Not a mystery-and part of the war on the aphids

Well look what I found.  I initially thought I had an M3 here; (mystery plant #3) but upon closer inspection I found a seed casing on one of the leaves.  I looked through my recently planted seeds and Viola! It appears my Cosmos have sprouted! (I really need to start labeling shit around here)

so cute and pretty

I planted these guys a few weeks ago in my battle of the aphids. These guys will grow tall and set out some beautiful white flowers. See it's the baby lace wings that are voracious carnivores as adults they are strictly vegetarian.  The Adult Green Lace Wings eat nectar from the flowers. Since I have PLENTY of nymph food (aphids) and hopefully I will soon have lots of adult food the plan is that they will then stick around the garden to lay their eggs. These guys are way to small to explain the sudden increase in beneficials at this time but should they survive the winter I have a jump start on the spring planting and bug control.

Aphids Quatro

The aphids have not died. The aphids are worse.  The bananas  did nothing, the Tomato Spray did nothing. I still have more and more aphids, and not a single aphid snacker in sight.  It's time to jump start the process. I headed over to Arbico-Organics a local garden store (they ship!) to see what my options are.  After a great chat with a master gardener who considered at my problem; aphids, lack of beneficials, and an army of ants protecting their aphid heard, we came up with a plan...

1. Kill the ants-because there are so many aphids I now have SO MANY ANTS. They collect the aphid poop-honeydew-and protect their little poop farms like crazy.  DE will help cut down some of the ant population so that the Aphid Eaters can get in there and tear it up

Diatomaceous Earth-to kill the ants 

2. Kill the Aphids. Lace wings (AKA Aphid Lions) are a good choice here. Lady Bugs, everyone's favorite aphid killer, are miserable here in the summer. Even though it is October it is still hitting 90 degree's every day. Not a good choice for the lady bird beetle.

lace wing eggs

First I Sprinkle the DE around the garden, this keeps the ant population down and protects the plants. Then I split the eggs into coffee filters which I tied to some of the plants. The filters protect the eggs from things that might creep along and snack away on my lil lacewing babies

egg nursery

Trying to keep the filter on the melon off the ground was tough!

They should hatch in a few days but I will be out of town when that happens. Hopefully when I get back we will less of this