Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Trying Neem for the first time this year....so far I'm not impressed.
The Jap beetles are still chewing their way through my apple trees, my apples, my taters, my beans and anything else they choose to light upon. Not only that, but they are mating like it's a Roman orgy, whereas this Neem advertises itself as slowing down on the munching and the mating of these leaf sucker bugs....not happening.
So, I pulled out the old standby sweet lime and dusted the beans and put up JB traps, trapping hundreds already...emptied those out for the chickens and they were snapped up like snacks.
Then I went through the squash and pumpkins, putting all the millions of squash bug eggs I found in soapy water, along with any adults I found. I also found and disposed of striped cuke beetles.
Looks like it will be an all out war of hand to hand combat this season as I go out each morning and evening to remove all I can by hand, then keep dusting leaves with sweet lime to desiccate the little suckers.
Squash bug eggs...they say don't let a single one survive or you will regret it!
Squash bug....got three of these this morning, caught two of them "in the act", so it felt especially good dumping them into soapy water. They needed a cold shower!
Cuke beetle...got a few of those today too....
And will keep my eye out for these...we were rampant with all kinds of squash and cuke beetles last year, so I expect the same this year...only this year I'm fighting back.
What are you guys doing to fight the garden pests this year?
The Jap beetles are still chewing their way through my apple trees, my apples, my taters, my beans and anything else they choose to light upon. Not only that, but they are mating like it's a Roman orgy, whereas this Neem advertises itself as slowing down on the munching and the mating of these leaf sucker bugs....not happening.
So, I pulled out the old standby sweet lime and dusted the beans and put up JB traps, trapping hundreds already...emptied those out for the chickens and they were snapped up like snacks.
Then I went through the squash and pumpkins, putting all the millions of squash bug eggs I found in soapy water, along with any adults I found. I also found and disposed of striped cuke beetles.
Looks like it will be an all out war of hand to hand combat this season as I go out each morning and evening to remove all I can by hand, then keep dusting leaves with sweet lime to desiccate the little suckers.
Squash bug eggs...they say don't let a single one survive or you will regret it!

Squash bug....got three of these this morning, caught two of them "in the act", so it felt especially good dumping them into soapy water. They needed a cold shower!

Cuke beetle...got a few of those today too....
And will keep my eye out for these...we were rampant with all kinds of squash and cuke beetles last year, so I expect the same this year...only this year I'm fighting back.
What are you guys doing to fight the garden pests this year?