Gardening help/Natural pesticides

[jejton]

I know there are a number of gardeners on here so I figured maybe someone has some advice. I have a couple of vegetable and herb patches here with a number of mixed plants. I've been finding a lot of holes in my leafy vegetables - lettuce, kale, broccoli - and am not sure if they are slugs/snails or something else. I did find small caterpillars on the lettuce and squished them, as well as placed beer traps for the snails and slugs ( though I havent seen any yet ). What else could be doing it? I prefer to avoid chemical pesticides whenever possible. can you recommend alternatives or a good site that has the info?

 

[jay1335]

I had beetles eating my veggies now I have deer!!!

 

[georgelc86]

Sounds like plants mites. Dont know the proper name but its pretty close. For normal plants you could spray a solution of water and a small bit of dishwasher soap to the leaves. But I assume that you use your herbs and veggies for food. For snails you can use crushed egg shells around the base of plants. The snails and slugs dont like to walk on the egg shells. As for the mites or amphids, which I think may be your issue, you can take a spray bottle to the undersides of the leaves with water. Bugs usually hide on the underside so spraying on top doesnt help sometimes. The addition of predadtory critters like ladybugs, who love to fest on amphids, and praying mantis with help you amazingly in terms of natural methods of pest control. Also, sometimes the best thing to do is to plant your herbs and veggies near some container gardens that contain either perrenials (make sure the perrenial is suited for your climate zone) or annuals or set aside a portion of your garden bed for the other plants since they will attract predatory critters as well. There is a wealth of info here to help you out.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_diseases_pests_insects/0,1784,HGTV_3580,00.html

 

[inkblue]

here's anotHer read :flower:

http://vegetablegardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/organic_pest_control_and_pesticide

 

[leoskee]

I noticed the same thing on my eggplant and peppers. The tomatos, cucumbers, lettuce and herbs show no signs of holes.

 

[Alexpescado]

Did you notice if the leaves are being eaten during the day or night.
Slugs will feed at night when it is cool. Most likely they are Japanese Beetles which love to feast on different vegetable leaves. You would normally see them feeding during the day. I just pick them off and dispose of them I am not sure of any natural methods ofcontrolling them.

 

[jejton]

Besides those tiny caterpillars I found ( and squished ) on the undersides of a few lettuce leaves, I haven't caught anything else in the act.

 

[leoskee]

I have noticed a lot of beatles around my house lately. Im going to have to look into this. Im off to google.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

I have a great product for slug control. There are several brand names, including "Sluggo" and Escar-Go". Its basically iron phosphate, covered with a yeasty bait. The slugs (not as effective on snails) eat it, stop feeding, and die a day or two later. It is far more effective than the commercial metaldehyde baits that kill the slugs outright in a pool of slime, but only gets the ones right near the bait, and then remains to poison other animals. This stuff is very safe and can be used in the vegetable garden. Over the years, I have eliminated about 90% of the slugs I used to have. Its available by mail from all garden supply companies, and I've even seen it at my local garden center. The version made by Garden's Alive (on-line catalog) also includes an organic bacterial insecticide....I have it, but haven't needed to use it yet...I still have my old box, and as I said, I don't have to use as much these days. Unfortunately, it is less effective on snails, which are beginning to replace the slugs....................

 

[jejton]

Caught the culprits. Anyone know what they are and what to do about them ( besides manual extraction ) ?

 

[masterswimmer]

Shoot this guy an email with your very detailed pix. I'm sure he'll be able to help you out.

swimmer

 

[KathyC]

Maybe?
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/cabwhitelge.htm

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Raise a few and see what they become....but for the rest, get any one of a number of Bt based insecticides. Bt is Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium that specifically infects and poisons caterpillars (other strains have been selected for potato beetles and mosquitoes). Bt preparations are available online and from probably any garden center.

 

[jejton]

Kathy - Bingo. Those are them and I've seen the butterflies. I shall crush them with my pinky..ahahahaha.

BTW - those corals I asked you about - they all survived except the xenia ( which disintegrated but I think that was because the bag developed a leak on the way home and unbenownst to me they barely had any water for an hour, and the ' pulsating sinularia' ( i'm pretty sure that was a wrong id because after almost all the tissue died I was left with a calcium skeleton. A few polyps are still alive and hopefully grow over. The Bali slimer actually is doing great.

 

[KathyC]

Happy to help out Jejton I got lucky on Google due to your great pics of the little bugs..err..buggers..lol

Sorry you lost the xenia, a skeleton on pulsing singularia huh? Hmmm, did you ask the seller about that or did you get them at a LFS? Have a pic?
Next time maybe an empty salt bucket & a powerhead in there for overnight and deal with them the next day?

 

[jejton]

The seller ( LIRA member who got it from Joe @ Atlantis ) is the one who gave me the ID. I told him my doubts when I saw the skeleton but he was very adamant that it was the correct ID. Either he mixed up corals when he got them or he gave me a frag of a coral different than what he intended to frag. I was going to put them in a bucket but you said without a heater it would be no good. Next time I have to just stay up and take care of them right away. The problem is I need to really start quarantining all my corals ( I've done it a few times but I dont have a light on my quarantine tank since its usually just for fish but it does get light spilled over frm the DT ) because now I have what I think is a field of feather calurpa growing on my overflow teeth.

 

[jaymo]

I think thoes will become monarck buterflys .

 

[jejton]

But monarchs lay their eggs on, and their caterpillars eat, milkweed plants only I thought.