Bugz

[nuts]

These are some of my favorite bugz

Like allways aphids are developing on my fava beans some where in may.
Everyone that have favabeans knows that.
A few years ago this 'problem' was quite heavy,but I never wanted to spray anything because this harms the good guys too,and anyway the damage is allways limited because they appear towards the end of the vegetation off the beans,though the appearance of the pods can become ugly.
My patience was rewarded because from two years ago or so,the aphids appeared and turned some tops of the favas beans black as usual.
But then a miracle appeared,the infestation declined before it became bad!!
There are a few bugs that can be hold for responsable.

This one is a fast moving smal wasp (well,say,it seems a hymenoptera to me)They are very active on aphid-infected plants.It's near to 1 cm long


This tiny beast might be even better,they appear in bigger numbers.
It's very small(about 3 mm,say about 0.1 ''),I guess a hymenoptera too but it looks rather strange,it could be a diptera(a fly)



I saw some extremely small bugs too,smaller then aphids,could not be confonded with aphids because so fast moving,but really too small for a pic.
By the way I took the pics on amaranth that have some aphid problems too.
Oh yes and there are always the ants,but as you know,they have nothing to do with the decline of the aphids.

Maybe any specialists over here?

[grunt]

If you can get at the affected plants with a hose, a fine hard spray of water will dislodge them, and they have a hard time getting back to the plant. The only real downside to this is that you have to do it pretty much daily, until the last of the eggs they have laid have hatched out. It will keep the numbers down though.

[ozarklady]

I mixed up a spray that the smell alone should have killed every bug for miles.
Didn't seem to faze them!
I used strong nicotine, bt, milk, and fish emulsion to feed the poor attacked leaves.
The plants look stronger, and yet, just as chewed up. And the lousy harlequin bugs are still there, they seem to enjoy a shower when I water! The plants put on new leaves overnight, just to get chewed some more.
Would spraying them more often help? Or if it didn't bother them the first time, not going to?
Today I also spotted some ordinary stink bugs, so they are chewing too, and a large grasshopper. I didn't spray all the garden, I did some test sprays on various plants.
No negative effects, but also no dead bugs... grrr.

I am seriously considering pulling them out, laying them flat, then covering with clear plastic and solarizing that bed, see if I can get it hot enough to roast those harlequin bugs! Maybe a heavy nicotine spray before? But, that whole bed smells like an ashtray and still the bugs are there!

[nuts]

Dan,

Oh,no!

I won't spray the aphids down with a hose.
What will my favorite bugz have to eat if there are no more aphids.
On the feves the aphids were destroyed fast enough to avoid any aphid-damage.
On the amaranth they disapear on one plant and then they reappear on other but I'm confident my favorite bugs will keep them under control.

I'm just asking myself wich one does the job,or maybe several species do part of the work.
Maybe some kind of nostalgy to my student time when I still hoped the'd let me do some research on this kind of subject.I need to get me a binoculair microscope.

By the way the spagna blanca is up to nearly 12' allready.I'm confident the'll make it up to 20' or more .The stokkevits is far behind,it doesn't seem a serious challenger for now.

cheers,
jaap

[grunt]

Stokkeivits may not catch up to Spagna Blanco for height, but will far surpass it for bulk of plant, if they do for you as they did for me.

[johno]

[grunt]

Beautiful!! I'm getting buzzed and inspected fairly frequently by them here, when there's no wind. A few years ago, I had one land on the eraser of a pencil I had sticking out of my shirt pocket, and eat a hornet. It started at the head, and consumed everything but the wings. Fascinating to watch, and gave me a five minute break from work.

[johno]

This morning's bugz...
i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_0617-1.jpg
i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_0612-1.jpg

[mnjrutherford]

Remember when I was talking about a bug vacuum? Stink bugs would be a main target...

www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27stinkbug.html

The "heads" in the article are turning to chemicals of course. But I'm wondering, do guineas eat stink bugs? Our guineas are out of the bug business this year because we are keeping them quarantined to the coop so they won't be exterminated by outside predators. Next years flock will be larger and they will have hatched here so hopefully they will attain a better survival rate.

I also think that a vacuum of some sort that could suck up nymphs and adults into a container of soapy water would be very useful. There are vacuums on the market but the ones under $15 are nothing more than an over rated toy. There is an agricultural model but the price makes it out of range for average folks like me.

Neither model is equipped to guarantee the death of the bug as it just sucks them into a chamber. I'm thinking that sucking them into a soapy water solution would be perfect as it assures death, it's cheap, and it has minimal environmental impact. Also, it's potentially organic depending on the type of soap you use.

Additionally, if the cost makes it widely available, you would have more people sucking up more bugs faster making for a more vigorous "attack".

Does this make sense? Would it really be as feasible in real life as it is in my head?

[ottawagardener]

Found while moving. I'm guessing Steatoda triangulosa.

[wildseed57]

I know that wasp are good guys, but I really hate red wasps they are one mean wasp, I have been stung by them more times than any hornet. I like bees even sweat bees as they were the only ones that seem to like my squash flowers and the flowers on my potted tamarillo tree. I did get a lot of wild honey bees that worked everything else my favorite garden critter was all the toads I had this year, as I had a bumper crop of crickets.
At night time when I went out with my little dog I had to watch where I stepped as there was always a little toad around.
George W.

[wildseed57]

Oh yes i wanted to add that one of my biggest problems this year was spider mites, normally i would just hose them down, but it was so humid that I had a bad case of mildew that I was afraid to hose things, I didn't have much of a problem with aphids like I did last year. I did try and grow Fava beans which were attacked by aphids and the more I tried to get rid of them with a water spray the faster the ants would replace them. I found that if i sprayed them with a mixture of soap and hot pepper extract that they and the ants would die and they would not come back to the same area at least for a while. I had better luck dusting the plants with D.E. and hot pepper powder which seem to last longer than the soap and hot pepper extract.
George W.

[ottawagardener]

Ladybugs eat/drink apples? Whattayano.