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hendi_alex
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Pest Control - something to think about

Last week I noticed a squash bug on my zucchini, during one of my several per day garden walks. Upon closer inspection there were two or three single squash bugs and two or three pairs which were mating. The bugs were promptly squished! So here is my food for thought. This is early season, those 6-10 bugs were killed and there has been no additional sign of other bugs in the few days since. If not for close observation and quick action on eliminating the bugs, how many bugs do those 4 or 5 pair really represent? Seems to me that the six to ten bugs squished early in the season, if left alone, could have given rise to hundreds or even thousands of progeny by season's end.

The moral to the story for me is pretty obvious. When the bugs just start to infest, it is pretty easy to pick and squish when there are only a few on any plant. And early detection and action against them could be the difference of whether or not the garden has a major infestation later.

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veteran
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Excellent point, avoidance is probably the best corrective action. I try to do pesticide free gardening, so my theory is if I stop the bugs from ever reaching the garden then I should be fine. My outdoor garden is in the middle of a cement area, so I powder the cement with pesticide killer. Of course, flying critters and all, some will still reach the garden, but I think of it as making what could be a huge problem into a little one.

I think this is also one good reason for raised beds. Cover the entire yard in pesticides and let the garden flourish without worry. It is definitely time to fix the problem before it becomes a problem though. Last year I spared the life of one or two gnats on my indoor garden, and the result was about 10,000.

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hendi_alex
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I as well try not to use pesticides in the garden. Really try to use very few pesticides at all, though do treat fire ant mounds from time to time and also when necessary use pesticides on my orchids in the greenhouse. But I'm wondering, if you are so liberal with pesticides throughout the yard, how can you consider the garden to be reasonably pesticide free? Sure nothing is being applied directly to the garden, but the drift and migration of the pesticide and its by products IMO would likely be found throughout the yard, including the garden. To me that is perfectly o.k. as long as the gardener understands that residual pesticide is likely in the garden.

I plant a very diversified array of flowers and vegetables and plant them in an intensive or inter-planted kind of way throughout the yard. The yard has a healthy mix of predators with all of the various plant eaters. The flowers and other vegetation often attract the plant piercing bugs away from the veggie garden. Any way, I think this diversified habitat plus aggressive pest management by picking early causes my garden to rarely have infestations to the point that plants are overwhelmed or that I'm tempted to rely on some kind of insecticide.

garden5
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That's a good point, Hendi. I never really thought about it before, but those mating bugs could potentially give way to huge numbers of offspring. All the more reason for us gardeners to get an early start on our gardening.



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