I have a pepper plants and eggplants with leaves actually touching the infested tomatillos. So far none of the larvae or damage have been seen on any peppers or eggplants. I've been hand picking, but its hard to get em all (I have 8 tomatillos all heavily infested) Did I say they are disgusting looking too? http://www.forestryimages.org/images/768x512/1243165.jpg http://www.forestryimages.org/images/768x512/5364118.jpg The tomatillos I really don't care about anymore (they are so devastated it will take a while for a come back) I just don't want the same fate for my peppers. Thanks for the tips on hand and chem control. Al

I still feel like my garden is running on ahead of me on its own timetable and I'm just trying to stay caught up with it. It is hard to explain how far ahead of its usual self it is this year. It has to be the early heat that made everything grow unabated because all I did with the cool-season crops was plant them exactly right on time---not early. Some years I hang on to them for a while and don't get them planted as early as I could because I'm waiting for the really cold nights to warm up. The only difference this year is that it was so warm I planted on time and, also, that we got hot early so that they took off and grew quickly from Day 1 instead of sort of pussyfooting around while waiting for the cold nights to go away. We just weren't even having those cold nights. I'm about to harvest the last of the cabbage, and that normally doesn't happen until mid-June. Most everything has been a month ahead harvest-wise, and that has been consistent from the moment the first asparagus spears popped up out of the ground well over a month early. We may believe we are in control of our gardens, but I'm here to tell you that my garden has a mind of its own this year and it is doing whatever it wants whenever it wants and I just have to pay attention and harvest the stuff when it is ready. Not only did we get cauliflower this year (often, in spring, it is like Brussels Sprouts and bolts before it can produce a head), it was full-sized, delicious and matured really early. Sometimes with the onions, I am getting overly eager for them to hurry up and finish making leaves and to start bulbing up, etc., so I can move on with the succession crop for that bed. This year? As they began popping out of the ground in late April or earliest May, I was standing there sort of wringing my hands and saying "No, no, no, slow down....it's too early." I had been toying with the idea of side-dressing them with some nitrogen to push a little more growth since (I thought) they had plenty of time left to grow, but then I looked at them one day and realized they were mature and that was that. Clearly the words to them to slow down didn't help. When the onions are through, they're through, so now it is just a matter of waiting for the necks to thin out before I pull the plants out of the ground. Since May ran so short on rain so far (about 2" versus our usual May rainfall of almost 6") and I didn't irrigate the onions, they won't be huge. I doubt any will make it to softball sized, but a great many of them are larger than tennis balls and baseballs, and they've achieved that on about 12-13" of rainfall. The standard rainfall or irrigation needed to push onions to achieve their max size is roughly 21" in between the time they're planted in February and harvested in June or July, but mine are plenty big despite not getting even close to 21". I feel like Alice in Wonderland. It would be so awesome if the garden was this fast to produce huge harvests every year, but it isn't, so I'm just trying to enjoy this crazy year for however long the weather keeps everything so happy and productive. Not having the usual level of pests is great and would be wonderful all on its own. Having everything grow fast and produce early and finish up early is pretty amazing on its own. Having the two things happening together? It is beyond belief. And, it isn't just me who has early cucumbers either. You cannot find a Mrs. Wages' pickling mix package at all at the Wal-Mart closest to us, and that tells me that someone else other than me has a lot of early pickling cucumbers. And, to add to the feeling that the garden is running on its own schedule, and not mine, the tomatillos are blooming, and the first zinnias are beginning to bloom, and it isn't even Memorial Day yet. Tim said something a couple of days ago about Monday being Memorial Day and I told him that we aren't even close to the holiday yet--so, you see, the speedy garden even had him thinking it is later in the year than it actually is. The artichokes have produced chokes but since I just have the one plant that survived last year's flooding, I'm not going to harvest the artichokes. I'd rather leave them on the plant and let them bloom so the little flying creatures and I can enjoy them together. There's really not much left to do in the garden----now it is just a matter of maintaining and harvesting.

Thanks Dawn, I figured it was a long shot since its pretty generic damage. I haven't seen a single "bad guy" except a few flea beetles in the beginning and an earwig or two. No white flies (yet) or cucumber beetles. I'll just keep an eye out. I finally took the row cover off, hopefully more pests don't show up! Ha Hazel you're too funny. There's no magic I'm afraid. But thanks to you and Bon for the compliment! I use a heat mat to germinate, then a speed rack with florescent lights from Lowe's. Nothing fancy. I started them way too early along with everything else like beginning of Feb I think? I'm not sure. They got big and leggy under my lights, but I planted deep, covered with garden fabric, and hoped for the best! I really figured we would have cold enough weather to kill them but I just got lucky this year. I bought a plant once from TLC, but didn't realize you need more than one for pollination so it just grew, flowered, and nothing.. so I gave up until I figured out my mistake. I'm hoping this is my year because I'm dying to make some salsa Verde!

I feel your pain having my cucumbers devastated a couple of years ago. They ate the flowers and stopped any new fruit from developing. Old cukes were badly eaten/damaged. Last year, I grew my cukes under Reemay which was a massive PITA having to untuck and careful re-tuck them. I simply gave up checking them in the end. This year I am trying again, having read that nasturtiums are supposed to repel the beetles, I attempted to grow some from seed, but one seed germinated. Better than nothing I suppose so I have planted it. The other (important) think that I read was to plant late to fool the beetles into thinking there's nothing here worth eating! I planted out 4 cuke seedlings on June 15th, so we shall see...….. Linda