This winter when the bulletins about the MSB came out I realized they have been on my farm the past 2 seasons and ruining a lot of the red raspberries. And I assumed this year would be far far worse because there are no known predators of the pests (and also because I now had a name for the scourge and the various state extension services that have issued bulletins had scared the bejeebus outta me over this). So this week the raspberries started to ripen (about 14 days late) and I was prepared for the worse. And on day one of harvest there was quite a bit of damage but it was mainly bird and Japanese beetle damage with only about 10% to 15% being due to MSB-not too bad. By the end of the first full week of harvest the MSB damage had fallen to maybe .1%-about 1 in 1000 berries is effected (and they stink so badly it is very easy to find them and toss them out)
I also noticed a huge number of wheelbug youngsters in their 3rd and 4th instars (and possibly an adult). There were something like 4 per square foot. In past years, since I researched this insect, I would see maybe on every 10 square feet or fewer. I figured they were pretty territorial and that was why we had a lower population as well as being a top predator. But I also knew we had some rather underfed larva the past couple of years which would of course mean fewer making it to adult stage so fewer numbers that could breed to increase the population. So far this year i have seen nothing but fat and happy wheelbug larva
I do know that I definitely saw wheelbugs eating MSBs last year (I wondered what kind of stinkbug it was as it had more white spots on it that the other 3 or 4 species we have around here, now I know) and it would make sense as the MSB population increases that the wheelbug population would increase a couple of years behind them.
So I believe we have a native insect in the Eastern US that can control the MSB scourge.
Showing posts with label beneficial insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beneficial insects. Show all posts
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Busy, Busy, Busy
We have been very, very busy the past few weeks. Eugene has been ripping out old plants , tilling the ground where they were and replanting with new crops. Monday he removed several beds of peas and pea fencing, tilled and planted potatoes. I have been harvesting and selling raspberries. I am a slave to the raspberries at the moment. I spend around 3 to 5 hours daily harvesting the things. It's an interesting job as there is a wonderful ecosystem living in the berry bushes. I see many kinds of spiders, Daddy long legs (harvestmen), wheel bugs, pirate bugs all preying on the stink bugs, aphids, worms laid by some sort of moth, japanese Beetles etc.. The birds have surprisingly, not done a lot of damage to the raspberries, maybe because there are so many that even if they are eating a lot I am not noticing it.
Along with harvesting raspberries we are also picking kale (except the dinosaur kale that has pretty much died-We think because it has been too wet), broccoli, peas (which take almost as much time to pick as the raspberries), turnips, rutabagas, basil, parsley, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, garlic, scallions and a few strawberries.
On top of all that the rain has lead to many weeds so someone has to hoe and pull weeds. Eugene has been doing the bulk of that work though I pull weeds when I harvest out of beds that have a weed problem.
And if all that work is not enough we have to market the crops. We have markets 6 days a week right now though I am thinking of closing the store either on Wednesday or Sunday (even though we do good sales on both of those days) just so we have an extra day to get stuff done in the garden and also off the farm as we have errands to run just like everyone else and lately it has been difficult to schedule trips to the bank, grocery, post office (they don't deliver out here). the good news is even though we are insanely busy business has been excellent so at least we are getting minimum wage for our efforts (in the past were doing well to make $2.50 an hour-farming has not been a well paying profession since the 1920's)
I will be happy when work slacks off a bit. if you don't see any new entries to this blog for a while this is why.
Along with harvesting raspberries we are also picking kale (except the dinosaur kale that has pretty much died-We think because it has been too wet), broccoli, peas (which take almost as much time to pick as the raspberries), turnips, rutabagas, basil, parsley, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, garlic, scallions and a few strawberries.
On top of all that the rain has lead to many weeds so someone has to hoe and pull weeds. Eugene has been doing the bulk of that work though I pull weeds when I harvest out of beds that have a weed problem.
And if all that work is not enough we have to market the crops. We have markets 6 days a week right now though I am thinking of closing the store either on Wednesday or Sunday (even though we do good sales on both of those days) just so we have an extra day to get stuff done in the garden and also off the farm as we have errands to run just like everyone else and lately it has been difficult to schedule trips to the bank, grocery, post office (they don't deliver out here). the good news is even though we are insanely busy business has been excellent so at least we are getting minimum wage for our efforts (in the past were doing well to make $2.50 an hour-farming has not been a well paying profession since the 1920's)
I will be happy when work slacks off a bit. if you don't see any new entries to this blog for a while this is why.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Nematodes
Back in September I ordered 100 gazillion nematodes to spray on the ground to rid the soil of various grubs, termites, cutworms and other bad guys. I found this company, Buglogical, doing a google search using the term "beneficial nematodes". They had the best general information about beneficial insects and they also had the best price of anyone on the web so I ordered 100 million Steinernema feltiae/Heterohabditis bacteriophora. Actually, because there are two species of nematodes it was like 50 million of each. The cost came to $97.00 with shipping and we were able to cover about 2.5 acres. The company says this is enough to cover 1 acre but all the other purveyors of nematodes indicated that 100 million will cover much more than 1 acre and being cheap I figured buglogical was into over kill. Besides, unlike a lot of land, ours if free of poisons that might impede the development of the nematodes.
We got the package about a week after I ordered it which concerned me (it was supposed to arrive 2nd day) but I found out the delay was because they had to wait on a shipment of fresh nematodes. because it has to be wet out in order to successfully apply them we had to wait a couple of days before the spraying could commence. The rains did come and the rain stuck around for about 6 weeks which as far a the nematodes are concerned was a really rally good things. Nematodes need the soil to remain damp to wet for at least 3 weeks after applying so spring is generally the best time to apply with fall being just about as good. This year I'd say fall was the better season to apply them.
We noticed about 4 weeks after applying them that the grub population was down about 80%. since grubs are white they tend to be noticed before the other pests so I assume if the grub population is getting decimated than the other pests are likely getting the same treatment. Time will tell.
I gotta say so far I am really pleased with the nematodes and Buglogical was a good bunch to deal with. If I have need of nematodes or other beneficial insects in the future I will use them
We got the package about a week after I ordered it which concerned me (it was supposed to arrive 2nd day) but I found out the delay was because they had to wait on a shipment of fresh nematodes. because it has to be wet out in order to successfully apply them we had to wait a couple of days before the spraying could commence. The rains did come and the rain stuck around for about 6 weeks which as far a the nematodes are concerned was a really rally good things. Nematodes need the soil to remain damp to wet for at least 3 weeks after applying so spring is generally the best time to apply with fall being just about as good. This year I'd say fall was the better season to apply them.
We noticed about 4 weeks after applying them that the grub population was down about 80%. since grubs are white they tend to be noticed before the other pests so I assume if the grub population is getting decimated than the other pests are likely getting the same treatment. Time will tell.
I gotta say so far I am really pleased with the nematodes and Buglogical was a good bunch to deal with. If I have need of nematodes or other beneficial insects in the future I will use them
Friday, November 03, 2006
Spider
This beautiful spider was hanging out in front of the house most of September and October until it got too cold for it, than it disapeared. I do not know what kind of spider it is but it looks quite a bit like a garden spider (argiope), though the web is more like an orb weaver's. At any rate, all who saw her agreed she was spectacular
Monday, July 17, 2006
Boulder Belt Gardening Advice
This past Saturday at the farmers' market, a guy who often buys things from us came to our stand with a tomato leaf wondering what was wrong with it. This sort of thing happens regularly to us, people asking for gardening advice, and Eugene and I give it out freely.
Okay, so this guy has this tomato leaf and is wondering what is wrong with his plants. He describe horrible fungal problems and that the bottom leaves were turning yellow and falling off. The leaf looked fine on first inspection, except for some sort of white stuff that had burned the tip of the leaf . I noticed that he did have aphids on his tomato leaf and said he could get rid of his aphid problem by putting a humming bird feeder or getting some ladybugs on his plants as long as he had not already used any pesticides. At that point he said he had used Sevin to get rid of the fungus problems which made Eugene recoil in horror and quickly give back the leaf which he had been examining.
I than started explaining that Sevin is a pesticide, not an herbicide and you cannot use Sevin and than start using natural methods and expect good result. I told him that the sevin had killed off not only the pest insects but also the beneficial predator insects and that because the pests are at the bottom of the food chain they are in much much great numbers and reproduce much more quickly and would be back several weeks before the predators begin to recover and he would actually end up with a far worse problem than is he had done nothing and let nature do the work for him. This seem to go over his head but he did ask how to deal with the aphids without using Sevin and I said soap spray is pretty effective as long as he sprays both the tops and bottoms of the leaves. I also mentioned that Sevin dust is only truly effective if the tops and bottoms of the leaves are dusted with it and he asked how to do this and I said you put it in a shaker and make a cloud of dust around the plant and that will do the trick (we organic people do use natural pesticides in dust for such as Bt so I have experience here). Than I told him you cannot breath in the dust because it is very toxic to humans so if he opted to keep using the stuff he would need a Haz-Mat suit and a good breathing apparatus. This seemed to alarm him a bit and he went away.
He came back later and again asked about his garden and mentioned using Sevin again and felt he could not have a good garden without resorting to this heavy duty poison. Betty Quantz, who was at our stand at the time, looked horrified and said loudly to never use such stuff, that Sevin was an Agent Orange ingredient (I don't know if it is true since AO is an herbicide and we are talking insecticides, but it was effective to get it across to this guy he was dealing with some bad stuff). Than the guy asked "But how can I have clean vegetables without using pesticides" and Betty looked at him and said look at Eugene and Lucy's produce, it is clean and they use zero poisons (which is true on both counts) and have a huge garden. He looked thoughtful and scampered away. Perhaps some of this sunk in and he will start using organic methods, perhaps not. But he did get an earful at market.
Now my main problem with all of this is not that he was using really toxic crap that kills off any insect it touches thus spinning the environment more our of balance (this does bother me a lot, don't get me wrong here). No, my main problem is with people who use these dangerous chemicals with no clue (which seems to be most of America). He was using Sevin for a fungal problem when it is an insecticide. By Federal law it states clearly on the label what it is to be used for and also states it is unlawful to use such products in an incorrect manner (which he was doing). People do not read the labels so they pump deadly poisons into the ecosystem needlessly. Look folks, if you garden do us all a favor and gets some books and read up on plant pests and diseases. Learn what the chemicals are in your garden shed and how to use them (it's on the labels and is the law fer chrissake) or better yet learn about organic methods and get rid of those nasty chemicals (but please do not just toss them down the drain or in a landfill, get rid of them properly). There are literally thousands of books and websites about gardening make use of these. there is really no excuse for the ignorance I see over garden chemicals. I wish the feds would make a law that required ALL gardeners who use toxins to take the pesticide applicator classes and test that all conventional farmers have to take. Of course if that happened corporations such as Dow and Monsanto would not make nearly as much $$$ because there would be a lot less wasting of garden chemicals due to wrong usage. But the planet would a lot less of the toxic load it now has since most of the toxic chem use comes from home gardeners, not farmers.
It is quite possible to grow a beautiful and bountiful garden with zero poisons, I have been making my living doing this for over a decade. Granted there is a steep learning curve and it takes years to get a garden ecosystem back in balance but that's the thing about gardening as a hobby-you are always learning new things. And if you get rid of the poisons you will start seeing wonderful life returning to your garden ecosystem to help you out. Remember that 97% of all insects are beneficial during some point in their life cycle and that alone is ample reason to go organic but there are millions of others.
Okay, so this guy has this tomato leaf and is wondering what is wrong with his plants. He describe horrible fungal problems and that the bottom leaves were turning yellow and falling off. The leaf looked fine on first inspection, except for some sort of white stuff that had burned the tip of the leaf . I noticed that he did have aphids on his tomato leaf and said he could get rid of his aphid problem by putting a humming bird feeder or getting some ladybugs on his plants as long as he had not already used any pesticides. At that point he said he had used Sevin to get rid of the fungus problems which made Eugene recoil in horror and quickly give back the leaf which he had been examining.
I than started explaining that Sevin is a pesticide, not an herbicide and you cannot use Sevin and than start using natural methods and expect good result. I told him that the sevin had killed off not only the pest insects but also the beneficial predator insects and that because the pests are at the bottom of the food chain they are in much much great numbers and reproduce much more quickly and would be back several weeks before the predators begin to recover and he would actually end up with a far worse problem than is he had done nothing and let nature do the work for him. This seem to go over his head but he did ask how to deal with the aphids without using Sevin and I said soap spray is pretty effective as long as he sprays both the tops and bottoms of the leaves. I also mentioned that Sevin dust is only truly effective if the tops and bottoms of the leaves are dusted with it and he asked how to do this and I said you put it in a shaker and make a cloud of dust around the plant and that will do the trick (we organic people do use natural pesticides in dust for such as Bt so I have experience here). Than I told him you cannot breath in the dust because it is very toxic to humans so if he opted to keep using the stuff he would need a Haz-Mat suit and a good breathing apparatus. This seemed to alarm him a bit and he went away.
He came back later and again asked about his garden and mentioned using Sevin again and felt he could not have a good garden without resorting to this heavy duty poison. Betty Quantz, who was at our stand at the time, looked horrified and said loudly to never use such stuff, that Sevin was an Agent Orange ingredient (I don't know if it is true since AO is an herbicide and we are talking insecticides, but it was effective to get it across to this guy he was dealing with some bad stuff). Than the guy asked "But how can I have clean vegetables without using pesticides" and Betty looked at him and said look at Eugene and Lucy's produce, it is clean and they use zero poisons (which is true on both counts) and have a huge garden. He looked thoughtful and scampered away. Perhaps some of this sunk in and he will start using organic methods, perhaps not. But he did get an earful at market.
Now my main problem with all of this is not that he was using really toxic crap that kills off any insect it touches thus spinning the environment more our of balance (this does bother me a lot, don't get me wrong here). No, my main problem is with people who use these dangerous chemicals with no clue (which seems to be most of America). He was using Sevin for a fungal problem when it is an insecticide. By Federal law it states clearly on the label what it is to be used for and also states it is unlawful to use such products in an incorrect manner (which he was doing). People do not read the labels so they pump deadly poisons into the ecosystem needlessly. Look folks, if you garden do us all a favor and gets some books and read up on plant pests and diseases. Learn what the chemicals are in your garden shed and how to use them (it's on the labels and is the law fer chrissake) or better yet learn about organic methods and get rid of those nasty chemicals (but please do not just toss them down the drain or in a landfill, get rid of them properly). There are literally thousands of books and websites about gardening make use of these. there is really no excuse for the ignorance I see over garden chemicals. I wish the feds would make a law that required ALL gardeners who use toxins to take the pesticide applicator classes and test that all conventional farmers have to take. Of course if that happened corporations such as Dow and Monsanto would not make nearly as much $$$ because there would be a lot less wasting of garden chemicals due to wrong usage. But the planet would a lot less of the toxic load it now has since most of the toxic chem use comes from home gardeners, not farmers.
It is quite possible to grow a beautiful and bountiful garden with zero poisons, I have been making my living doing this for over a decade. Granted there is a steep learning curve and it takes years to get a garden ecosystem back in balance but that's the thing about gardening as a hobby-you are always learning new things. And if you get rid of the poisons you will start seeing wonderful life returning to your garden ecosystem to help you out. Remember that 97% of all insects are beneficial during some point in their life cycle and that alone is ample reason to go organic but there are millions of others.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Nature Babies
We put up a bluebird box earlier this spring and within 2 weeks we had a pair of bluebirds living in it and brooding a clutch of eggs. Today I went out with camera in hand and got this shot of the babies
A praying Mantis egg case in the process of hatching out mini mantises. If you look closely at the bottom right of the case you can see one of the mini mantises (sort of). Unfortunately for the mantises there are several spiders in the winter savory where this case is located and have already gotten one of them. Sunday, May 07, 2006
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Early Spring Storms
Storms rolling through Darke County to the north of usWe got a round of severe Thunderstorms on Friday afternoon.
The day dawned stormy (and we got .4" of rain) but cleared up by 8am and became quite warm and sunny. This allowed us to get quite a bit done-the zukes and cukes got transplanted (finally), the tomato house got set up and ready to receive the maters (which are close to being ready to get hardened off, just waiting for the weather to warm back up) which means the irrigation tapes and landscape fabric are down. Got more plowed beds ready for tilling. Found two toads in the garden beds (toads eat a lot of slugs and slug eggs among other pesky things)
But at 3:30pm work time was over and storms were rolling in. By 3:45 there were several tornado warnings to the south of us near Hamilton, OH. We still had sun over us at that point but to the north, south and west it was black and ominous. Quite beautiful with the contrasting lights. Around 4pm the storms started hitting us-we got some good wind gusts, than some heavy rain and finally pea sized hail for maybe 4 minutes and than it was over for us. We got maybe .01" of rain out of the event. But the storms were not over for places north, south, east and west of us. It was kinda weird that everything around us was getting rain, wind and hail and except for the one event we got nada (and we could use the rain, it is getting pretty dry). It did rain a few more times that afternoon on the farm but nothing extensive (as I said we got under .01" of rain out of the event).
But while the storm was pretty much a non event for us all hell was breaking loose to the south of us with reports of 70 mph wind gusts, golf ball sized hail and flash flooding. I hope my farming friends south of us in Butler and Union counties made it through with minimal damage to their crops and hoophouses. It really sucks when you get a lot of storm damage to your market garden, especially when it is so close to market time. A lot storm damage can set one's garden back 6 to 8 weeks if it is not properly protected.
Our hoophouses and the row cover we use are a huge help in protecting crops like lettuce from horrible damage. I was thinking this as I watched it hail. If our lettuce and other greens were not under cover they would have been ruined by that 4 minutes of pea sized hail. We probably could have salvaged some of the greens for our own use but little if any would have been salable and that would have meant we would have had little if anything to take to our first Tuesday farmers' market May 2nd.
We got lucky with this round of storms but I have a feeling that global climate change is going to bring us many many more rounds of severe weather before the summer solstice which will make for a dramatic spring season.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Ladybugs
I don't know why there has been an annual fall explosion/migration of Ladybugs into our homes the past 5 or 6 years but I have my theories.
1) These are the progeny of the all the ladybugs sold by sustainable gardening companies
2) These are the ladybugs attracted to the soybean fields infested with aphids. They come in and eat the aphids all summer, lay eggs, eggs hatch, larvae eat aphids until they get big enough to pupate into adults in late summer/early fall. The fields are harvested in October displacing the lady bugs and they come to our homes because they look like white cliffs to the insects
3) The environment is out o' balance and this is one result (others include a series of catagory 5 hurricanes in the Carribbean and Gulf of Mexico in 2005, melting icecaps, etc..)
What ever the causes they are migrating into our new to us (but around 100 years old) house while it is being painted and caulked.
I wonder how many have wondered into the walls and will find themselves trapped
1) These are the progeny of the all the ladybugs sold by sustainable gardening companies
2) These are the ladybugs attracted to the soybean fields infested with aphids. They come in and eat the aphids all summer, lay eggs, eggs hatch, larvae eat aphids until they get big enough to pupate into adults in late summer/early fall. The fields are harvested in October displacing the lady bugs and they come to our homes because they look like white cliffs to the insects
3) The environment is out o' balance and this is one result (others include a series of catagory 5 hurricanes in the Carribbean and Gulf of Mexico in 2005, melting icecaps, etc..)
What ever the causes they are migrating into our new to us (but around 100 years old) house while it is being painted and caulked.
I wonder how many have wondered into the walls and will find themselves trapped
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)