Pest Control

I'm sure there will be a Great Pest Battle at some point, but I plan on using purely organic methods, such as soap or garlic sprays, manual work (plucking, trimming, barriers), traps, or ladybugs. This is, of course, in addition to preventative measures using plants such as marigolds, thyme, basil, and nasturtiums to keep bugs off the veggies and herbs. It'll be interesting to see what works.

Pests/methods so far:

Aphids:
- Sage, 4/20/09... a pile of babies wilted one seedling, but recovered. Picked off by hand, squished.
- Mint (chocolate only), 4/26/09... oh dear, they LOVE this mint. For three days I've been squishing them, possible 3o total. 5/1/09... what is this, an aphid party? Still only on the chocolate.
- Spitfire Nasturtium, 4/26/09... two babies found here. Squished!
* 5/1/09... Found an aphid on a mint that had been used by a wasp as a hatchery, which they use as biological controls in the greenhouse at work. The wasps lay a single egg, and the larvae grows and grows, keeping the aphid alive as it swells to ridiculous portions... eventually it secretes hormones that make the aphid go somewhere high and glue itself to the plant, and the wasp eats a perfect round trapdoor out the back of the aphid skin. Used to see these all the time in the greenhouse, but it was creepiest seeing the larvae inside twisting and turning while the aphid was still alive. Sorry, I crushed this when picking it off the leaf... next time I'll get a better picture!
- 5/12/09... not an aphid to be found.

It's great to know that nature's helping me out!Check out this wasp vs. aphid video if you're not squeamish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtUk-W5Gpk

* squishing aphids is supposed to release hormones that both attract ladybugs and freak out the other aphids. I will probably invest in some ladybug larvae a bit later in the season, 'cause for now squishing is keeping things under control but I can see this becoming a large job (not to mention gross).

Slug:
- Spitfire Nasturtium (pests are SUPPOSED to eat this one, it is a trap crop)... ate a third of a seedling leaf, easily recovered. Picked off by hand, tossed over fence (I can't help it, they're cute).
* will try the "stale beer pool" trap if these become a bigger problem.

Caterpillars:
- Radish (but in the Tomato pot), 5/1/09. Can't identify this thing yet! Any ideas? It was about an 8th of an inch long, suuuuper tiny. If I see any more, I might raise one just to see what kind of moth it makes.

It was dancing as though around a Beltane bonfire.

Look what it did to the smallest radish! There were 2 caterpillars, and 2 holey plants.
(I plucked it 'cause it was so tiny, might as well not risk contamination.)
I found a new caterpillar the next day, about the same size but light yellow with a clear head. It's now my prisoner (or pampered pet) in a mason jar, being fattened on fresh bits of radish leaves. It's grown to an inch in the past 10 days! No clue what sort of moth it'll turn into.

5/12/09: Caterpillar Pet: I have named him Snotface.

Little snow-white leaf-hopper type things that are too fast for me to catch or photograph.
- 5/12/09 I've seen one or two of them a few times, and each time they have eaten a HUGE chunk out of the 2 radishes in the nasturtium window box. There must be more than just 2 of them, I can't picture them consuming even more than the caterpillar pet.