Awe, man! : (

I saw several flying around this week in OKC, Dawn. They sure did devastate my broccoli last year, even tho I plant Cleome for them - they used that, too! There are so many of them, it doesn't bother me that folks destroy them.

They also eat other members of the brassicas/mustards, like Cleome, Clammyweed, Peppergrass, a common weed (Lepidium) plant family. I wish they would eat more of the Peppergrass. There is a ton of it growing and flowering right now.

Another larval host favorite is Nasturtiums.

Susan

Melissia, If they are at my house, they're likely over there close to you too.....

Susan, I stopped planting cleome for several years, hoping they'd stay away if I wasn't growing something they liked during the hot season. Next week I'll likely put hoops and floating row cover over that bed to keep the pests off the broccoli. I'd already have the cover up now, but the plants only fill half the bed and I wanted to finish planting it with (lol) nasturtiums among other things. They usually do not damage my nasturtiums, which I generally scatter around the garden. Maybe it is just they prefer the brassicas and I remove them and kill them before they can migrate to the nasturtiums.

We have been having tons of butterflies and moths already, so seeing them didn't surprise me...but it aggravated me. I was hoping to have the broccoli in the ground for at least a week before the pests found it. We only made it a few days.

Unlike last year, I'm seeing very few grasshoppers, but that is typical after a rainy winter, and I am glad.

Dawn

Yea for no grasshoppers! I haven't seen any either. I saw some Green Lacewings yesterday....the good guys. I started a bit of garden cleanup today, got the rest of my seeds organized and ready to plant a few indoor pots, only to have the water turned off. Someone's line up the street from me broke and hence, turnoff. It will probably be early evening before it's on again. So, having to put things off since I can't wash my hands, water things in, etc. Darn it.

Susan

I found a tent caterpillar nest on my crabapple today. It looks like they hatched recently, but they've already chewed through most of the leaves around the nest. I'll probably spray the tree with BT after this next round of rain ends. I bought both BT and neem, but I think BT is better for killing the soft-bodies pests, right?

Heather, If they're already outside of their webby nest, the local birds may pick them off one by one and eat them. Otherwise, either Bt or Neem is about equally effective at this time of year. After they ingest Bt, they often can continue to feed for up to 24 hours, but then they'll be toast. With neem, I am not sure how fast it works. I don't usually see tent caterpillars very often, and when I do, they are so high up in the bigger trees that I can't even reach them with the pole pruner, so I can't really do much about them. It seems early for them. But, for this year, early seems to be the trend.

Dawn

That's what I'm afraid of, Dawn... All my cold crops are in the hoop house and I haven't seen any yet.

Have you ever used tule as a row cover?

great

Melissia, I used it once and it didn't do a very good job of keeping the pests out. The teeny-tiny ones can make it through or under the tulle, and it tears somewhat easily in windy weather. I used Agribon floating row cover and it excludes insects very well as long as it is well-anchored to the ground. I have used it both in free-floating form just anchored to the ground with metal U-shaped pins and also over hoops. It holds up to spring winds better if it is elevated over hoops made of PVC or EMT.

Bon, Well, it isn't like we don't expect to see them. I'm just not used to seeing them in early March. Some years I have them in huge numbers, some years I barely see them at all. I'm going to guess that since they are here so early, we'll likely see a lot of them. Last year with all the heat, spider mites showed up in April. I think I'd rather deal with cabbage worms than spider mites any day of the week!

Dawn

Crap....

as if transplant shock was not enough..... :)

Transplant shock? What do you have that is in shock, Ezzirah?

Dawn, I found a worm on the cabbage just now, so thought I would report.

Had my first asparagus come up yesterday too.

I've got green aphids in my onions. I only saw a few of them scurrying around on one plant, but I assume there are more. How aggressive do I need to be with them? Will the rain early next week be enough to knock them off or do I need to hit them now with a hose or neem oil? I suppose I need to check my peas too. Ugh. :(

Betty, The aspargus news is great. Hearing that cabbage worms are that far north this early is not so great.

Just because I said I 'rarely' see the diamondback moths and their cabbage looper offspring here, one of the moths came and landed right in the mulch beside me the next day, as if to say "I'm here!" So, I am sure I'll find some cabbage loopers on something any day now.

Heather, Have you seen any lady bugs around yet? If they are there, they'll gobble up the aphids in no time at all. At my house, when I first see aphids in the spring, if I ignore them, the lady bugs will show up approximately 3 to 7 days later and start eating the aphids. I haven't seen any ladybugs yet here, but then maybe I just haven't had anything for them to eat yet. It is still pretty early.

I don't think I've ever seen aphids on onions so am unsure if aggressive action should be taken. If you don't think they're doing too much damage, I'd wait and see if the rain handles them. Of course, if spraying with neem would make you happy because it is one less thing to worry about, then go ahead and zap them with it so you just don't even have to worry about it. The neem isn't going to hurt.

If the aphids are on the peas, I'd spray with neem if the lady bugs aren't around. Aphids can be quite damaging to peas and lots of folks don't check the undersides of the leaves for them, so don't realize they have an aphid problem until the leaves start showing symptoms. It is so much better if you can stop them before the leaves start showing damage.

Generally, the only insect I worry about with onions is thrips, although I rarely see them here. I watch carefully for the thrips because they can do a great deal of damage to onions.

I am seeing leaf miner damage on my cole crops and spinach, but that's pretty typical for this early in the year. I just ignore it and the miners generally go away.

Dawn

Here I've been seeing grasshopper nymphs on almost every warm day, since January. They are already growing too. Been waiting on this year's duck hatch, as they will scour the fields surrounding our home and garden. They love grasshoppers. First hatch of ducks was about three weeks ago. But they haven't fared very well. One windy night their momma took them down to the pond for the night and temps went down to 23 F. She lost more than half of them. Since then, she's lost yet another half. I suspect conditions have just been too harsh for free range ducklings.

I've said it before, but, for people with the right circumstances (space, mainly), ducks, especially Muscovies, are WONDERFUL. I've observed the ducks, for over a month now, chasing flies and moths. The ducklings do even better. Then, whenever we're feeling really pinched, financially, we'll pull a duck out of the freezer and have roast duck. It's nearly impossible to feel "poor" while eating roast duck!

We had ladybugs in the garden until January. Am hoping for an early return.

I'm slightly ahead on the garden this year, which is amazing. But this week I threw my back out. So... we'll get "back on schedule" soon.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Well that's the frustrating part. Aside from the one onion plant that has aphids crawling on it, all I see is the crinkled, distorted foliage. Two of my peas and several of my onions look like they had aphids feeding on them, but I looked under all the leaves and saw nothing. I'll keep checking to see if I can track down the culprit. I haven't seen any ladybugs, but I hope they arrive early like everything else.

I not seen any damages to Broccoli plants so far! I am sure they will be the first victim of the spring pests. I have hoop installed over broccoli beds to give some protection this time. Is this right time to cover them with row cover?

-Chandra

Chandra, You can install it anytime you choose. Both air and water permeate it, so it will not interfere with plant growth in that sense. It will slightly decrease the amount of sunlight they receive.

When I saw the first round of cabbage worms, I sprayed the plants with neem. I haven't seen any more yet. About the only pest I've seen is flea beetles, and with the weather about to heat up, they'll go away.
I generally don't cover up anything until the pests are present in large enough numbers that the damage they're doing bothers me.
Dawn

Thanks Dawn, I will probably wait for few more days or until I notice some on them. I have stocked both need and garlic barrier this time.

By the way, I have noticed that covering the greenhouse with 50% shade cloth have made seedling to grow taller and slender than what I had last year. I hope that is ok, as we have lot of the cloudy days since I covered the GH. -Chandra