Pests

(Can anyone tell me what he's doing here??)

No, I'm not talking about little brothers (nor would I).

I'm talking about potato beetles, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and whiteflies.

Thankfully, the potato beetles seem to be under control for now, mainly by hand-picking them off the tomatoes in the upper garden and off the potatoes and tomatoes in the lower garden. We still check for them, and do find a few every now and then, but nothing like the epic proportions we had a couple of weeks ago.



The stinky squash bugs, however, are another story. I looked them up on Friday, after seeing quite a few of them around a squash plant that seemed to die before my eyes. So on Saturday morning, 17yo daughter and I hand-picked literally hundreds of the smelly critters off our remaining squash plants. (They stink. My hands still smelled like them this morning, even after washing them in a tomato-based product, in lemon juice, in homemade soap, in shampoo, and countless regular handwashings!) We then sprayed with a potion Keith concocted based on a couple of recipes from Organic Gardening, I believe, and we "powdered" with self-rising flour and diatomaceous earth. It was a critical time, and we had to use everything in our arsenal that might possibly help. I dreaded going out this morning to assess the damage, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Although I'm sure there were more of the odiferous bugs than we saw, the legions had been reduced drastically. There are many eggs, and we're continuing our control efforts, but much positive progress has been made. (Did I mention that they stink?)

We've seen a few cucumber beetles, but not too many. However, we attack the ones we see, generally while we're getting the squash bugs. I understand the larvae of these can be a real problem, but hopefully, prayerfully, we'll not have many, and they'll be manageable.



I've seen a couple of whiteflies, but figure there are many more somewhere, or will be soon.

Five days ago, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of these critters. I feel that we're well acquainted with them, now. I'm amazed at how much I am learning each year--each month--each week--about gardening and about God's world that He has placed under our care.

Mary Susan