2009's most menacing or troublesome pest for you

willowwind, I had an incredible localized population of grasshoppers in one bed. I also had a really bad ant problem there. I applied Diamotaceous Earth for the ants. The grasshopper population then traveled around to my other beds looking for more ants. The frogs followed the grasshoppers. So I put the DE everywhere. There are a lot less ants & grasshoppers now and the frogs have started to come back.

thank you for the advice stormyla. I hadn't thought of trying DE, but maybe especially when they're still small. That has a bad effect on beneficials as well doesn't it? How about bees? I'm afraid to use too much strong stuff when the damage is mostly surface. The plants survive, they just don't look nice. That's always such a hard decision to make. There is some type of bacterial spore kind of thing that is supposed to work when they're young, but I've never heard from anyone whose used it. Anyone here ever try it?

Willow

Willowwind, Are you talking about beneficial nematodes? Or crawling insects?

Crawling, flying etc. Many of the wasps, flies, ladybugs etc. that either eat other bugs or lay eggs on them that will later parasitize the bad bugs. Also, even butterflies and bees. I just hate to use anything, organic or not, that is going to cause indescriminate damage, at least if the pest I'm after isn't totally killing anything...just making things ugly.

Willow

Willowwind, I don't know if it makes a difference , but I put the DE down very early in the season, like mid March. My beds are full of Bees, Butterflies and Mantis. One of the reasons that I put it down so early is that I start spraying the Nematodes and releasing the Lacewings and Ladybugs right at the end of April

Same as every year - my mil.

Victor!!!

Victor!

You could try using DE on her, or maybe you could use her for a beneficial against other pests.

Hee hee! Can't imagine her being beneficial to any species.

Definately ANTS. I put plants in the greenhouse and went out to check on them and there was Pots of plants some hanging and some sitting on tables and ground with a stream of ants going in and out with mounds of dirt around the edges of the pots. What will get rid of these awful creatures? Some of them are fire ants and some termite ants and just a dukes mixture of somesort. I put down ant killer before putting up the greenhouse and put mulch on the floor to help keep it clean on the ground. The ants are just moving right in and taking over. I'm allergic to ant bites. Now, I'm losing ground. Can anyone help?

Mekos, the DE works good on ants, but I don't know if you should use it at table or overheard levels. It can cause respiratory problems. There ya go, Victor!!