Caffeine and Bird houses are good insect control.

[Gary350]

Caffeine is poison to insects. Put about 2 drops of dish soap in some coffee mix well then spray it on your plants. Soap makes the coffee stick to the plant leaves.

Bird houses are good insect control I have 12 bird houses and never have insects. I read online Wrens eat 2 times their body weight in bugs every day.

If you have trouble with birds pecking holes in your tomatoes in hot weather they are thirsty. Put pans of water every where in the garden if birds can drink water they will not peck your tomatoes. Birds are lazy just like people make it easy to get a drink of water you won't have a problem with birds.

Turtles are my biggest problem in the garden they can climb just about anything. Once they finally climb over the 4' tall chain link fence they eat squash, young melons, and tomatoes. I find turtles 3' off the ground they use the tomato plans and tomato cage to climb up to the nearest tomato to eat it. If I find several tomatoes with 1 side half eaten I start looking for a turtle.

[pinksand]

Sounds like I need to invest in some more birdhouses! I have wrens in my current birdhouse and a cardinal nest in one of my bushes, but that's all I've found. We do however have a ton of bird visitors at our feeders!

I like the coffee idea and currently have some little red insects doing a number on a huge variety of my plants so I'll give it a try! The damage seems mostly cosmetic but it's very frustrating nonetheless.

Thanks for the tips

[rainbowgardener]

TINY red insects could be spider mites.

Little red insects like this:



Hugely magnified:


are the adult form of chiggers. The larvae of these swarm and chew up your skin, leaving a whole line of nasty bites that last for days. The red spidery looking adults do eat and live on plant material.

[applestar]

Wait, that's not a red velvet mite? I thought red spider mites are more rounded and maybe satiny/glossy....

Also some of the predatory mites are reddish too... larger and more visible than the peer mites they are consuming... fast moving.

I heard there is an outbreak of chiggers next town over -- they are actually in the Pine Barrens and sandy soil -- more of a chigger habitat, or so I heard, but I don't think I've seen one (knock on wood).

[pinksand]

They aren't really tiny, they're smaller than a lady bug, but definitely larger than a mite... probably just a little larger than an aphid. I want to say they look a bit like a milkweed bug in their nymph phase, but can't be since my milkweed hasn't been touched! I'll try to catch one and get a photo or at least a better description. They scurry away and hide under or in the crevices of the leaves whenever they see me, unlike japanese beetles or aphids that seem to just sit there waiting to get crushed! I've seen this behavior in the milkweed bugs too... which is making me second guess myself but I'm 95% sure it's more red than orange and the stippling effect is different than the munched appearance of the milkweed.

They leave a brown stippling effect on the leaves. The leaves most effected seem to curl a bit and look kind of withered. They seem most drawn to new leaves. I've seen the effect on my mac hydrangea, anemone, brunnera, turtlehead, black eyed susans... seemingly random plants to me at least!

[applestar]

Stippling effect -- have you seen perfectly round tiny black/grey dots on leaves? They may merge together into blotches. Those are caused by adult Fourlined Plant Bugs. Their nymphs are bright red. Initially, they are tiny and youngest growing shoots infested look pale and puckered/pinched. Nymphs are easier to catch since they snuggle in the folds of the youngest top buds, but adults will scuttle under leaves and jump off if you even cast a shadow.

I see them first on my mints and oregano, but they will also affect other plants like clover, rudbeckia/black eyed susan.....

[pinksand]

Stippling effect -- have you seen perfectly round tiny black/grey dots on leaves? They may merge together into blotches. Those are caused by adult Fourlined Plant Bugs. Their nymphs are bright red. Initially, they are tiny and youngest growing shoots infested look pale and puckered/pinched. Nymphs are easier to catch since they snuggle in the folds of the youngest top buds, but adults will scuttle under leaves and jump off if you even cast a shadow.

I see them first on my mints and oregano, but they will also affect other plants like clover, rudbeckia/black eyed susan.....

YES! That is most definitely them. I've been seeing their nymphs and haven't particularly noticed any adults yet. It's the first year I've ever noticed them in my garden.

Do you think the coffee trick would work on them? They scuttle so fast I wonder if the birds wouldn't be too much help with keeping their population in check.