Something I've learned, a pure coincidence, and the coolest thing

Carriehelene · July 11, 2015

Yesterday evening, I was walking thru the potato patch, that I had spent hours the week before searching for potato beetle larvae, squashing everything I could find. I found a ton of the older larvae happily munching the tops of my plants. Drowned all I found. Weird, I thought to myself, haven't seen any until now, but they were large, so obviously hiding well. Today, I walked thru that bed a dozen times, didn't see any.

So after working in my tomato bed all day (9 hours), weeding, putting down cardboard between rows, removing EB and septoria infected leaves, I needed a break from tomatoes. Well, onion patch needs weeding, so I started doing that. Came across a bug I hadn't seen before. "What the hell are you?" I ask it (like it's going to answer me lol). My DH is standing next to me and says it's a good bug, kills other bugs. Now don't get me wrong, I love him, and he's very smart about a lot of things, but occasionally, well, he's wrong. I'm like OK, and put it down.

Couple minutes later, I got tired of weeding onions, and walked the potato patch again. There were a bunch of potato beetle larvae again!! I walked the paths again and again, more larvae every time. I discovered the larvae crawl to the top of the plants in the evening. This is what I learned yesterday/today.

Now, this is where a pure coincidence and the coolest thing I've seen come into play

Remember I talked about the bug in the onion patch? So I'm walking the rows of potatoes over and over again. That's when I see it. A larvae on a leaf. Looks a little funny, but I go to pull it off anyways. Something moves above it. When that something moves, so does the larvae. Upon closer inspection, there is my mystery bug, and it's got the larvae impaled in the head! The larvae is obviously dead, and the bug was sucking it dry. OK, eww, but still the coolest thing I've seen, so I tried to get a pic of it for you all. gosh darnoodley thing started crawling up my arm, larvae in tow, I screamed like a girl, the bug dropped the larvae and flew away. I'm gonna search for every one of those bugs in my garden that I can find so they can eat to their hearts content

That concludes my story for today.

July 11, 2015	#1
Carriehelene Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 300	Something I've learned, a pure coincidence, and the coolest thing Yesterday evening, I was walking thru the potato patch, that I had spent hours the week before searching for potato beetle larvae, squashing everything I could find. I found a ton of the older larvae happily munching the tops of my plants. Drowned all I found. Weird, I thought to myself, haven't seen any until now, but they were large, so obviously hiding well. Today, I walked thru that bed a dozen times, didn't see any. So after working in my tomato bed all day (9 hours), weeding, putting down cardboard between rows, removing EB and septoria infected leaves, I needed a break from tomatoes. Well, onion patch needs weeding, so I started doing that. Came across a bug I hadn't seen before. "What the hell are you?" I ask it (like it's going to answer me lol). My DH is standing next to me and says it's a good bug, kills other bugs. Now don't get me wrong, I love him, and he's very smart about a lot of things, but occasionally, well, he's wrong. I'm like OK, and put it down. Couple minutes later, I got tired of weeding onions, and walked the potato patch again. There were a bunch of potato beetle larvae again!! I walked the paths again and again, more larvae every time. I discovered the larvae crawl to the top of the plants in the evening. This is what I learned yesterday/today. Now, this is where a pure coincidence and the coolest thing I've seen come into play Remember I talked about the bug in the onion patch? So I'm walking the rows of potatoes over and over again. That's when I see it. A larvae on a leaf. Looks a little funny, but I go to pull it off anyways. Something moves above it. When that something moves, so does the larvae. Upon closer inspection, there is my mystery bug, and it's got the larvae impaled in the head! The larvae is obviously dead, and the bug was sucking it dry. OK, eww, but still the coolest thing I've seen, so I tried to get a pic of it for you all. gosh darnoodley thing started crawling up my arm, larvae in tow, I screamed like a girl, the bug dropped the larvae and flew away. I'm gonna search for every one of those bugs in my garden that I can find so they can eat to their hearts content That concludes my story for today.