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leaningright

leaningright

Moderate Republican
Staff member
Got home from KY last Friday. The bugs are about to carry my garden off. Squash bugs all over my squash plants, some little iridescent green-back bug sucking the sap (and thus the life) out of my cucumbers, ants invading my okra...it’s the invasion of the insects! Oh, and the rabbits had eaten about 1/4 of my green beans.

I dispatched the rabbit with my Ruger Airhawk pellet gun yesterday morning before going to church and have a jar with a little gasoline in it and have started picking the bugs off my squash plants and have used some liquid Sevin on my cucumbers (its several weeks before they start bearing).

IT’S FARGIN WAR!!!
 
Oh crap, how disappointing. It's too late for this year, but next year maybe if you remove all leaf litter and mulch (if you use it) around the garden.... it should help. The eggs shelter under there over the winter then hatch out for a happy feast in the spring. Also encourage birds to hang out around your place. Got neighbors with chickens? Maybe they'd let them come over for a lunch date. lol
 
leaningright said:
Got home from KY last Friday. The bugs are about to carry my garden off. Squash bugs all over my squash plants, some little iridescent green-back bug sucking the sap (and thus the life) out of my cucumbers, ants invading my okra...it’s the invasion of the insects! Oh, and the rabbits had eaten about 1/4 of my green beans.

I dispatched the rabbit with my Ruger Airhawk pellet gun yesterday morning before going to church and have a jar with a little gasoline in it and have started picking the bugs off my squash plants and have used some liquid Sevin on my cucumbers (its several weeks before they start bearing).

IT’S FARGIN WAR!!!
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Special beetles with crosses on their backs destroyed all my asparagus a couple of years back, then some creatures started laying eggs in leeks and other onion-type crops, so we had to give them up as well. The worst thing, though, is that the old people in the flats in front of us keep feeding wood-pigeons in the summer, but don't fancy it in the winter, so the bloody things come and eat all my greens. I am thinking of buying a shotgun and visiting the old people's flats! :)
 
leaningright said:
Got home from KY last Friday. The bugs are about to carry my garden off. Squash bugs all over my squash plants, some little iridescent green-back bug sucking the sap (and thus the life) out of my cucumbers, ants invading my okra...it’s the invasion of the insects! Oh, and the rabbits had eaten about 1/4 of my green beans.

I dispatched the rabbit with my Ruger Airhawk pellet gun yesterday morning before going to church and have a jar with a little gasoline in it and have started picking the bugs off my squash plants and have used some liquid Sevin on my cucumbers (its several weeks before they start bearing).

IT’S FARGIN WAR!!!
Click to expand...

Those are Japanese Beetles. They can devastate plants, especially flower buds.
 
It is all about rolling the dice. I plant a wide variety because you never know which will be victor and which will be the vanquished. Saw my first squash beetle and carpet bombed with sevin last week. Other than deer, those are my biggest garden nemesis. I find that having a healthy crop of sunflowers diverts japanese beetles away from the things I want to eat as they really really love them sunflowers to feast on and the sunflowers generally survive rather unscathed.

I do a lot of smaller plots instead on one giant garden which helps as well. If one bed falls victim to something, there is usually more of it elsewhere. I did have to build a tomato pen to keep the deer off them. I tried all the other scent stuff but nothing worked great, so have a 10 foot by 30 foot tomato kennel now :cheer: I have tomatoes just in cages other places but double rowed that thing, and am running peas, cucumbers, and Christmas beans along the fence and underplanted the tomatoes with beets and chard, so it is working thus far and serves many purposes.

I am also having a potato contest. I planted several in 5 gal. buckets and then planted a 4X8 raised bed of them super dense so I am going to see once and for all which method is better. I am rooting for the buckets because I loathe digging potatoes in July and can just dump them out when the time comes. Potatoes grown in the south just don't keep that well so I don't go overboard with them.

My corn and okra are a complete bust this year. Not sure why. too much rain maybe. I only have a handful of each coming up when I planted beaucoup more than that, but all the hot peppers seem to be smashing it again this year.
 
iolo said:
Special beetles with crosses on their backs destroyed all my asparagus a couple of years back, then some creatures started laying eggs in leeks and other onion-type crops, so we had to give them up as well. The worst thing, though, is that the old people in the flats in front of us keep feeding wood-pigeons in the summer, but don't fancy it in the winter, so the bloody things come and eat all my greens. I am thinking of buying a shotgun and visiting the old people's flats! :)
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Lol...I have a few shotguns. I’d let you borrow one. I feel your pain.
 
iolo said:
Special beetles with crosses on their backs destroyed all my asparagus a couple of years back, then some creatures started laying eggs in leeks and other onion-type crops, so we had to give them up as well. The worst thing, though, is that the old people in the flats in front of us keep feeding wood-pigeons in the summer, but don't fancy it in the winter, so the bloody things come and eat all my greens. I am thinking of buying a shotgun and visiting the old people's flats! :)
Click to expand...

I used to mix Palmolive Soap with water in one of those spray attachments for the garden hose.. Bugs seemed to hate it.. I used 7 dust, but I think the soap was more effective.
 
Jade Dragon said:
Those are Japanese Beetles. They can devastate plants, especially flower buds.
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These are quite a bit smaller than Japanese Beetles I think. Also they’re not shaped the same as the ones I have seen. I’ve been looking on the inter web for pictures of the bug but can’t find a match. This bug is about 2 mm wide by 3 or 4 mm long. Anyway, the dose of Sevin took care of them. Now to eliminate the squash bugs. I think I’m getting the upper hand.
 
leaningright said:
These are quite a bit smaller than Japanese Beetles I think. Also they’re not shaped the same as the ones I have seen. I’ve been looking on the inter web for pictures of the bug but can’t find a match. This bug is about 2 mm wide by 3 or 4 mm long. Anyway, the dose of Sevin took care of them. Now to eliminate the squash bugs. I think I’m getting the upper hand.
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A green shield bug maybe....
 
Maybe. Like I said, the Sevin took care of them. I’ve also got some cucumber beetles. Bugs are bad here this year.
 
leaningright said:
Got home from KY last Friday. The bugs are about to carry my garden off. Squash bugs all over my squash plants, some little iridescent green-back bug sucking the sap (and thus the life) out of my cucumbers, ants invading my okra...it’s the invasion of the insects! Oh, and the rabbits had eaten about 1/4 of my green beans.

I dispatched the rabbit with my Ruger Airhawk pellet gun yesterday morning before going to church and have a jar with a little gasoline in it and have started picking the bugs off my squash plants and have used some liquid Sevin on my cucumbers (its several weeks before they start bearing).

IT’S FARGIN WAR!!!
Click to expand...

tobacco dust......
 
Squash bugs usually show up if you've been planting squash/cucumbers in the same spot for years. As Owl noted, the previous year's eggs hatch and the bugs feast on the vines. You'll see holes in the vines, and the squash slowly yellows and dies.

Don't plant squash there for a few years. Where you do plant squash, also plant white icicle radishes and let them mature and go to seed. Nasturtiums planted with squash also help for some reason.

No matter the type of beetle, I just pick them off and drop them in soapy water. I've eradicated all Japanese beetles, stink bugs from my gardens by doing that. Japanese beetles are fast. They tuck and roll as soon as you touch the plant. I put the soapy water pot under the leaves, and they roll right into it.
 
kudzu said:
If you are bothered with deer, pee around your garden plants.. They will leave it alone.
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Not here, fortunately. A woman friend of my wife's is, but she has close and nosey neighbours eyeing her garden. Perhaps I should volunteer my services, but fear my presence might be mis-understood!
 
iolo said:
Not here, fortunately. A woman friend of my wife's is, but she has close and nosey neighbours eyeing her garden. Perhaps I should volunteer my services, but fear my presence might be mis-understood!
Click to expand...

LOLOL.. I always got my husband to do it.. I would have done it myself at night, but was always afraid of squatting over a snake or something.
 
The culprit...mostly, that I didn’t see the other evening when I sprayed the Sevin was revealed today. Striped cucumber beetles. Never been bothered by them before. They were lying dead by the dozen as I examined things this morning. I also saw the spotted variety on my potato vines as well as a few potato bugs. The Sevin took care of the potato bugs as well. Still haven’t identified the tiny, green-backed bug but there’s not as many of them as I first thought. They’re now dead too. No squash bugs this morning but I did scrape eggs off of four leaves. Made a funnel with the leaf and rolled them into my Gatorade bottle with a dab of gasoline on the bottom. They’re in there with their parents now. Far be it from me to be a home wrecker. ;)

I put 32+ lbs of cabbage in my crock yesterday. Should have kraut in a couple of weeks. Green beans will be ready to can next week and my tomatoes are coming on. Going to pull onions and bunch them this weekend. Potatoes still lack a couple weeks but am enjoying some new potatoes now. Busy time but I love it.

Oh, this is the first time I have planted cucumbers and squash where they are. But it has been a watermelon and cantaloupe patch the past two years. I’m sure that’s what has done the evil deed of drawing in the sap sucking bugs.
 
leaningright said:
The culprit...mostly, that I didn’t see the other evening when I sprayed the Sevin was revealed today. Striped cucumber beetles. Never been bothered by them before. They were lying dead by the dozen as I examined things this morning. I also saw the spotted variety on my potato vines as well as a few potato bugs. The Sevin took care of the potato bugs as well. Still haven’t identified the tiny, green-backed bug but there’s not as many of them as I first thought. They’re now dead too. No squash bugs this morning but I did scrape eggs off of four leaves. Made a funnel with the leaf and rolled them into my Gatorade bottle with a dab of gasoline on the bottom. They’re in there with their parents now. Far be it from me to be a home wrecker. ;)

I put 32+ lbs of cabbage in my crock yesterday. Should have kraut in a couple of weeks. Green beans will be ready to can next week and my tomatoes are coming on. Going to pull onions and bunch them this weekend. Potatoes still lack a couple weeks but am enjoying some new potatoes now. Busy time but I love it.

Oh, this is the first time I have planted cucumbers and squash where they are. But it has been a watermelon and cantaloupe patch the past two years. I’m sure that’s what has done the evil deed of drawing in the sap sucking bugs.
Click to expand...

I am holding my breathe right now on the tomatoes. Have over a hundred baseball sized or larger greens on the vine and probably 50+ smaller ones. I am praying to God, Zeus, trees, sacrificing chickens, and looking for a virgin and a volcano to ward off blossom end rot. Will be devastated if it hits me. This spring has been super wet around here which can wash the good stuff out of the soil.

Other stuff is mostly just now starting to flower other than me hot peppers. They are producing pretty good already which scares me more as I seldom have good peppers and good tomatoes in the same season. This is also my first year of no dig so not sure what to expect really.
 
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