The first Official Beneficial (Aphids Cinco de Octobre)

Well, back from vacation and things don't look much better..

In fact the aphids look worse. But wait, Look Closer

And Closer

Mummies and Parasitic Wasps. I returned to Arbico-Organics to confirm that what I had was finally a breakthrough. IT WAS! My first OFFICIAL BENEFICIAL.  These guys are also really awesome. They are stingless wasps that lay an egg INSIDE of the aphid. That "mummy" in the second picture is actually a swollen aphid that has turned into a cocoon! A second wasp will be flying out of a hole in its belly some day soon. (Nature is SO gross)

I was also confirmed that the aphid infestation is bad, really bad.  So I picked up bottle of Neem Oil to spray down some of this invasion. I have some mixed feelings about this move.  I was told not to worry too much about harming my wasp-he has wings so he will fly away.  Plus Neem is pretty natural stuff, in fact its the original tooth-stick .  It will also work as a fungicide, one of the side effects of aphids sticking their little mouths where they don't belong, is the introduction of fungus into your healthy plants.  So I will be using the spray but I will only be spraying the neem oil in a few of the MOST infested parts of the garden. Just enough to knock down the numbers and give these wasps a second to come through. 

Aphids Part...I Can't keep up.

So I sprayed the neem. I made sure to avoid where I had seen the parasitic fly.  Because it is an oil compound I made sure to spray at night. I want to avoid all the leaf burn that occured with the soap sprays.  This morning however I went out and lo and behold

See that little wormy guy up at the top? I think that's a nymph of some sort of lace wing bug guy.  I immediately felt terrible that I might have killed these good guys. I went through the garden picking up leaves that were heavily infested.  I found several more mummified aphids (at least three), a few more parasitic wasps, and some of these wormy/guys.  I picked up a whole gallon baggie of gross aphid plants.  I then inspected EACH ONE for the beneficials. I pulled each one off with my scissors and deposited them back to the plant to keep their munching.

I have mixed feelings about my neem purchase.  I don't want to kill these delicate beneficials but until today I have barely had any beneficials and mostly lost aphids.  I did spray a second round on the lentils because they are baby plants, read delicious to bugs, and I did not find a single aphid eater in here.  Perhaps with the neem oil knocking down a few of the aphids it lets my beneficials catch up and knock down. If the neem oil did not kill the beneficials but kept a few of the aphids under control I might come out ahead and even get one or two cucke's before this year is out.

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

I thought you were better than this.

Peppermint, an easy to grow, bug resistant, beginner kind of plant. Great to use in cooking, tea, homeopathic treatments and cocktails.  What could go wrong????

THIS GUY

and THIS guy

and THIS guy

This guy is gross, this guy is the SAME FRICKIN COLOR AS THE PLANT.  This guy is tiny, this guy is hungry. and this guy has friends, (at least 5 of them)

All that is left is a few sticks

.Look what he did to a thriving blooming pepermint plant, (in about two days). He ate so much that when my husband pulled him off the plants the caterpillar SMELLED LIKE MINT, ew.  So now I am on caterpillar patrol going out daily to find these guys, and my plants are in dire need of some growth hormones.

almost all gone

 This whole disaster started with just a few small holes, then one day  BAM 90% of the plant was gone.

So what IS this thing and how do i stop it, I can not go out and pick up bugs by hand. (bugs are gross) and my husband is not really that excited to go out and pick them for me. 

Thanks internet!

ew, okay picking it off it is...*gross*. I really do not like using pesticide and am trying to avoid it all costs but it sure gets gross.  I wouldn't mind one little guy if he was only snacking but these guys eat a TON! I can not believe how much mint was gone between the first few bites and then the day of death.