veeta : Thank you for the book suggestions I will definitely look into them!!! Maybe I am just over reacting because this is my first garden, but then again you all should have seen what happened to the first basil plant I had!! weirdtrev: I have seen birds like that in my neighborhood but not in my back yard, I have doves, blue jays, and blackbirds in my yard from time to time. The doves tend to hang out the longest but I know where their nest is and it's not fresh plants. I am probably going to look into the bird netting though. Will the netting still allow bees and good flying bugs in? Thanks for all the help, I am kinda new to this so its nice to have guidance. howelbama: Yeah the Sevin line seems a bit extreme for me. I'll try my best to get a picture of the bugs but they are really tricky and I can't even find a picture of them online! They almost look like baby stink bugs but a little different. I'll post a link, that's what they look similar to, but I'm not 100% sure it's the same. http://www.dpughphoto.com/images/leaffooted%20bug%20nymphs%20johnston%20mill%2053107.JPG What I have been doing to trap the earwigs and roaches is I make a mix of soy sauce, molasses, and water and put them in plastic cups about half full then put those in the ground so the bugs get attracted to them for food but can't get out. It seems cruel but once I started doing it I saw a decrease in the destruction to my plants. Although I'm not sure the earwigs are attracted to it, I've never really checked I was just happy there was less damage. As far as the flowers go, the only thing I have there right now is marigolds around the tomatoes because I heard that helps ward off the dreaded tomato worms! But any other suggestions would be appreciated? Not sure if it's worth mentioning but there is a variety of flowers in the front yard. Thank you everyone sooo much for your time and suggestions!!

do you sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the leaves or on the soil around the base of the plants? would it coat the leaves, or just slide off? granny, i had the same thing a couple of years ago and it was a beetle -- i think a japanese beetle -- that did it. if you do a google search ( japanese beetle) you'll find interesting info. one thing i just read is that the presence of beetles on a plant encourages more to come. the chewed up leaf itself also seems to. if you can hand pick them (knock them into a bucket of soapy water in the morning when they're sluggish) and decrease their numbers, fewer will be attracted in the long run.

Dilly beans are really strong dill when you use a Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix instead of just plain pickling salt, and you add the extra dill weed and fresh dill seed heads. I like mine really dill flavored, and with the pickle mix alone, its quite good. To dry dill weed, its best to use a dehydrator. The quicker it dries, the more color and flavor is retained. Once the dill weed is dry, it crumbles in your hands very easily. As mentioned, I store mine in canning jars and use the Food Saver jar attachment to pull a vacuum on the jar. This really helps keep the dill flavor and color. Mine is 2 years old now and is still bright green and has that distict dill taste. When my mom made potato salad, she would add some dill pickles chopped up, and also celery and onions. Most of the time she found it lacking something. That 'something' was dry mustard powder. A little added to the mayo and potato salad makes it really flavorful.

Okay. Well even if it isn't killing my plants it is wrecking my flowerbed. Aesthetics are important to me and since those are almost the only thing I have blooming right now in the bed I don't want this bee cutting up my flowers every time they get a bloom open. What do these things look like anyway? Do they kind of look like a moth but with the colors of a bee? I saw one of those earlier today hanging around my bed but I didn't catch it eating anything. So can I gat rid of them? And how? Thanks for all the help. Different subject, how do you put an image in a response I didn't see anything where I could upload in a response that's why I reposted.