It's that time of fortnight again - it's time to share with other gardeners! Every fortnight I post on a theme and all you need to do is comment, preferably with a photo, and make sure you come back and engage with others in the Hive Garden Community.
Last fortnight's theme was SEASON CHANGE and there were some lovely comments 209, in fact, making it hard to keep up! Some of you were AMAZING at engaging with others as well, coming back and appreciating what others had written. This time I'm awarding 2 HIVE each to @farm-mom, @steven-patrick and @clareartista!
This week's challenge is GARDEN PESTS. If you've been following my blog you'll know I'm having a war with rabbits, and possibly a possum, who managed to get over the cage around this lovely lavender and snip off the tops. It's driving me crazy.
Deer, aphids, blackbirds, possums and even dogs and cats frequently appear as unwelcome guests in the garden. Mosquitos can stop us enjoying it and snakes can lurk terrifying in the shrubbery. What plagues you? How do you deal with it? And photos are appreciated too! Don't forget to engage with others.
There's always a few HIVE as prize, as I like to reward where effort is clear. However, I hope you just enjoy the conversation with other HIVE Gardeners!
And don't forget, the October challenge starts on the 1st, so have your posts ready!
@plantstoplanks @sofs-su @nikv @owasco @buckaroobaby @farm-mom @thebigsweed @polesinns @andrastia @holisticmom @queenoftheworld @porters @amygoodrich @fanyokami @phoenixwren @anafae @tanjakolader @yolithy24 @andrastia @minismallholding @goldenoakfarm @nateonsteemit @sanjeevm @kennyroy @simplymike @dodovietnam @babeltrips @trangbaby @kaelci @shanibeer @proto26 @ifarmgirl @foxfireorchards @artemislives @edprivat @meesterboom @momogrow @attn @luckylaica @blingit @traisto @skylinebuds @fotostef @tydynrain @hindavi @vibeof100monkeys @samstonehill @anttn @friendlymoose
With Love,
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No pests when you've got your own predators! Though I'm lucky that we don't suffer from Rabbits or Cane Toads!
Check out this post about seeing things a little differently from a more ecological perspective that you can apply to pests as well as butterflies.
There are certain pests that can be combated by building fences (animals in general), nets (especially for birds, in Europe they cover the tops of fruit trees to prevent birds from pecking at the fruit), greenhouses, etc.
The results are usually quite acceptable.
I don't have this problem because my garden and my orchard are perfectly closed, the only animals that can give me some annoyance are the cats which are impossible to control since they move on roofs, rooftops, walls, etc. without any difficulty. But they do not change too much damage. They only leave their droppings in the middle of the vegetables and that makes it necessary to wash them very carefully, especially when they are eaten raw.
My problem is another as you can see in the photo: it is the white or cottony mealybug of the fruit trees. That not only attacks the leaves but also the fruit of citrus especially. They even favor the arrival of small ants that feed on them, contributing to further weaken the plant because then the ants follow their path and attack the rest of the plant.
This year I have managed to control this pest with an energetic pruning. The orange and tangerine trees are already blooming. Let's see how this story ends in a few months. For now, the white mealybug and the ants are gone.
Greetings to all who participate in these very elaborate comments. I am learning many new things.
Yes @goisal animals is another problem with our garden. Last week we do put some fences in our garden to protect them from cows and goats.
A garden with no challenge is no garden at all. Frustrating as it is I an sure you will find a way to work around it. I am told human urine stink keeps animals away.
LOL I don't know how you'll do it, but you could give it a thought.
I have some scaly insects which have adapted themselves to the hibiscus plant and have colonized it. These have successfully stopped my plant from blooming. Neem oil mixed with dish wash soap is my answer. I have been at it for the last few days since I discovered them. Take a look at these tiny crab like creatures. They are the same color as the flowers, notice the petal in the same image.
Ew! What horrible things! I have heard Neem oil is good. Good luck getting rid of them!
Have you tried that urine thing sis @sofs-su?
Might help using ash. In India we have quite similar and people use wood ash for that.
Years past it was the dreaded Colorado potato beetle,whom I would capture and rehome. Went most of the year without one, but by the time they appeared I had a bigger problem. The deer bit off all the tops off my greenbeans and potatoes [which I haven't planted in years]-and ripped a big limb off a new [golden delicious] apple tree relative to its size [I tried rooting hormones to try to grow some cuttings from the limb, but no luck getting a new tree out of it]. I put up a home made fence around the garden and they still got to them, so I pretty much stopped caring about the garden after that.
With the price of meat, I doubt the deer will make it past hunting season. 8(
Tried the zip lock bag trick again this year on the apple trees to keep out plum curculios, but appears I bagged them too late or they still got in the baggy anyways. Also the blue jays started to peck through the ziplock baggies to eat the apples, including my lone cortland on a 3 y/o tree.
I can't really say, other than apples [and soon peaches], I presently have an insect pest problem. Alphids got my brocolli pretty bad in the past, so I stopped growing them. After squash bugs attacked my curcrubites years ago I stopped growing them, aside from some cucumbers after a year off. Rose Chafers got my neighbor's new cherry tree pretty good this year, til finally I put some plastic baggies (didn't have netting available) on the ends to protect the new foilage...but that might have done more harm than good.
I am curious about trying the brix number thing next year, but I don't really want to store things like manganese chelate or other redox chemicals around our house per reason of pets.
video source:Advancing Eco Agriculture,
Oh garden pests. Last year, I declared a war with some of them. I don't know its name but that tiny white small bugs that ate all of my basil leaves and tomatoes. At first, when i saw them I was too naive thinking they are cute so I left them enjoying my basils. After a week or so I had no idea where they were from but I found so many. I decide to take them by hand, then rinse the basil plants with water to remove them. Eventually, I couldn't win so I had to chop off my basils. Still don't know how to chase them away but this year I will make sure to remove them asap.
Oh no not the basil!!! I love basil. Good luck fighting them this year!
Thank you. This year, I will make sure but to find them and remove them asap
Those are some nasty animals spoiling your crops! It's sometimes hard to find a friendly way of removing them.
As an amateur gardener that just started a small vegetable garden in his own backyard I also have small problems.
I had planted broccoli and the leaves were showing holes after a few weeks.
I suspected snails to nibble on the leaves, so I put pieces of broken egg shell and residu from grinded coffee beans around them....
Until I found out that the culprit was even smaller than I suspected:
I found this little guy on one of the leaves one day. Very tiny, but since it was just another shade of green than the leaves, I managed to spot him.
Maybe you could send me some of your birds @riverflows so they can remove all my caterpillars :D
Those would be a nightmare for me. I would need my reading glasses to find them 🙄
Haha. I was lucky that it was much brighter colour green than the leaves of the broccoli.
But I had to get really close to the plant too 😄
hahaha me too!
Well that's interesting! I wonder if blackbirds get the caterpillar from under the leaves? I know they eat grubs in the soil. @ligayagardener might know? I tend to use the beer method. About 4on, stand in garden with beer, and pluck the caterpillars from the broccoli. Haha .. no the only think I know to do is net them so the moths or butterflies don't lay them in the first place! Grrrr... ***Shakes fist at broccoli munchers
I know 'tits' catch a lot of caterpillars when they make a nest. I have a nest box in our backyard which has a nest almost every year.
But it's autumn now and they will start making their nests in spring.
These tits I mean (own photo).
aw, birds are such good peat controllers!!
They're pretty opportunistic!
oh wow this tiny little one will be hard to spot on the vegie garden, you have to look very closely to find them. I remember one of my plant got bitten and it took me so long to find it because the bug hide inside the plant.
cabbage looper worm? might need some netting to keep the white moths off the plants, unless you want to use some type of pesticide.
Oh we found the same thing in our garden. They really loves the leaves of our plants.
Hello friends I tell you that in the comments challenge I told you about my sunflower plants, they are growing and soon will be born .I first flower, but in recent days I do not know if by the rains there are snails, these I can finish them, but now came out a kind of very hairy black worms, I do not know how to remove them, thank God has not fallen to all plants but multiply very fast.
I think you feel very itchy if that things touch your skin. You can remove them but use some gloves or anything to cover your skin from them.
Yes, I also think they burn the skin I remove them with a stick but they reproduce very fast and eat the leaves.
How they reproduce? through the eggs? It looks so creepy.
The truth is that I have no idea how they reproduce, I only see them when they are already there, they are horrible.
Every morning we check on our little garden and we always find out that the leaves are almost half and others have design. We always wonder who did it because we cannot find anything. One day, my husband saw one grasshopper and we thought it is the one eating the leaves. At night we also checked and found out a snail enjoying in our garden. We picked it up and removed it from our garden.
The time we harvested our pechay and raddish then we fount that things in the picture. It is the one eating those green leaves. Fun thing, my husband is a little bit afraid of it so I am the one who get and even hold it. Glad I still have that picture and i have something to attached here.
It's funny that your husband is afraid of it, haha. Yes, that looks like the bug that eats my broccoli for sure! It's so frustrating, but catching them in the act and removing from the garden is definitely the best way to go.
Yes he really is lol. Of everything he is afraid of small moving worms lol. Can't believe at first but thats the fun fact hehehe.
We deal with an array of pests in the gardens. Rabbits got to the string beans, slugs go after the potatoes and Japanese beetles eat my roses. Pisses me off.
Grrrrr!!!!! It's so hard to remain equanimous... You know bugs are part of garden life but if you could eradicate them from the universe you would!!!!!
Oh God no, we need to keep the balance, my deal is to control them, remind those buggers we are in charge, and we can live in peace. Just don't eat toooooo much!!😄
Hahaha!!!
Have you tried using blood meal as a deterent to the pesky unknowns that are nipping off the tops of your beautiful lavenders? 💜
Sprinkle a light amount of blood meal across the leaves and at the base of the plants, then cross your fingers and hope it works! 🌬🌿🤞
Upvoted and curated! @riverflows
I have! But the possum, rabbit or other marsupial just laughs at my efforts 😂😭😭
Honery little pests, aren't they?! It's too bad that doesn't work because blood meal is my first choice when I have a nuisance visitor.
Hmm. My mom and dad were successful in this area using moth balls or moth flake as repellents. Give that a try! @riverflows
After I researched moth balls being used outdoors turns out it is not a good idea and very toxic to the soil and environment.
Here is an environmentally safe, homemade recipe to try instead! @riverflows
Wow!!! I will have to try that! I'll make a big cat of it!!! Now to find some garlic ..
Good day to you @riverflows.
Thanks for the hive, so nice of you.
It's funny that you are talking about lavender, I am harvesting mine this morning. I already dried out the flowers I clipped last week, now I am making sachets from the last of the live leaves. I love the stuff.
Trying hard to get back into #hive, it's been a tough few months for me. My youngest sister has been very sick, she already is compromised since a car accident 28 years ago left her paralyzed from the chest down. She has suffered so much, but her will to live is inspiring, she's a fighter and has improved in the last two weeks.
So, as a pick me up, I am enjoying my lovely lavender.
Thanks again for all your support.
I love lavender. We have a couple of different types in the bed in front of our house. The bees love it. It always brings a smile to my face to stop and watch the bees. I should bring some in. I'm sure it will be a great pick me up. Hope its working its magic on you 🙂
Good morning @steven-patrick, sounds like you have a nice property. Lavender is so nice on the skin, my working hands sure do enjoy it, but I couldn't make the oil this year, not enough flower. But I did harvest enough for sachets.
Thanks for dropping by.
I am so sorry to hear that darling. It's hard on our hearts to watch loved ones suffer so. Lavender is a lovely balm. May I suggest rose petal tea as well? Gardens are so good for our suffering 💕 hearts. Much love!!
Aww thanks, river, I am willing to try anything on her, she has a beautiful heart. My gardens are good for my soul. She has said to me, 'ya gotta let go ' God bless her heart. She is an inspiration.
Ooooh, thank you dearest @riverflows! This is a lovely reward to receive indeed, for enjoying and connecting! The comments post challenge is a beautiful way to get a convenientcross-section of current activity. 💚🌍💐🙏 I hope to participate in this challenge, with bugs and gremlins in my electrics 😋😫
Fabulous. I'll send the Hive over in morning when I am on my laptop!
💐😍🤩
We had to go around the property today and find all the blackbird nests. They've reached plague proportions and whilst I don't mind a few, as they eat grubs in the soil, I can't plant a single seedling with them ripping them out. We found six nests each with a few eggs in. Better to take the eggs rather than kill baby birds which I can't bring myself to do. Two were in the engine bay of the guest bus, three in bushes and this beautiful one was in the basket of my bicycle! They are so beautiful. But I just can't live with them tearing apart my garden and can't even imagine another twenty birds around. Fun fact, they were released five miles from here in the 1800s as the landowner was dead keen on the europification of the countryside. Same with the rabbits. If I had a time machine I'd go back and kill him. Worse than Hitler.
I feel you. I used to work in a blueberry farm and we were told to kill baby birds and eggs if we found them. I couldn't do it at all, try to protect the birds and eggs. One of my workmates even tried to bring a small bird back home to save it. But, they can easily ruin the crop over night if we don't remove them from the trees and all of our efforts will vanish.
It's awful isn't it? Not a nice thing to do ...
No not at all. Later I find it was a bit easier to remove the eggs but not the baby birds :(
I would never have thought of birds as pests but I totally feel you. Introducing a new organism in an ecosystem that has no enemies is at least stupid, if not criminal!
Are, at least, the eggs any good for an omelet? 😂
I adore birds and since we have had this garden and planted for them, we have so many beautiful native ones. But the blackbirds are an introduced species that also chase the native birds away as well as tear up the garden. I adore birds, but hate blackbirds with a passion!!!!!
Humans seldom improve nature with their changes 🤦♂️
You make me laugh, so passionate. I don't like blackbirds either but for us, the chipmunks were so abundant this year we had to pick a few off with the bb gun to keep bird seed in the feeders, drove me crazy.
We can't even have a bb gun here, with a licence etc etc etc!!! So frustrating. Haha yeah I get a bit carried away...
Hi and greetings how are you? This is a good selection for awarding these hive gardeners. they are very clever and their comments are really top ones. a hug ❤️😊
I love the comment challenge, it's a fun conversation! 💚
Yes, it was.
Thanks @riverflows! Be careful when you send my prize because you spelled my name wrong AGAIN! lol its steven with a V. Can't wait to see everyones pests this week. Fun topic 🐛🐰🐿️
Lol, I rush sometimes. Hive doesn't let you send it to the wrong person so unless theres a stephen-patrick out there irll be okay 😂🙈
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 35/55) Liquid rewards.
Not much happening in mine. Packing up and moving to sunnier pastures. Then I'll be growing again 👣
Oh wow, where are you moving????
Moving back down to Cornwall away from too much madness. Just trying to find a house. But I have a job sorted and planning to move before Xmas 🙏🏽. Hope you are well 🐒
Those tiny things can really do a number on vegetation, we found them in our cabbage this year. We would use a hose and flush them out with blasts of water, but we had to check them everyday.
This is on the phone mega zoom but they are FROLICKING in the lower acres. Jamie ordered a bow and arrow and we are going to learn to shoot. I think those rabbits will be fine this year as I cant imagine our aim will be brilliant but watch out next year, bunnys!! Yesterday we cleared a lot of grasses and lower limbs so they had less places to dig and hide in garden proper.
This baby is outside our bedroom! I chased it around the garden in my underwear at 6.30 am like a banshee 😂😂😂
Omg you are 😜 although I have been known to dance in the rain naked so who am I to judge haha
I love that thought so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's the bugger that kept attacking my roses.
They can be so beautiful but such assholes!
Hahaha, I know right? But they are gone now and I will be ready for them next year.
Aaaahhhhh: this is SUCH a fascinating subject - and thread.... I could ramble on here for hours, but will try to be concise... I come from a climate (S. W. Scotland) where slugs, snails and aphids eat all plants, and midges, clegs and mosquitoes eat all humans. Even this particularly harsh year for biting insects in Italy doesn't come close ... So my general feeling, being outside of Scotland, is that most things are tolerable/ managable.
Since studying permaculture, biodynamics, lunar cycles and the like - I started to wake up/ have more confidence in, my holistic instinct about insect life. My sense is that insects are simply an expression of our collective conscious + our interrelationship with Gaia Sophia: anything 'proliferating' and/ or 'inconvenient' for us humans as we insert ourselves into natural ecosystems, is a symptom of soil, immediate environment and the elements. So there are limitations tobthe usefulness of our interfering - in the same way that our human health depends on our capacity to find equilibrium with our environment and relationships.
The most efficacious 'medicine' I've used, on a particularly dis-eased lemon tree outside my house, is soapy water. Organic soap mixed wuth tapwater, in a pump sprayer. I've had incredible success in balancing out multiple issues of stress-related funghi and then aphids , ants and other insects that have joined in the dynamic work of bringing the tree back to the earth... The tree feels more cared for, and has had a lot of offerings and good vibes gifted to it, and a very necessary blanket in winter. 😍🌞💐
My plant, seed, cuttings choices tend to be local, hardy, in-season type things - and I would never plant on bare soil or in rows or unnatural layering. I know that a good biodiversity and complex layering, companion planting, optimising microclimates, etc, is essential to not having pest problems 🙏🌈💚🌍🥰
These are the worse pests these imported brown snails that bothers everybody's garden here. We don't mind if they eat leaves or flowers or fruits. but they left the slim all over the plants that are disgusting. After the rain, they are all over even on the roads, and forest. But thanks to the hedgehog living in our garden helping us to protect our plants.
Omg HUGE!!