OT: backyard vegetable gardeners.
- Thread starter PBRME
- Start date
I soaked my plants with liquid 7 earlier this week when I tried to save my peppers. Didn’t slow them. Yesterday and today is when I pulled the bulk of them off my tomatoes.
In my experience, hornworms are an every year issue. And the best way to deal is twice a week look diligently for the poop and damage, find the bugger and feed it to the birds.
Also, I think Sevin has been around so long most of the baddies are basically immune to it. Squash bugs eat it for breakfast. It'll probably kill beneficial bugs just fine though. I just grow excess and allow a few plants to go down.
My bigger issue this year is fungal diseases. Garden looks rough right now. But that's typical this time of year in Mississippi.
Also, I think Sevin has been around so long most of the baddies are basically immune to it. Squash bugs eat it for breakfast. It'll probably kill beneficial bugs just fine though. I just grow excess and allow a few plants to go down.
My bigger issue this year is fungal diseases. Garden looks rough right now. But that's typical this time of year in Mississippi.
Hmm. Maybe too late for Sevin when they’re established and already fat off your plants.
Another trick I use is planing several yellow marigolds around the garden. When the blooms start to turn brown I dead head those blooms, pulverize them in my hand, and sprinkle them on my tomatoes and squash. Keeps moths from laying eggs, and, marigolds attract wasps, which love hornworm meat.
That’s an idea. My marigold blooms around my plants are turning brown. Last year I had parasitic wasps keep my hornworm problem under control. Haven’t seen any eggs on a worm this year.
Use permethrin or even cypermethrin. Sevin is not very effective against them and you’ve got to change up your chemistry because otherwise you’re going to back yourself into a corner.
I think I’ve solved why they’re worse for me this year. Since I moved in my house I’ve had a tick problem. I thought it was deer. I had a feeder in a hollow behind my house. They started grazing up around my house. So I stopped feeding them.
Didn’t slow the ticks down. Next obvious source was the squirrels around my bird feeder. The feeders are right by the house so my wife can watch the birds from our screened in patio.
Stopped feeding the birds a month ago. 2 weeks ago is when I first started noticing worms.
My plants are near the feeders. While cutting grass it dawned on me I’m not seeing birds on my cages this year. Trying to solve one problem caused another.
edit to add my herd.
Didn’t slow the ticks down. Next obvious source was the squirrels around my bird feeder. The feeders are right by the house so my wife can watch the birds from our screened in patio.
Stopped feeding the birds a month ago. 2 weeks ago is when I first started noticing worms.
My plants are near the feeders. While cutting grass it dawned on me I’m not seeing birds on my cages this year. Trying to solve one problem caused another.
edit to add my herd.
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Huge tic problem last year. I killed several deer that were covered with tics. To the point there was no hair on the back of their ears. Been hunting for 40 years and have never seen anything like it.
My Catawba worm tree is covered too. Should be good with bait for a while.
Now where exactly did you say you have this deer herd problem @PBRME? **
It’s definitely not as many as it was when I was a kid. We could fill gallons of containers in the freezer, and have enough to run trotlines all summer and into the next.
There's been a lot of press on the declining insect populations. I do see anecdotal evidence of it in many places. I guess catalpa caterpillars are another example.
Last year was probably the best year we’ve ever had bug wise. This year is definitely the worst. We’ve got mosquitoes bigger than anything I’ve ever seen in the delta.
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