back to the soap developed to be used in the garden.

Organic pesticides are usually toxic. After all, they are supposed to kill the pest so they are, at least, toxic to some life. They should be chosen for the specific pest and used cautiously. I often look to the universities for information, like at this website:

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/QT/lesstoxicinsecticidescard.html

Steve

 

[majorcatfish]

big fan of neem oil...look around bet you can find a natural/organic gardening store near you that sells it... good stuff but you have to keep up on it.

on a personal note, there are times that you have to go with a more extreme measure.. "triazicide" Cyhalothrin is an organic compound that is used as a pesticide.

 

[ninnymary]

As long as my plants are productive, I don't mind bug damage. You should see my pole beans. Leaves are so eaten up but they keep producing very well so I just let it go even though plants look kind of ugly.

Mary

 

[Zeedman]

Ditto on comments by @flowerbug and @digitS' ; the first step to controlling pests is to identify them. Most gardens have a mix of both harmful insects, and beneficial ones... indiscriminate use of poisons (even organic ones) may kill both, and do more harm than good. Even the soap spray mentioned by @digitS' (which I use often) can kill beneficial insects, since it kills most anything it is sprayed upon.

I use organic pest control, and it takes a bit of time to master. You try to eliminate conditions that harbor or attract harmful insects, while doing your best to attract & maintain beneficial insects. This can test your patience at times. Aphids, for instance, will reach a certain population in my garden before predators begin to attack them... but once the predators show, they attack vigorously, and the aphids are mostly gone two weeks later. It took several years to build up a good resident population of insect predators, but now my first response to aphids is to let them be, and let Nature have first crack at them.

It is important to identify the good insects as well as the bad ones, so you can learn how to attract them, and avoid accidentally killing them. Syrphid flies (hoverflies) feed on flowers as adults, but their larvae are voracious aphid predators, as are the larvae of lacewings and ladybugs. It is not uncommon for me to see all three feeding at the same time; it is wise to inspect aphid colonies for their presence, and hold off spraying if found.

Cowpeas & yardlong beans will attract both wasps and ladybugs (two good predators) once they begin blooming, so I grow some of them each year. The wasps keep my garden almost completely free of caterpillars. Other flowering plants will attract beneficial insects... including Queen Anne's Lace, so you might want allow some to grow nearby.

Some insects can be controlled by the use of barriers at certain times of the season; floating row covers are especially useful for this purpose. Properly timed, they can interfere with the egg-laying phase (as with SVB), or reduce pests to manageable numbers by preventing the first hatch from getting established (as with squash bugs). There are also traps designed to capture certain insects, and trap crops that can be planted to lure harmful insects away from your garden (where they can be destroyed without damage to the garden).

Some degree of insect damage in inevitable, and unless it severely damages the harvest, is probably no cause for concern. If you grow vegetables for subsistence though, or have a small garden, any amount of damage may be intolerable. If stronger measures are required: be sure to properly identify the target pest; find the least-toxic control method (one approved for vegetable use); and be sure to read & follow all directions for proper use.

 

[flowerbug]

As long as my plants are productive, I don't mind bug damage. You should see my pole beans. Leaves are so eaten up but they keep producing very well so I just let it go even though plants look kind of ugly.

Mary

yes, i've had some gardens where the first few bean leaves get holes eaten in them by some bug. i've never actually indentified it or bothered to because after those first few leaves the plants outgrow the problem (or the bugs are done with their reproductive cycle).

i haven't even noticed the past few years if it is even still a problem or not. when you have nearly an acre of gardens and many projects going on it can be a challenge to closely observe every planting.

i have to up my game this year because i do want to be a better plant observer for my beans.

oh, and another bug i've just ignored is the leaf rollers that got into the strawberries. a few plants have some bugs. i can ignore them.

the hornets/wasps keep many such bugs under control well enough (only cabbage moth is bad here that i would have to net cabbage if i were to grow it again).