Monday, June 11, 2012

Garden Pests

Now that everything's in the ground and has had some time to get settled, garden talk is about pests and what to do about them. Someone mentioned having seen Japanese Beetles already. Eek! Thankfully, I haven't seen any yet this year. I was hoping to get a first bloom on all the roses before I saw the JBs and I did. Most of my neighbors treated their yards with Milky Spore late last summer, so we're hoping that staved them off. (Notice I didn't say "eliminated them.")

I bumped into a fellow gardener at the local garden center early yesterday morning. He was buying insecticidal soap because of unidentified worms on his heirloom tomatoes. I said something had eaten a few holes in my Brussels Sprouts, but couldn't find any sign of the pest -- even after having carefully examined every leaf of every plant! He said they're sneaky that way.

And, it seems like you can't go anywhere lately without hearing about bunnies--and not in a good way. They are decimating gardens everywhere--except here at Auntie K's. Neighbor Nancy lost everything except two pepper plants. It's odd that all the gardeners who have bunny damage also have dogs or cats. "They're useless," one friend lamented. I shrugged and said that now that Monty's gone, all I have is the neighborhood hawk to keep the bunny population under control. She said, "well we have coyotes and we STILL have bunny damage!" I laughed as I conceded that her coyote trumped my hawk.

What are the garden pests you're dealing with this year? Post a comment and let me know!

2 comments:

Marguerite said...

Cats are my number one pests but I seem to have foiled them this year. I also found a colorado potato beetle the other day but no eggs thank goodness. If anything happens to my tomato plants this year I'll cry.

Unknown said...

I have the same problem with hornworms and my peppers!! I hate them so much. Last year these pest ravaged my pepper plant, leaving me with a terrible sight of my garden. This year I introduced lady bugs to the equation to help get rid of some aphids. I don't to hurt them because I love all animals, even insects. My husband on the other hand, want to take his new baby, the vacuum mulcher to their nests. I didn't let him of course. Do you have any suggestions for these pesky destroyers?

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