Susan,

I have seen a lot of ladybugs, including the cute little baby ones, in my yard and garden. I have seen lots of honey bees, bumble bees, and green lacewings, as well as numerous other small flying insects that I can't even identify. I've seen two dragonflies. We've had numerous butterflies, including both the blue/black swallowtails and the yellow swallowtails.

I haven't spotted any eggs on anything, yet, but do have aphids and spider mites. The mites seem early, but here in Love County we are having what I think will be categorized as our driest or second driest spring ever, so I am not surprised.

In a little while, I am going to order some beneficial insects to take care of the spider mites. Want to nip that population in the bud before it gets out of hand.

Dawn

I was just about ready to soap everything down when the lady bugs finally arrived. This happens every year. I stand by with the spray bottle and never use it!
The aphids seem to love to take up residence in the Autumn Joy sedum, but this year they and the white flies also hit the iris.
Be gone, nasty bugs!

Lady beetles have the prettiest of all beetle larvae [grubs].

Yes, they do! One bit me on the arm today, though, sneaky little sucker! I saw the Giant Swallowtails flying today also, and hope to find eggs on the Rue.

Got to go get my Pentas so I'll be ready for the sphinxids, or whatever they're called. I'm new at the moths and butterflies, altho I've been following them for several years now, I've never paid much attention to the food the other butterflies (other than the GSTs and EBSTs eat). Hey, TW59, I found a cute tiny larvae today on my azalea - about 1" long, but very thin, green with a yellow dot on it's back in the very middle, and a little black tail end. Have any clues? He didn't have any competition, so I just left him alone. I've got to get back on the butterfly forum.

I saw painted ladies today, too. I could not believe that it was 58 degrees when I got outside at 9:00 a.m. today. I had expected it to be closer to the 40's. I live off Classen and they were celebrating the Memorial Run, so my granddaughter and I gardened and danced to the music - what a great day! Channel 4 affiliate radio station was doing the deejaying.

Susan

I have seen more ladybugs this year than in the previous 3 springs. I take that as a great sign because they are such good eaters of bad things like aphids. (which I am already finding on my tomato plants) Of course it probably helps that I am not squishing their larvae as I did one year, not knowing what they were when I first saw them. *hanging head in shame*

Dawn, what predators are you getting for spider mites? I don't think I have that problem anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to be armed with the ammo.

~Heidi

Heidi,

Here's the scoop on predator mites. In addition to the red spider mites that are a problem in our climate on tomato plants and many other veggie plants and ornamentals, there are several predtor mites that are good mites. These include the species Phytoseiulus persimilis, Ambylseius cucumeris, and Metaseiulus occidentalis (aka Typhlodromus occidentalis).

The way to tell good mites from bad mites is that, if you look at them under a magnifying glass, the good mites are more oval in shape and move around more quickly than the bad mites. Most people have a mix of good mites and bad mites. The good mites help keep the bad ones under control. However, if you use any pesticide/miticide to try to get the bad mites under control, it will affect the good mites too.
So, I prefer to use the predators.

There are several sources for predator mites. Here's a few:

PLANET NATURAL, www.planetnatural.com They sell Phytoseiulus persimilis in amounts ranging from 2,000 for $44.95 to 6,000 for $87.95. If you need a LOT, they sell them in lots of 10,000 and up for $13.50 per thousand. Fed Ex shipping is included in their price.

TERRITORIAL SEED COMPANY, www.territorialseed.com They sell a blend of Phytoseiulus persimilis, Neoseiulus californicus, and Mesoseiulus longipes. Theirs are $42.95 for 500 or $59.95 for 1,000. I don't know if they charge extra for shipping.

GEMPLER'S, www.gemplers.com They have a great price. If I was writing this for a leading consumer magazine, I'd rate them a BEST BUY. They sell 1,000 phytoseiulus persimilis for only $24.00. I think Gempler's has great prices on lots of beneficials. Shipping and handling add a minimum of $6.95.

PEACEFUL VALLEY FARM SUPPLY, www.groworganic.com. They offer the widest selection and the most logical method of supplying the mite you need. You MUST tell them which type of bad mite you wish to combat, and they then will send the appropriate species of good mite. They have Neoseiulus californicus, Mesoseiulus longipes, Physoseiulus persimilis, Galendromus occidentalis or Neoseiulus fallacis. If you order on Mon. through Wed. of one week, they will ship the mites on Tues. of the following week. Theirs are $22.95 per thousand or 5,000 for $79.95. Shipping via UPS Ground or Fed Ex is included in their prices.

Arbico Organics has a spidermite predator from the ladybug family (Stethorus punctillum, I think) that they sell, but they are VERY EXPENSIVE, 100 for $106.45. www.arbico-organics.com.

I'm leaning toward ordering the blend of mites from Territorial.

By the way, there are other ways to control spider mites.

There's the traditional chemical miticide, Kelthane, which never worked for my dad and his gardening buddies although they used it religiously in the 60s through the 80s. My best guess, knowing what I know now, is that it probably killed all the good mites too, and the bad mites rebounded more quickly.

Other insects that will eat spider mites, although not exclusively, include Praying mantids (but they will eat everything, including other beneficials), Ladybug beetles, Minute Pirate Bugs, and Green Lacewings.

A couple of organic controls include:

1) Spraying your tomato plants (including the underside of the leaves) weekly with liquid seaweed or compost tea;

2) Spraying your tomato plants (including the underside of the leaves) weekly with Garrett Juice (www.DirtDoctor.com);\ (which is just an enhanced compost tea); and

3) Using products from Gardens Alive (www.gardensalive.com) like Pyola or Oil-Away (for fruit trees);

4) Using one of the hot pepper sprays, either a home made one or something like Hot Pepper Wax Insect Repellent.

5) Peaceful Valley Farm Supply has an organic miticide called GC-Mite, made of cottonseed oil, clove oil, garlic extract, water and other stuff. It is VERY EXPENSIVE.

There, Heidi, is more than you probably wanted to know about spider mites. Some summers I find them to be a major pest, and other summers they aren't too bad. I bet the key is to maintain a balance between the good bugs and bad bugs.

Hey, I just spoke to DH on the phone and it is possible a tornado may have done damage in southeastern Tarrant County (s/e of Fort Worth) in the last few minutes. Nothing like that here, though!

And, if there are any of you who think this info will come in handy this summer, please print it or save it. It took me a long time to write it, and in the summer when I am harvesting tomatoes, I won't have the time or patience to sit still long enough to write it again! :)

Dawn

My goodness, Dawn...that was a lot of wonderful information! Thank you! I have a feeling I will be traveling to a few websites today(during my breaks of course *clearing throat*)to see what I am going to spend my $$ on this time. I now have 24 tomato plants and would like to keep them as healthy as I can. DH says for all the money just invested in the cages he thinks we better get a bumper crop! I do need to spray something like a soap solution as some of the leaves have itty bitty holes in them. :-( The only insects I have seen so far are aphids. However, I have seen beetles on my tomatillos. I keep handpicking and squishing them. Ugh.

~Heidi (who DID copy and print the wonderful info) :-)

Heidi,

I have the same little holes on the lower leaves and get them every year. I ignore them, the plants keep on growing, and it all works out just fine.

Aphids always have a huge population explosion in late April or early May, depending on the weather. They are a little early this year. I always panic when I see how many of them there are. Then I calm down and decide to take a "wait and see" approach for a couple of weeks. If I am patient, the ladybugs, of which there are many, will keep munching away busily and will get the aphid population under control. About this time of year the green lacewings begin to appear and they will do their part too.

If you can't stand waiting for the good bugs to do their thing, you can spray your plants with a good hard blast from the hose and it will knock off a lot of the aphids and spider mites. Target the underside of the leaves. This is easiest if you have one of those nozzles that puts out a good blast of water. Insecticial soap is always an option, but remember that anything you spray will hurt your good bugs too! As hard as it is to bear watching the bugs chewing on your leaves, I don't think they do enough damage to affect your crop. They just leave the foliage a little sad looking.

And, yes, with all the time and money invested in the plants and in getting them planted in the ground, you have to do what you have to do to protect your crop. That is why I don't mind spending the money for predator mites and other beneficial insects.

If you feel like you don't have a lot of beneficial insects in your neighborhood, which is very possible if you have a lot of neighbors who use insecticides, you can get some great gardener's combo packs that might feature a combination of lady bugs, praying mantids, green lacewings and trichogramma wasps for a pretty reasonable price. The combo packs are available from most of the same sources from which you would obtain the predator mites.

Happy Gardening....and looking forward to Happy Harvesting!

Dawn

Thank you again, Dawn. You have relieved some of my anxiety by saying you have those same holes. And yes, mine are the lower leaves too. Wonder what it could be..slugs maybe? Do you leave those leaves or pull them off? I will hold off on the sprays for a while and will order a mixed pack of the beneficials. I squish all the aphids I see. I usually am in the garden in the evening during the week and hesitate to spray water on the plants then because I read I might encourage the fungal problems. *LOL* Guess one can't win for losing some days.
I just want a nice bountiful harvest this year.(don't we all?)Last year was a poor one for all my plants and I am ready for a good year again. Besides...after the cost of the toms I mail ordered plus the tomato cages I bought (the really big ones) I need lots of tomatoes to justify those to myself and DH. :-)))))
~Heidi

Heidi,

When your tomato plants have tiny holes in the lower leaves, they are usually caused by flea beetles. They aren't usually a problem as long as the plants have more than 4 or 5 leaves. They can kill very young seedlings that have only a few small leaves, though.

I leave the tomato leaves alone. I'm afraid that if I pull off the hole-y ones, the flea beetles will just move up to the next lower set of leaves. If you have enough flea beetle holes that it worries you, you can spray with a pyrethrin spray or dust. Flea beetles are hard to kill, though, so I don't know if it is worth the bother.

Usually a healthy tomato plant can tolerate quite a bit of damage from the bugs. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just wait and see how it goes.

Dawn

So, Dawn, about those good aphids. You know, every year (except for this year since I threw the plant away), I get the orange aphids that are typical on milkweed. I never kill them, because I also get tons and tons of lacewings. Last year, I had lacewing eggs by the hundreds all over the yard. Anyway, these aphids move constantly. When I first caught a glimpse of them, in fact, I thought they were something entirely different because of the constant movement. The aphids I had seen in the past, on my morning glories, for instance, were almost stationary, while the orange ones twitch and flip like they had too much coffee in the morning.

We've discussed this on the butterfly forum before (feel free to jump in here Tomato_Worm), because everyone worries about their milkweed plants being devoured or destroyed by these aphids. I have always found that just leaving them alone attracts more beneficials than heading for the insecticidal soap to rid the plants of them. And then in a month or so, they're usually down to a very minimal population, with little damage potential.

What do you guys think?

Susan

Hi Susan!

I absolutely agree with your approach!

Too often you will see many people panic and run for the pesticide/insecticide/miticide or insecticidal soap/neem/etc. with little thought for the overall consequence of their actions.

I know that God created every single creature for a reason, and this is true in the garden just as it is in the rest of the world. When a gardener tries to wipe out any given pest, they disrupt the food chain and throw everything off balance. Once your bug populations are out of balance, it is very easy for any given pest to overpopulate and become an actual problem (instead of being perceived as a problem just by their presence in the garden).

Your example of the milkweeds, aphids and green lacewings is an excellent example. Suppose a butterfly lover were able to wipe out ALL the aphids. With no food to support their population, the green lacewings will either move on to an area with a good supply of food, or they will die. That butterfly gardener's entire garden is then more vulnerable to any bug infestation because the lacewings aren't around any more to keep other bug populations in check. So, obviously you have done the correct thing by letting the natural system work in your landscape.

If I have learned anything at all from a lifetime of gardening, it is that the various insects will pretty much take care of each other. That's one reason I prefer to release beneficial insects...it is working within the natural system instead of outside of it.

Could you and I ever convince some of those butterfly gardeners to let the aphids stay on the milkweed and then let the green lacewings take care of the aphids themselves?I doubt it. I think the whole 'working within the realm of nature and its cycles' thing is a unique wisdom a gardener acquires over time. Some people catch on to it sooner, some later, and some never.

Does this mean that I don't panic when a specific bug population appears to be out of control? No. Of course I still get concerned. But I try to figure out first if there is an actual problem. I try to wait it out and see if nature will correct the situation (it usually does). I try to determine if the damage...like holes in leaves, for example,...is just something that is "visually unpleasant" or is actually damaging to the plant. And I have learned, through the years, that often the best action to take is "no action".

So, I guess our approach is best thought of as working with nature, instead of against it, and how can that be wrong?

Dawn (who is tired and will now climb down off her soapbox and stop ranting)

*applauding* Great words of wisdom. I am still so new to the whole gardening thing that I do worry a bit more maybe than I should. But I will try and take more of a wait and see approach. I have been doing that with my fruit trees. They "should" be sprayed against insects, but I figure that even if I don't spray I still end up with more than enough fruit for myself. If I were a commercial grower I would have to think much differently.

~Heidi (who is going to cross fingers that the good bugs will outweigh the bad bugs-but will still keep a close eye on'em.)

Tomato Worm, are you serious about the grubs???????? I didn't know that I have been feeding my pet robin baby ladybugs. When digging, if I find a grub I toss it behind me and I always seem to have a bird of some kind, following me around while I am working outside.

Broken Lady,

The ladybird beetle larvae are not the usual kind of grubs we see. I think the eggs (yellow or orange ones, maybe?)are laid on the leaves of plants that have aphids as an available food supply. The eggs hatch right on the plant and then the little larvae eat aphids like crazy as they grow.

By the time I notice the larvae they are fairly good sized, so I don't know what they look like when they first hatch. Right now, in my garden, I have some that look like miniature gray alligators with pinkish-coral spots, and others that are sort of drawing up their bodies into a VW beetle shape and seem to be transforming into real ladybird beetles almost right in front of my eyes

Below is a link with some pictures. Scroll down past the pictures of mature beetles and you'll see the pictures of the larvae. The first time I saw ladybird beetle larvae in my garden, I thought we had been invaded by some strange bug. Then, a little research revealed I was worried about nothing....as is so often the case!

Hope you're finding lots of grubs for your baby robin!

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: lady bug life cycle

Thanks for the link, Dawn. I was wondering the other day when out in the yard. I noticed several hard cases on the leaves of plants that appeared to be little ladybug tanks. I think these are in the process of metamorphosing into the actual ladybug stage, from the larval stage.

Susan

Susan,

I love my ladybugs! I bet those things you saw are the metamorphosing ones. It is really something to see them in the garden in all their different stages. And I think it is fun looking for links that show visually what I sometimes struggle to describe verbally!

I was just googling to find a picture of wild strawberries to go with your latest post, and discovered there is a music group called the Wild Strawberries! I learn something new every day!

Dawn

Hey, Dawn, don't I know? About struggling to find what things look like.

Especially with the strawberry plant. I wasn't sure at all what it was, so didn't even know where to start looking. I mean what do you google "unknown plant"?

This plant also resembles my astilbes, too. I really need a camera. I am learning more and more about insects from this forum, and also the butterfly forum. I am finding that the older I get, the less I know.

Susan

"I am finding that the older I get the less I know"...oh, how that made me laugh, simply because it is so very true!

Do you remember what it was like to be 18 or 20 or 24 years old and to feel so "mature" and "knowledgeable" about everything???? So, here we are, even more "mature" than we used to be, and we're finding out that there is so much we don't know!

I am reminded over and over again of Thomas Jefferson's famous quote: "Though an old man, I am but a young gardener." Ain't it the truth!

Dawn

I keep going back to Thoreau's, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". I think he was talking about gardeners, altho I don't think my desperation is very quiet, especially if I spy that gotta have plant in the opposite corner of the greenhouse.

When we were very young......ah, I don't remember knowing anything, but thinking that I knew it all!

Happy Sunday!

Susan

Susan,

Love the quote from Thoreau, and agree with you that he MUST have been referring to gardeners, as he was quite a master at growing things himself. I saw a book the other day that I intend to buy and read one of these days--it was called THOREAU'S GARDEN.

And, yes, I SO remember being young and thinking I knew it all, only to grow up and realize now that I really didn't! (And still don't. And never will.)

Missed you at the swap. I hope that you are feeling better today.

Have a happy Sunday too! Can you believe it is May?

Dawn