Bug battles

War on Harlequin bugs 

Last fall I remember noticing some very colorful looking stink bugs  on my  turnips.   There were just a few of them, and winter came and they were gone, so I didn't think much of them.   I was not sure what if any damage they were causing so I didn't think much of it.

Well, this spring I started noticing more of them on my mustard plants.  I should have waged war on them back then but I didn't... big mistake!  In the past month, they have just exploded in population!
Now all the mustard and turnips are long gone, but they have moved on to my Brussels sprouts and remaining cabbage plants.  Together with cabbage worms, they have torn up my plants.  So I decided to wage war on them.

I first did some research on them, and found out they are called Harlequin bugs.  They are indeed related to stinkbugs, but instead of having a preference for the squash family, their preference is for the
cruciferous vegetables, (such as cabbage, mustard,turnips,broccoli,etc...)
Since I want to be as organic as possible, I have not wanted to try any chemicals against them.
So for the past month or so I would go out every few days and kill them whenever I saw them, usually by just crushing them with my fingers.  I have killed probably a couple hundred by now!
 My Brussels sprouts plants have gotten quite big, and it became very hard to inspect every leaf for the harlequin bugs, especially the baby ones.  So I decided to pull up some of the severely damaged plants, and the remaining ones, I gave a major pruning.  

Chopped off a bunch of leaves, to make finding bugs more manageable

Harlequin bug on cabbage (lower center)

The pruned plants will hopefully be easier to inspect, until I can get rid of the bugs

A juvenile one on  a stalk... Wonder if this plant will recover?

I have tried giving these bugs to my chickens, but they won't eat them.  I read that they probably taste pretty bad because they make use of the plant's chemicals to create a strong taste that makes them unappetizing.   But at least its not a total waste.  I gave the pruned leaves, and pulled up plants to the chickens, and they like them, and  especially the cabbage worms that are occasionally in the leaves (which is what makes many of my leaves look like swiss cheese!)

Corn Ear-worms

We have been eating some of the tiny ears of corn we have gotten from our first corn planting, but some of them have had corn ear-worms in them.  And with the second planting of corn, I have seen some damage on the top of the plants.  I sprayed some BT on these, hoping that will take care of the problem.. but I may have to do more research on these, and organic ways to control it.  I have hopes for this next batch of corn,  The plants are looking much healthier than the first batch. But hopefully the corn ear-worms can be controlled. 

Corn earworms have attacked some of my corn plants

Pumpkin Updates

Here is my jack-o-lantern.  Its starting to to orange-up now.  Its about the size of a basketball. 

The ball zucchini "pumpkin" is starting to get more of a pumpkin-like coloration.  

Speaking of pests, this ball zucchini plant has just been ravaged by SVB, and I am surprised its still alive. I did spray soapy-water inside its main stem, and did see some earwigs come out.  I also extracted a couple SVBs from some side-shoots with a piece of wire, and fed them to the chickens.
But as soon as this "pumpkin" seems to be ripened enough I will pull out this plant to make room for other plants. 

The other pest I had much problems with last year was cucumber beetles.  They are still bad, but  I have not noticed them causing much damage yet.  So I have not been too worried about them.  I know they can transmit mosaic virus to plants, but so far, none of my squash/pumpkins have had any symptoms of it.

my volunteer sunflowers