Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Cavalry Arrives!

I should have expected it.  With the population explosion of bad bugs this year it had to arrive sooner or later.  The alyssum have clouds of syrphid flies around the blossoms.  Last year there were only a few, but they seem to have called in reinforcements.

I have also seen a few assassin bugs.  Hopefully they are all busy garroting the earwigs.

And finally the praying mantis are here!  Last night I went to water and the watering can had about 30 hatchlings running all over it.  I would have loved to get a picture but the can is green so it was very hard to see them in the picture.  I'm hoping that they grow big and fat very soon on all the earwigs.

The only defender I'm on the fence about is a pair of Brown Thrashers.  They are the messiest birds I have ever seen.  They root through the wood chips and throw them everywhere.  I'm constantly cleaning up the paved areas.

The earwigs are totally out of control on the potager.  They have decided that they are going to dine on the cabbage as well as the Swiss chard.  The pole beans that have just germinated are being attacked as well.  I'm seriously thinking of abandoning most of this garden for vegetables for the remainder of the year.  The only thing they are not attacking are the tomatoes and peppers.  I'll see what happens in the next few weeks.  At the end of the month I'm on vacation and will be dividing over 100 daylilies and could use a temporary bed to house them while I rejuvenate the old beds.

One positive note about the earwigs, I have seen only a couple of aphids this year.

11 comments:

  1. Earwigs do like to eat aphids. Sadly I have both. One bed has the aphids bad, the next the earwigs. What I wish I had were some chickens right about now. Before I plant something up, I could let them have at the bed. I'm sure they would eat all those earwigs.

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    1. Daphne, what a great ides! I wonder if the farms down the road would lend me some. I live in a rural farm area and last year they voted against residential chickens! Mosr people had them and had to give them up! The farms a few hudred yards away can raise them. Go figure...

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  2. It seems like it's going to be a buggy season this year. I'm sure it's from the mild winter that we had. Good luck and keep us posted!

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    1. Thanks Robin, I will keep everyone posted. Every previous year the earwigs descended on the daylily blooms. They are opening now and not one earwig in sight! They are just on the vegetables!!!

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  3. I'm thinking it's earwigs that are annihilating my pole beans. The hollyhock leaves look like lace, and the potato leaves are pretty much chewed up too. The only thing I could find on the potatoes were a lot of baby earwigs. When I brought in a basket full of veggies yesterday, I had baby earwigs all over the sink and counter. We had a hard winter (for us) this year, so I'm surprised the bugs are so bad. We also have small flies hovering over our patio. So bad that I've taken to hanging that nasty fly paper out there! It's catching a lot of them, but the population doesn't seem to be dwindling. I have never had this fly problem before!

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    1. I would agree about the pole beans, mine are getting eaten and I see no slug trails so they are not the culprit. I'm thinking of starting my next round in pots and planting them in the garden when they have their first set of leaves. One of the benefits of a small garden ;)

      Are the flies tiny? Do they look like bees? Any alyssum around? That's what Syphrid flies look like. They are beneficials and only stay around the blooming plants.

      My winter was very mild and I dread when it is stink bug season!

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    2. No, the flies just look like very small flies. More like the leaf miner flies.

      About two weeks ago I planted some pole beans in a bucket and set them over by tomato alley, and they are already over 3' tall. The ones I planted out by the fence over a month ago are chewed up and maybe 4" high. I'm wishing the snap peas would hurry and be finished so I could plant pole beans there, but that might be too late. Good thing the bush beans are OK (and beginning to bloom), so I guess I need to just keep planting more of those.

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    3. Last year I planted my pole beans July 1 and got a good harvest. I planted some old bush bean seed to test the area and see of they would be attacked. If they are the bush beans are going in pool bed #2 and some window boxes.

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    4. The latest I've planted pole beans was July 26, and they froze before they got any beans. I think July 1 would be safe. If the snap peas aren't out by then, I'll rip 'em out. I'll be sick of them by then, anyway.

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  4. Same here - bugs are really bad this year. Must be related to warm winter.

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    1. I agree that the mild winter equals a bad bug year. I'm dreading late summer when it becomes stink bug season. We can't open the windows or leave the screen doors open in late summer as armies of stink bugs will find their way inside.

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