Tuesday, July 26, 2011

controlling pests



i might be the only gardener out there that sinks into a deep, dark hole when pests begin taking control of the garden. thoughts like, "why do i even spend my time doing this?!" and "i hate my life!" are pretty common when i find holes in leaves or shriveled fruit on the vine. thankfully, the garden is a team-effort & my husband is much more level-headed.


well, a similar episode occurred in the garden this weekend. we left for a family reunion & returned only two days later to an aphid & caterpillar attack! usually, aphids (pictured above) are not so bad. in our case, we were not so lucky. thousands of aphids took cover under our lush pumpkin leaves & began their trek of multiplication toward our butternut & acorn squash plants. after a minor panic attack on my part, my husband & i took action.


making a clean cut with our pocket knife, we removed every leaf & blossom within contact of the aphids. i noticed two pumpkins that were beginning to shrivel on the vine. after much research on aphids, i found that aphids can carry viruses that will stunt the growth of various fruits, especially squash & melon. another interesting observation was the pack of ants hovered around the aphids. although at the time we believed the ants were on our side, they actually act as a protector for aphids. aphids & ants have a working partnership... how frustrating! a great way to prevent aphids is actually to rid your garden of ants, too. creating an insecticidal soap or garlic spray will do the job, too.



unfortunately, our pest issues were not over. after our episode with aphids, we soon noticed caterpillar droppings on the leaves of our tomato plants. we took action immediately, checking each leaf & stem of our tomatoes.


we found five caterpillars & squished them relentlessly as they cried, "mercy!"


the moral of the story is, of course, keeping a close eye on your garden as a key to controlling pests. that, & keeping an insecticidal soap close by just in case aphids begin taking refuge under your beautiful pumpkin leaves.


recipe for insecticidal soap
1 to 2 tablespoons liquid soap
1 to 2 heads of garlic
1 quart of water


mix & add to a spray bottle clearly labeled.

14 comments:

  1. It keeps stink bugs off of peach trees too. I sprayed every week and was rewarded with beautiful peaches...finally! xx

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  2. would this work for slugs too? they are eating a lot of my sunflowers.

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  3. I have had a lot of trouble with caterpillars eating my cabbage! I've sprayed with soapy water but I had not heard of adding garlic to it. I will try that this afternoon. A couple of my heads of cabbage are badly damaged now even though I go pick the caterpillars off every morning. I can relate to your first sentiments! Pests problems plus plants lost to bad weather are the worst things to deal with for me.

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  4. Do you spray this on the entire plant, fruit/veggie and all?

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  5. hi, friends. to answer a few of your questions...
    i do not have experience with slugs. in this region, slugs are not an issue. i might ask amy (she posts on friday). also, we spray the entire plant including the fruit. this spray will not harm the fruit if it is simply sprayed & not drenched.

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  6. you are hilarious, "I hate my life!". that's how I feel, too, when bugs eat/kill my plants. thanks for the handy recipe.

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  7. After reading this I went straight to the garden and inspected everything! I discovered we have WAY more aphids in the kale patch than I thought. I cut off a lot of leaves and will be making insecticidal soap as soon as we get some garlic. Thank you for the recipe!

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  8. Thanks SO very much for the recipe - we've been having issues here too - yuck!

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  9. I had a couple of tomato plants that were attacked by aphids. Thankfully I had quite a few ladybugs. I moved the lady bugs around and sprayed the most affected plants with a mixture of Fels-Naptha soap and water. It is 3 T. grated soap mixed into a gallon of water. Spray the aphids and they will die. Just make sure not to spray bugs you want around. Worked like a charm.

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  10. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your site from Soulemama. I needed this recipe, my basil and cucumbers are being eaten by something. One question, do you leave the garlic somewhat intact, give it a chop or put it through the food processor?

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  11. The best solution can be hiring services of a reliable pest control company, let them deal with pests as they know how to do it in a better way.

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  12. I read somewhere that ladybugs can be helpful to get rid of aphids in a natural way, you can search on the internet about the whole procedure.

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  13. Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book Jasa SEO Jam Tangan Penggemuk Badan Vimax Canada

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