Help! Pest Problem (pictures inside)

[brendan1836]

EDIT: Not sure why the photos aren't displaying here. You can see them all here:

http://forums.organicgardening.com/eve/ ... 1401083527

thanks....

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Hi, first year gardener here. My wife and I got a great new house and put in 4 raised beds. We went a bit overboard, but now we're having all sorts of pest (and disease?) problems :( We're in Boston and have had a very wet spring.

I read some stuff about organic pest control and mixed up a solution of neem oil and castile soap and sprayed some of the problem areas with that using a pesticide spray bottle. That was about a week ago. Not sure if it's working or not. It's rained since then, so maybe it all got washed off ?

I took a bunch of photos of our problems, I appreciate anyone who has advice. Thanks!

Zuccini. Leaves have this strange white color coming from the leave main veins. Used to be all green:
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7AUgTT_9vGI/TfP-wBaYMRI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/qtTjpHS-3GA/s800/IMG_20110611_105147.jpg[/img]


Grape Vine. Most of the vine looks ok, but some leaves have this weird "rash" on it. red bumps. some sort of disease? or insect eggs or something? It's really creepy!
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eQDUIwv47ww/TfP_EASUlNI/AAAAAAAAC-w/y_zHBNkiEO0/s576/IMG_20110611_103938.jpg[/img]



Spinach. Leaves have holes in them.
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WyWuCN8p2a4/TfP-8uNCRfI/AAAAAAAAC-k/1gB41KmDGUQ/s576/IMG_20110611_103848.jpg[/img]



Tomatoes: Small holes with yellowish edges.
[img]http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EXdCwzwrDb4/TfP_AxJpPxI/AAAAAAAAC-o/N8QP-oofvO0/s800/IMG_20110611_103914.jpg[/img]



Radishes. Something is eating ALL of the leaves on these guys!
[img]http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8lZ9UX7SxlQ/TfP_K6IrKcI/AAAAAAAAC-4/Eyp1hhT7YW4/s576/IMG_20110611_103836.jpg[/img]
[img]http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TbD9hVlXfTI/TfP_OwcUD_I/AAAAAAAAC_A/v_0tZoBzlfI/s576/IMG_20110611_103804.jpg[/img]


Cauliflower. Totally destroyed.
[img]http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Fpfn2jXTPoE/TfP_StqLhdI/AAAAAAAAC_I/fJXS_finjFs/s800/IMG_20110611_103752.jpg[/img]

[img]http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Rz7EaC3OXtw/TfP_X6Wns3I/AAAAAAAAC_M/Bm2z8_tceW4/s800/IMG_20110611_103748.jpg[/img]

Red Cabbage. Used to look great, now being eaten just like the cauliflower next to it.
[img]http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HoV0uU71Gpw/TfP_bzLs29I/AAAAAAAAC_Q/8NvUYFSTf_c/s576/IMG_20110611_103742.jpg[/img]

[img]http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HN_8v1itM9o/TfP_fZ2kSMI/AAAAAAAAC_U/FtgyVKrT07Y/s800/IMG_20110611_103731.jpg[/img]

We saw some red spider mites on some spinach (we think). But I haven't seen any other bugs or slugs, anything else near the garden except for this guy (some sorta caterpillar):
[img]http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-nWhcjYj9LlQ/TfP_ugUwCFI/AAAAAAAAC_c/0CRfA6SlJEY/s800/IMG_20110608_201000.jpg[/img]

We're super bummed out :( All these plants are just getting wrecked. I've never seen any sorta groundhog or rabbits near our house. I saw a nutria once and we have plenty of chipmunks and squirrels.

Any ideas? More Neem? Less Neem? :)

thanks!
-brendan

[brendan1836]

removed.

[cynthia_h]

Here are the webmaster's Tips & Suggestions for New Members, one of which is how to post photos on the forum. In general, you'll need an outside photo account, e.g., flickr, photobucket, for the photos as a first step, and the guidelines will show you how to encode the url to post it here.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

The silvery veins on the zucchini are normal, lots of varieties look like that.

Someone else just sent in a picture of theirs:

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... 400#207400

The bumps on the grape leaves are insect galls. Insects (often aphids or little wasps) induce the leaves to grow the little house for them to develop in. The larvae live in there very protected until they are full grown and ready to come out. They generally don't harm the plant.

Most of the damage to the plants looks like a bad case of slugs. Has it been very wet where you are? You will never see the slugs in the daytime, but you can come out at night with a flashlight and see them or you can lay down a board on your soil. Leave it a couple days, then come out in the heat of the day and lift it, slugs will probably be hiding under it.

Diatomaceous earth, sluggo, beer traps work against them. Type slug control into Search the Forum keyword box and find lots written here about them.

[brendan1836]

@cynthia: Thanks for the link. I had followed those instructions but to no avail. maybe the boards only accept certain photo hosts or something. The urls are working fine on the other board which uses the same post mark-up (ie, the [img] tags).


@rainbowgardener: SLUGS!!! You are CORRECT! Wife and I just went out with a flashlight and saw a huge brown slug munching away on a cabbage leaf, then just a couple of plants over a tiny little baby slug chewing away on another plant. (ps, yes it indeed HAS been very wet around here the last few weeks. you're good!)

Thank you so much!! I'll be researching the remedies you listed. We are thrilled to just know what it is, now we can make a plan!

thanks again!
-brendan