My wife has always had the knack for picking the perfect fruits. Especially, cantaloupes and honey due melons. Her fruits are always sweet; mine on the other hand were always blah. One day I asked her how is it that she always pick the perfect fruits and she said, "I smell and pick what the bugs want to eat." From that day onward I started to smell my fruits and would think like the bugs and I had much more success finding the best fruits even at the worst time of the year.But as with anything, bugs are a problem. Recently, I have noticed allot of aphids in the garden and around my tomatoes and I have been pulling them off, and squishing the life out of those suckers. My wife always brings me back to reality by telling me that I can't have it both ways. Either we are going to have chemically laden produce or we are going to have bugs eating what we want to eat. So with deep sighs I submit to the bugs and understand that they are going to be there. But not without a fight. Because, I'm an A type personality and I just can't admit defeat without a fight, and the other day when I saw my first lady bug on my tomato plants, I was happy the reinforcements started to show up. I also noticed that there were mites working in and out of the garden and I panicked, because although I don't know what there purpose is, I do know they are not good, until I saw one mite carying something in house mouth. The picture above is not my picture but the picture above is the exact same thing I saw in my garden. My research led me to understand more about predatory mites and there function in and around the garden.
Right now there is war going on in my garden. I can't blame the insects that want to eat my veggies. It's a sign that my garden is healthy. But to combat these guys I am going to have to be proactive in more research and get smarter on the types of Beneficial bugs that may find a home in my garden. I will start a series of profiles on Beneficial Garden bugs, Entitled "Hunt em Down and Kill em all" through out this blog over the next few months as I understand how they work and how to maintain them in the garden.
2 comments:
We have already been hit with those potato beetles. I let the chickens in the potato patch and they've done a great job of eating all the bugs. I don't think I can do it with tomatoes though - they'd probably ignore the bugs/hornworms and eat the tomatoes. I've heard of people ordering ladybugs and preying mantis to help in the garden. We seem to attract them naturally. I'll be looking forward to this series. :D
I've already surrendered on the area where swiss chard was until destroyed by insects. As my yard is filled with chickens, my fenced off garden may be the only sanctuary for bugs in my backyard. I may have inadvertently set myself up on that one. I look forward to your series as I too am fighting this frustrating battle of the bugs.
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