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About Hardy Shrub Roses
About Heathers
About Flowering Crabs
wildlife habitat
Annuals Biennials Perennials
Culinary Herbs
The Healing Herbs
The Fragrant Herbs
Shakespearean and Bible Herbs
Do you Really Need A Tiller
Insect Attack
Flowers for Cutting
Pruning Pointers
Houseplants Clean the Air
Recipes Fresh from the Garden
The Gold Plated Gardener
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| Insect Attack! |
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I frequently receive calls or visits from anxious gardeners along about midsummer. The conversation goes something like this: “Help! What can I spray? Something is eating my __________!” (fill in the blank). We are a society of the Quick Fix. We are also, understandably, gardeners who want to protect our investments and keep them looking beautiful. At the first sign of insect attack, we are rightfully alarmed. Left unchecked, some insects are capable of enormous damage. What to do? The first step is to identify the insect doing the damage. Insecticides are fairly specific, and we must suit the cure to the disease. Leaf rollers are the little fellers inside a tightly rolled leaf. Removing and destroying the affected leaves will usually stop the problem. The same procedure holds true for tent caterpillars; if you can reach it, prompt removal of the “tent” will generally prevent further spread. But do destroy it. We once shoved a tent into the wood stove, intending to burn it, but it was left overnight; next morning, the stove was crawling with tiny caterpillars! Ants are not in themselves harmful; in fact, peony buds need ants to remove their sticky film so they can open. But ants can signal the presence of another pest: aphids. You’ll recognize them as a fairly thick cluster of tiny green or brown bugs, generally at the tender tips of new growth and on the undersides of leaves, but sometimes clustered along a stem or twig. Which brings me to the whole topic of sprays. Yes, aphids can be sprayed, but insecticidal sprays kill not only the harmful insects but also the beneficials--such as honeybees, butterflies, and the predator insects that devour the harmful ones. If left alone, Nature has a wonderful way of balancing insect populations. In any infestation of aphids, for example, there will probably already be eggs of the aphids’ natural predators, ladybugs or beneficial wasps. When the eggs hatch, each larva will eat an aphid every five minutes. If into this scenario comes the gardener with his spray can, the beneficial eggs or larvae are destroyed along with the aphids. The catch: aphids reproduce much faster than beneficials...and so begins a vicious circle. If left alone, predator insects will usually clean up harmful ones before they’ve had a chance to do any significant damage. And of course they’re much kinder to the environment. Ask yourself, Do you really want to contaminate your yard with chemicals? Granted, I tend to be conservative when it comes to using anything toxic, especially in the vegetable garden. But there are limits to this leave-it-alone approach. When cabbage worms cover your broccoli or potato bugs are skeletonizing your plants, something has to be done to save the crop. Fortunately, non-toxic chemicals are available. Rotenone 1% is death to most garden insects, and Rotenone 5% will take care of the potato bugs. Bacillus thuringensis is effective on worms. Safer’s Insecticidal Soap is another non-toxic spray that works well on a wide range of insect pests, both indoors and out. Still, prevention is preferable to cure. A paper cup with the bottom removed, plunged an inch into the ground around the stem of a young plant, will deter cutworms. We use Reemay (also called floating row cover or crop cover) over our young squash and cucumber plants. Spread over the row and tucked in all around, this feather-light spun fabric admits light and water but excludes insects such as the cucumber beetle and cabbage worm. It is removed when blossoms appear, by which time the insects have gone by--or the plants are large enough to withstand a few beetle bites. On severe infestations of ornamentals, the pest must be identified and appropriate action taken. The best approach is to take a sample of the plant--a twig or a few leaves--with the insects included; collect the sample on a Monday, secure it in a baggie or pillbox with a few drops of rubbing alcohol, and mail it with your name and phone number to the University’s plant pathology lab: Plant Disease Lab, 491 College Avenue, Orono 04473. Their experts will get back to you with the appropriate measures to take. The most effective overall approach to disease and insect infestation is prevention. Insects and diseases tend to strike the weaker plants. A healthy plant with adequate water and nutrition is better able to discourage pests. Cleaning up and composting garden debris in the fall helps eliminate pests that may winter over on old vegetation. Rotating vegetable crops on a three-year schedule eliminates damage caused by organisms wintering over in the soil. Cabbage maggots are a good example: they will winter over in garden soil, but are harmless to anything but cole crops, so the secret is not to plant cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or brussels sprouts in the same area over the next three years. Keep a garden map from year to year so that your crops are constantly being rotated. Another strategy is to encourage birds to visit your property by hanging out bird houses, bat houses, bird feeders and by supplying water. Birds and bats are nature’s best insect controls--one bat will devour 3,000 insects a night. Look at that in terms of mosquitoes and black flies, and you can see that plants are not the only beneficiaries of a bird population! |
| Palmyra | ME | 04965-4033 |
 shepherdsgdn@hotmail.com |
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| Visitors: 02595 |