Photos of bugs in my south Florida garden

[mikej]

Thanks Scott! I do not have alot of knowledge to share is why I do not post very much. I have been reading on the TV forum though. I do not have access to any BT at the moment. I sprayed some Bayer Advanced last night and will pick up some BT for next time.

Hey Marsha, That is gross being in the fruit. I have a Better Boy, a Tasti-Lee, a German Giant, and 5 grape tomatoes that are almost ready to eat. Just waiting on them to turn. This winter has not been too bad as far as insects, but the fungi diseases have been a battle.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by mikej

Thanks Scott! I do not have alot of knowledge to share is why I do not post very much. I have been reading on the TV forum though. I do not have access to any BT at the moment. I sprayed some Bayer Advanced last night and will pick up some BT for next time.

Hey Marsha, That is gross being in the fruit. I have a Better Boy, a Tasti-Lee, a German Giant, and 5 grape tomatoes that are almost ready to eat. Just waiting on them to turn. This winter has not been too bad as far as insects, but the fungi diseases have been a battle.

Scott, don't get mad at me for what I am about to say, but if you are not an organic only person like Scott is, you can use Sevin spray which will kill them in an hour. It says it is safe to eat the produce the next day. BT works well though, just takes a few days because it works by giving the worms an infection.
If you don't have too many you can just pick them off too.
Marsha

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Scott, don't get mad at me for what I am about to say, but if you are not an organic only person like Scott is, you can use Sevin spray which will kill them in an hour. It says it is safe to eat the produce the next day. BT works well though, just takes a few days because it works by giving the worms an infection.
If you don't have too many you can just pick them off too.
Marsha

How could I get mad at you Ginger? Some people think because I advocate organic methods strongly, I am some fanatic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I advocate organic but long before that I advocate growing your own food!

Choose whatever method you want, just grow your own!

Of course, I always had the theory that if you are going to spray like the commercial farmer do, might as well just buy it at the grocery! So I can see that I may seem somewhat confused.

But trust me, most of what gardeners do is automatically obeying the vast majority of organic principles even if they do spray once in a while.

For example: Step back and look at any gardeners yard. Generally they have grass, shrubs, flowers maybe a few trees, a garden with tomatoes, sweet corn, beans and peas, maybe some carrots, a few herbs, whatever, everyone is different but they have variety. So from the bigger picture, it certainly couldn't be called a Mono-culture, even if they don't use companion planting in the rows. And the vast majority of gardeners that even use chemicals, are very careful to use the minimum required. Just look at this thread! Mike tries to identify every bug first before spraying, to avoid killing off his predator species. And what gardener doesn't try to improve the soil with organic matter? Gardening 101 for ALL gardeners is earthworms are our friends.

So no reason to be dogmatic about it. I bet Mike has Bt next year ready BEFORE the army worms attack! It's all about giving people options without telling them they have to do it this way or that way. I mean isn't that the point? You get to garden however you want! And nobody can tell you how to grow your own food! That's why the food police hate us so much! We get to tell them to take a hike!

[mikej]

Thanks for all the input from everyone. Yes I do try to be as organic as possible and when I do use chemicals, I use less than the amount called for on the package first to see if it will work. I am going to start composting for amending my soil. I just received 2 55 gal plastic drums that I am going to construct tumbler composters with. I have seen some plans on the web and will be working on that as soon as I can get to Fort Myers to purshase the materials. I know that it will take a while to compost enough for my garden, but I have to start somewhere. For now I do what I think I have to do to save my plants. As you can see from my pic of the whole garden I use hay that I buy from the guy behind my house as my mulch. It does work pretty good. Yea I do get some sees that sprout from the hay, but it is not too bad. Last season I did this and then when I was ready to plant I tilled the hay into the dirt. Seems to have improved the earthworm population in my garden. Thanks again to everyone and I will not be offended by any ones suggestions. That is how we learn. My goal is to be grow sufficiently with out the use of any chemicals. It may take a few years to get there, if ever, but I will try.

[mikej]

Talked to my brother and got me some BT lined up to pick up tomorrow. 2 different strains, One of them is Dipel. He can sell me a 5 lb. bag for 5.25 per lb. The other is Crymax in an open container that he will give me. Anyone know about these particular products?

[RayR]

Crymax info is here

DiPel info is here

Dipel is from Bt kurstaki, strain

Crymax is from Bt kurstaki and Bt aizawai strains

Either one should work just fine against those caterpillars.
Bt aizawai works better against armyworms and species that have developed resistance to Bt kurstaki like Diamondback Moth cats.

[mikej]

Thanks Ray! Picked up my stuff today and my brother also showed me this site.

http://www.cdms.net/LabelsMsds/LMDefault.aspx

[mikej]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Scott, don't get mad at me for what I am about to say, but if you are not an organic only person like Scott is, you can use Sevin spray which will kill them in an hour. It says it is safe to eat the produce the next day. BT works well though, just takes a few days because it works by giving the worms an infection.
If you don't have too many you can just pick them off too.
Marsha

I just read this again Marsha and I think you meant to address me instead of Scott here the way the sentence reads. Anyway! No I am not mad. I use chemicals when I have to. I have lived in the Everglades agricultural region all my life. I worked in agriculture as a young adult. I still have people tell me that in this area it is practically impossible to grow entirely organic. The keyword there is practically. As far as commercial growing, people tell me that it is not economically feasible in todays market. This is what I hear anyway. In my small garden, I hope to get there one day and realize it will be hard work to get there. Maybe I will live long enough to get there. Until then I will do what I have to do. At least with my home grown, I know exactly what it has been treated with and when.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by mikej

I just read this again Marsha and I think you meant to address me instead of Scott here the way the sentence reads. Anyway! No I am not mad. I use chemicals when I have to. I have lived in the Everglades agricultural region all my life. I worked in agriculture as a young adult. I still have people tell me that in this area it is practically impossible to grow entirely organic. The keyword there is practically. As far as commercial growing, people tell me that it is not economically feasible in todays market. This is what I hear anyway. In my small garden, I hope to get there one day and realize it will be hard work to get there. Maybe I will live long enough to get there. Until then I will do what I have to do. At least with my home grown, I know exactly what it has been treated with and when.

Hey Mike,
No, I was addressing you, but also telling you that Scott might get mad at the suggestion of not organic to you. So I guess I was posting sort of to Scott too. Of course, I knew he wouldn't get actually mad,really I was sort of kidding him, but mostly addressing you.
Anyway, one year my worm infestation was more than 80 which I know because after using Sevin, I quit counting the worm corpses when I reached 80!
I couldn't take it anymore.
Tomorrow, I am going to post a video of a different pest.
Marsha

[mikej]

Hey Marsha! I haven't been around here for very long and I do not perceive Scott getting mad hence you are sort of joking. He seems. You being in Plantation, you face many of the problems I do. Is your soil muck like it is up here by Lake Okeechobee? You have me curious about the different pest video. I can't wait to see it. My recent pest is my neighbor's chickens pecking my tomatoes that are not enclosed in my garden fencing. I have laid rubber snakes around them and temporarily stopped it.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by mikej

Hey Marsha! I haven't been around here for very long and I do not perceive Scott getting mad hence you are sort of joking. He seems. You being in Plantation, you face many of the problems I do. Is your soil muck like it is up here by Lake Okeechobee? You have me curious about the different pest video. I can't wait to see it. My recent pest is my neighbor's chickens pecking my tomatoes that are not enclosed in my garden fencing. I have laid rubber snakes around them and temporarily stopped it.

Rubber snakes, very clever. Yes my soil is that rich black muck from being everglades before it was houses, very full of earthworms, but also nematodes, grubs, wood roaches, and in the last 4 or so years, an invasion of centipedes! I will see if I can light a fire under my husband to post the video. He's editing it, and adding music to it. His masterpiece. Hint: done with an infrared camera ( he likes toys!)
Marsha
PS OK I just found out what the delay was, he is waiting for the music to come in from our public library where he ordered just the right piece!( he's a little anal when it comes to music)

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Rubber snakes, very clever. Yes my soil is that rich black muck from being everglades before it was houses, very full of earthworms, but also nematodes, grubs, wood roaches, and in the last 4 or so years, an invasion of centipedes! I will see if I can light a fire under my husband to post the video. He's editing it, and adding music to it. His masterpiece. Hint: done with an infrared camera ( he likes toys!)
Marsha
PS OK I just found out what the delay was, he is waiting for the music to come in from our public library where he ordered just the right piece!( he's a little anal when it comes to music)

Centipedes are the good guys! They will be your attack army! Don't kill them or you'll face an invasion by pests!

"Centipedes are among the largest terrestrial invertebrate predators and often contribute significantly to the invertebrate predatory biomass in terrestrial ecosystems."-wiki

[awsumth]

Some of these bugs I see so many of, and a few I haven't seen.

Although they're not bugs, one of the best garden companions I have found are those brown lizards. I have so many and they eat up all the beetles and ants!

[tjg911]

great pictures! most of these bugs aren't up here but i still enjoy seeing them.

tom

[mikej]

@Marsha Great that you have the muck. I also have the earthworms and grubs. I will be monitoring this thread for the video.

@awsumth I have many lizards around my house and my old cypress tree. I do not see many out in the garden though. Maybe not enough hiding places for them there. Maybe when my corn gets taller I will see some out there.

@Tom Thanks!

@Scott Will BT harm the earthworms? I will do a search to see what I can find.


Time to mow my grass and do a few things in garden.

Later,

Mike