Lazy pest control

[JC's Garden]

The hunt.

There is an aphid 2/3 the way down on that snow pea.

[imafan26]

For the most part, I only treat when necessary and let the garden patrol do most of the work. The only exceptions are the snails and slugs which I am constantly at war with. I caught one yesterday that was over 4 inches long and I couldn't crush it stepping on it , so I had to hit it with my hoe matic.

[rainbowgardener]

OMG... there is a price for living in paradise! If I ever saw a snail four inches long, I would RUN!

[JC's Garden]

My sugar snap peas shut down last week due to age and powdery mildew. They had quit blooming so I cleared them out before rain set in Thursday night. There was some powdery mildew on the snow peas but I still had blooms. It rained until Saturday morning. We've had over 11 inches in the last two weeks. No hope of controlling the powdery mildew. Picked snow peas this morning, first pick since rain started on Thursday. Got about a dozen. I was getting over 1/4 pound a day. The green pea aphids are still there so, the snow peas will stay in place for the ladybugs to forage. My wife was looking at them with me and made a comment about how fat some of the ladybugs were. I had to explain she was not looking at one, but two ladies and that one was a guy. Garden patrol is off to a good start.

[applestar]

Fantastic! I love hearing about these success stories.

(...and that's cute that you and your wife were talking about the birds and the bees -- er... the Ladies and Gents beetles )

[j3707]

(Ha, applestar!)

This is a great discussion everyone, thanks. I am of the "lazy" gardening mindset myself and it's great to hear your experiences.

[JC's Garden]

Sitting on the back porch watching sparrows in my snow peas, eating ladybugs. The ladybugs have done well in there and have now spread throughout the garden. Almost got up to run the sparrows off but I need them too. A hummingbird came to a feeder near my head as I was typing. I love spring.

[JC's Garden]

I made a post on April 4th about "Cutworms killing my Mache/Corn Salad". Got some good suggestions but I was busy and didn't follow through. Good thing. It turns out that the sparrows that were attracted to my ladybugs also like cutworms. Problem solved, the lazy way. Now, for the first time, I have a young Bluebird going after the Pea Aphids also. This little Bluebird is not afraid of me at all. I was standing in the middle of the snow peas while on the phone and it came right in there with me. The fellow I was talking to had a question about Meyer lemon trees and I moved over to mine. That dang Bluebird came with me. I was just out in the snow peas again and back it comes. I watched for a while. That little guy can eat some bugs. I love it.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah we have a pair of eastern bluebirds. They are actually nesting in a house our next door neighbor put up, but spend a lot of time in our yard. I love watching them. I have been putting Japanese beetle grubs I dig up on top of our woodpile (which is at the fence line near their bird house) and the bluebirds snatch them up.

[applestar]

Haha that's great!

I'm watching the returning "regulars". Have been checking the birdhouses and evicting wasps and spiders.

I also have to finish spring pruning and clearing before they start to nest.

[JC's Garden]

Well, here I sit, lazily waiting for the native bees and wasp to call it a day.
A lot has changed since April. The ladybugs I had been counting on, disappeared over a month ago. Flea beetles, fruit worms, leaf footed bugs and such are abundant. I've had to use bT twice and diatomaceous earth once. I'm about to dust with diatomaceous earth again.
Like it or not, sometimes you've just got to step in.
Not liking it.

[JC's Garden]

Way too many to be lazy. Had to break out the DE.

Sometimes "lazy" doesn't work.

[applestar]

Leaffoot juvies -- blecch! I found an adult one on a blackberry I was picking. I didn't recognize it at first... I didn't recognize it after I stomped on it either.

[JC's Garden]

Leaffoot juvies -- blecch!

LOL, that's how I felt. Most of the time the adults are too scattered to dust without hurting my pollinators. I generally go after them with an old pair of barber's scissors. They're dumb and slow.

[JC's Garden]

Still have leaf foot juvies. I'm just playing patty cake with them. They squish so easy it doesn't take enough force to hurt the plants.

Saw a couple of my buddies in the garden while picking butter beans.

Leaf cutters are fine predators to have. The damage they do isn't enough to harm the plant.

Can you see my other buddy in the middle of this one.

[applestar]

Subject: 2016 Backyard bird and butterfly (and dragonfly too) watchin

I saw this post and was thinking hm... I really haven't seen any praying mantises around, but they HAVE to be here somewhere....

Haha almost right away, came across one hiding in the trellis for the Cherry tomatoes


...the rest of the collage are some of the caterpillars...

I was wondering if I was being over-confident to leave those two healthy-looking hornworms on the tomato plant yesterday.

Well, this morning, the big one was nowhere to be found, and the smaller one was left behind bleeding after having been bitten in half (maybe the bird will come back for it later)

[JC's Garden]

Nice hornworm pic applestar.

Today I've had to start lazy gardening because of my lazy pest control. I was going to put some spent plants in the compost pile.

Can't pull my butter peas up until I know what to do about the wingless wasp on them. Already posted about that.

Can't pull my soybeans up because of all the little globs of yellow eggs. I started on it, started seeing the eggs and then I found a little hellion looking thing crawling up my arm. Had orange markings on its back. Put it on a mint plant. Then I found a purple ladybug on my hand.

I think I'll sit back and wait for while.