Mid-summer is The Time For Bug Pests

In July I noticed that there were a lot more unwanted bugs on flowers and veggies in the garden.

The seashell cosmos are full of aphids. I saw one ladybug on the cosmos, but she didn’t seem interested in removing the aphids. Or maybe there were just too many. Yup, ants and aphids actually help each other out… Read this article at Gardening Know How.

I have since sprayed water on the ants and most of the aphids to get them off these flowers. Some stems were cut back to remove the infestation.

Cosmos and eggplant are covered in ants also. And a black, fuzzy caterpillar showed up to eat the eggplant leaves.

The black caterpillar turns into the Giant Leopard moth, from what I’ve discovered. I had three of these caterpillars on my eggplants, but now they are all gone. I was really hoping to see them become moths.

Along with weird and unwanted things, I was happy to find some ladybug larvae on one of my largest eggplant plants. Lizards were also crawling all over the place, so these may disappear. I hope not.

Get Rid of Fire Ants Naturally, Will This Work?

As for one of the worst Florida pests ever, the fire ant, I’ve been looking for a good way to rid the garden of them.

I’ve tried pouring vinegar on the mound. It kills all the grass, but the fire ants just move. I’ve sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth all over the hill, and it seems to do nothing. I was going to set Terro traps but I was afraid the raccoons would try to eat the stuff.

Now, I’ve come across a video by Elise Pickett from The Urban Harvest with advice on naturally killing fire ants. The mixture to try contains orange oil, dawn detergent and water. Watch the video here for more info.

I absolutely plan to try this as soon as the ingredients arrive.

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Beetles and Worms

I don’t know what this little green beetle is, but he was happily crawling on the eggplant. Looks like a stink bug, except green. Maybe he is a juvenile.

These little black bugs were found on the Ground Cherry plants, which grow wild along the edge of the yard. Are they good bugs? They seemed harmless, and sure enough, they are soldier beetles which are BENEFICIAL and important for pollination.

Each morning I am picking little green worms off the tops of my Suyo Long cucumber plants. Most likely the Pickleworm. I will continue to hand-pick the worms and hopefully rid the plants of them.

After reading this article by IFAS, it seems that the best practice for avoiding this worm problem is to plant cucumbers early in the season to beat the invasion. I will look into this further.

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