Aphids

AAAAH, even before I worked on a garden I knew enough to be scared of these little buggies.  The Ladybugs best snack.  I have no pictures of these guys because whenever I see them I panic and start ripping my plants apart.

I have not had any aphids in the past, however this year I had a serious attack of aphids and something very close to aphids in terms of destruction called a Mealybug. They destroyed my three beautiful sunflowers before I even realized what was happening.  Then my honey suckle was attacked followed by my squash and cucumbers.  Currently I have seen a few on my squash and Armenian cucumbers.  These guys are terrible.  I lost 4 squash plants and all my sunflowers, I almost lost the honey suckle and Armenian cucumber and Sumter cucumber as well.  I tried the soapy water and hose spray trick.I did kill those bugs but it destroyed what was left of the plants.

While my current infestation is not that terrible (none of the leaves are destroyed, there is no curling or deformed leaves yet) I am terrified to lose what has finally started to come back  So I am hitting these last few bugs from all sides. So today we will look at a different spray option and over the next few days explore companion planting and beneficial insects.

I followed THIS recipe.  It seemed like a good time as my tomato needed a haircut. Tomatoes are members of the nightshade family (think eggplant and the more poisonous and hallucinogenic belladonna and jimson weed). As a result they are filled with Alkaloids that are released when you cut 'em up and then are suspended in water. While relatively safe for peeps and pets they should destroy those lil buggers in your yard.

I am still a little worried about using this as it apparently will also kill beneficials so I will only be using it on my two main culprits at this time.  The Armenian Cucumber, as it seems to have the biggest problem, and the poor squash (the only one to survive the last infestation).  Plus at this time I have seen few beneficials such as lady bugs in the garden at all this year. Which is probably the reason these pests have grown to such epic portions.

Step One: Chop Tomato Leaves

From my 'maters

Step Two: Soak in Water 

I am soaking all day  rather than overnight-I'm a rebel

Step Three: Strain into a Sprayer

It turns a LOVELY shade of dark greige.  I soaked those babies for about 9 hours. After about 6 of them I noticed the water really did not look any different so I squeezed 'em and mixed 'em around the bowl, the water quickly became a nice light green. Viola a few hours later this lovely mud color.

Step Four: Spray on those Buggies

After learning that some of the soap spray damage I received was related to spraying during the day I sprayed the Armenian Cucumbers and Squash tonight with tomato spray and will give them a good spray down again on Sunday or Monday.