Aphid elimination???

A whileback I noticed this guy in my plants 

I was worried that he A.) Might be another aphid destroyer bug, and I killed him with the neem oil  or B.) this is some other kind of terrible pest sent to destroy my beautiful garden.  Well it turns out my worry was unfounded. Turns out that little guy is a Syrphid Fly or Hoover Fly. This guy goes CRAZY  for aphids when it is a nymph then turns into a pollinator machine.  My worries of eradicating my entire beneficial population was also unfounded. Upon closer inspection among my melon and cucumber (i.e. worst hit by the aphid apocalypse) are tons of aphid munchers!

 See that guy?

they are not as gross when you think they are saving

your butt!

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.

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.

Winter Seasons

The weather has shifted.  It is starting to be coolish in the morning.  Winter here is short.  Before long I will be prepping for Summer Season.   This time I did something new, I planned.  Especially after the bug-hell I have been in I thought I should spend a little more time getting ready for winter. Plus I am hoping to cut down on the mystery plants. So I've consulted my Magic Garden Companion Guide, picked my winter veggies and Viola! A garden map to end all Garden maps:

Classy right?

So what did I pick and why?
Well first of all Aphids, Aphids Aphids.  The reason I have had so many aphids is because I have had so few beneficials.  I have had so few beneficials because I have no habitat for them.  I have started an "overwinter" garden (which will also be my main garden next year) but thought I would try to pull in some regular plants that might help.

Carrots: Attracts a TON of beneficials such as parasitic wasps, (see my first one HERE!).It also attracts lace wings, assasin bugs and "big eyed bugs" (whatever that is). It also provides added water to the soil (a must here in the desert). It grows really good with Peas and other winter veggies.

Beets: Add tons of minerals to the soil. Also a good companion plant to brassicas (brussels and cabbage).  They are improved by Garlic.

Onions: Supposedly keeps aphids away. I'm not sold on this as I have put in TONS of chives around my more aphid infested plants. But maybe a stronger allium would help. I will also be marking at least two to go to seed.  I think the flat white flowers will attract lots of the beneficials that I am missing.

Garlic: Not only another aphid resistor but also something that will help the orange tree-who knew?. So I sandwiched it between the beets and the orange tree.

Peas-now here is where things got tricky tricky. Supposedly peas and onions are not friends in the garden (despite making a tasty treat in the kitchen). So I pulled them apart a little bit, hopefully this is enough.

Not on the Map-Dill, and Coriander- Both are good garden plants.  Also both taste good. Also Dill and Cilantro are closely related; seems good right? Well maybe not. They cross pollinate.  I have dill growing in the overwinter garden; hopefully that will be far away enough to put some coriander in the garden but where? Carrots and Dill don't play nice, does that mean Coriander won't either? I'm going to need more research to figure this out.

Also I forgot to add Broccoli from some bizarre reason. I think they will go where the lettuce is and the lettuce will be sprinkled around the garden like basil was during the summer. OH yea and SPINACH, forgot that too, i'll find a spot somewhere...

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

Aphids part Three

They are coming!!! I can not get a handle on these guys. This is my summer squash that has already beat one round with the aphids.  I have left it alone but after dousing the armenian cucumber and the regular cucumber this guy got hit again.  I do not think the tomato spray did much, it just moved the suckers. So I am not going that route again.  This time I have strategically placed some Banana peels under the plant. It has been suggested that the ethylene/ethene gas might ward them off. I do not want to kill  them but I just want them to not kill anything else. If you notice the baby squash plant is growing crooked because of those gross buggies.

Aphids part Deux

It has been two days since I started the tomato spray.  I managed to get a shot of some of the aphids.  *blech*

EWWWW

Ew Ew Ew

(this is a few days after spraying so they look kinda flattened)

But even ewer-see those black spots up there?

I got 'em

I am pretty sure those are the murdered aphids.  So this seems to have at least done SOMETHING. I have applied the spray three days in a row. Last night and this morning I made sure to flip over each leaf and spray top and bottom.  An additional bonus is that the leaves are still in good shape-much better shape than after the soap spray.

Extra good news since I also found this...

 Aphids on my cucumber-it wasn't immune either :(. I picked off the leaves where I saw them. I have considered planting some Alliums (summer chives) next to my cucumber but I only have one and am worried to risk it after my earlier aph-saster this spring.

Another good thing was the presence of ants.  I was concerned because if one thing is going to die from the tomato spray other bugs might also. But they seemed immune running around and patting their little aphid friends on the butt, probably trying to revive their sweet honeydew factories. (I must admit I felt good knowing that seemed to be in vain)

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. 

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.