My Garden Is A Mess This Year!

[MrSalvage]

I have a very bad case of BER. On Top of that the horn worms are everywhere. Not to mention my pumpkins & squash. My lord i don't even know where to begin.

I Know for a fact i have picked off "at least 200 toms" and thrown them in the bushes because of BER.

I took a picture of what i believe is scatt from the worms.

I took a picture of the little soldier eggs and the ants that are on my pumpkins ect...

Not to mention spot & speck on some of the toms.

How do I even start to rectify these issues???

My Lord!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Bill

[RayR]

If you've got hornworms, you get scat. Do any of the hornworms have the white parasitic wasp cocoons on their backs? If not, do you have BT?

If those are soldier beetle eggs on the pumpkin, that's one good thing, they're predators.

The ants are farming all those aphids, they are after the honeydew.

[MrSalvage]

Most do not have the cocoons yet. They are on a few different type of plants like Parsley, Hot Peppers & Toms so far. That one tom I took a picture of freaked me out. I don't know if that is scat or not. I googled it and didn't find pictures of scat. So is that scat or larva. All i know is it is all over the place.

Yes i do have BT and other chems as well. I bought some stuff in case i needed to go nuclear as well. I can't remember the name but will dig out all the chems.

How can I tell if those are soldier beetles or not?

I know i have some mineral oil here. I think I see Worth post about using that for the aphids.

Ray thank you so much for the reply.

[RayR]

You said "little soldier eggs", I thought you knew what they were. Maybe someone else can identify exactly what those eggs are.

That's scat for sure.

Try the term "frass" instead of scat and your search will work:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?v...h=497&expw=640

The best way to get them to stop eating quickly is to find them ( by looking for frass or where they're eating ) and just pick them off by hand. They can do a lot of damage, fast. If they have the white wasp eggs sticking out though, let them be! You'll be glad you did, next year.

Good luck!

[b54red]

There are so many insect eggs that look similar. Those could be leaf footed bugs which are a real pest but they could also be something good for your garden. I am no entomologist. I like to keep an eye on eggs like that and see what comes out of them and when I am sure what they are I can either kill them or let them be.

Bill

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by RayR

You said "little soldier eggs", I thought you knew what they were. Maybe someone else can identify exactly what those eggs are.

That's scat for sure.

Thank you for your time Ray! I will keep a close eye on the eggs.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by MdTNGrdner

Try the term "frass" instead of scat and your search will work:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?v...h=497&expw=640

The best way to get them to stop eating quickly is to find them ( by looking for frass or where they're eating ) and just pick them off by hand. They can do a lot of damage, fast. If they have the white wasp eggs sticking out though, let them be! You'll be glad you did, next year.

Good luck!

Thanks for your post as well. Frass was the word I needed. Yep that is exactly what i have. Big piles of it. I pulled 6 hornworms yesterday. None had the wasp eggs on them. They were doing a serious damage to my toms. I haven't had the chance to go back thru and check all my peppers and eggplant.

I fed the worms to my chickens but they wouldn't touch them. So i stomped all of them. I have been out once so far today looking but haven't found anymore yet.

Any idea how long it takes for the wasp eggs to kill the worm?

Thanks again for your time as well.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by b54red

There are so many insect eggs that look similar. Those could be leaf footed bugs which are a real pest but they could also be something good for your garden. I am no entomologist. I like to keep an eye on eggs like that and see what comes out of them and when I am sure what they are I can either kill them or let them be.

Bill

Bill thanks for your post as well. I will keep an eye on them. As I have 7 dust and permethrin as well as other chems around here. So far i haven't had to use a thing which is just fine with me. I will get some pictures when I see what has hatched.

Thanks to all who have helped me. I was really freaking out about all that Frass. As it was all over quite a few of my plants. I wish I didn't have so much work to do outside my garden this year. I just can't keep up with it this year...

[MrSalvage]

I wanted to add a personal note here. I seen my first bumble bee today working over my pole beans! I haven't seen one in a long time. Nothing but carpenters around here.

[Starlight]

The hormworms are in full force. It does help some if you can find the time to scout several times a day. I scout two to three times a day and finding them. Noticing the frass helps. If you see it, start checking all the leaves. darn things are very good at hiding on leaves and under them too. You can check a plant all over walk away and come back and find more of them. grrrrrrrrr.

Check too ones with holes in them. Some damage may not be from the hornworms alone. There a small brown looking worm that eats holes and stays hidden inside the tomato. It leaves a bunch of frass too. BT was suggested to me to get rid of them. Think Ginger called them a tomato fruit worm. Worse than the hornworms. At least those you can see.

[matereater]

Whenever I have hornworm problems I will trim off the already eatin branches which I find makes it easier to find new ones or ones youve missed, you just look for newly eatin areas.

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

I wanted to add a personal note here. I seen my first bumble bee today working over my pole beans! I haven't seen one in a long time. Nothing but carpenters around here.

It's so great to see those first bees and butterflies of the season
One of many wonderful reasons to keep a garden is to watch the flying parade!

Originally Posted by matereater

Whenever I have hornworm problems I will trim off the already eatin branches which I find makes it easier to find new ones or ones youve missed, you just look for newly eatin areas.

I'm going to try this, thanks matereater!

Oh, speaking of a flying parade, we have a bird's nest in the mortgage lifters! Just built a couple weeks ago out of some of our mulch straw. There are at least 2 eggs in it and sometimes when I'm out there she's (he's?) sitting in there on the eggs but keeping an eye on me.