Preparing for Spring and infestation

I started a vegetable garden last spring and my tomatoes and green beans were infested with stink bugs. What can I do to prepare the soil for spring and for this infestation? We haven't had a hard freeze and I saw stink bugs just yesterday out in the yard. We are in zone 7B. Thanks!

I suggest you identify the stink bug eggs or instars and crush them when they show up - that's what I do. I also crush any adults. I don't think birds will eat them.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=stink+bug+instar&qpvt=stink+bug+instar&FORM=IGRE

Get one of those Aim & Flame lighters. When you see the bugs, burn their little bottoms and toast 'em!

I'm picturing Stephanie singing:

"I wanna set the world on fire"

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brittnicole/settheworldonfire.html

I almost set my YARD on fire last summer, "Flicking my Bic" on their behinds!!! I was using a fireplace lighter. When I looked down and saw those little "poofs!" of smoke gently cascasding into the tinder dry grass below, I thought, "OMG!" "This is how wildfires get started, and I live in the city!!!"

Might I suggest you water the ground underneath your tomato plants before you go a' Stinkbug hunting?

Lnda

If you're not into fire or it's too much of a fire danger, you can use a shop vac to suck them all off. We put a piece of pantyhose on the inside of the intake nozzle, suck 'em up, then humanely dispatch them to their next life.

Or, give the little orange nymphs the rubber glove treatment....

(The ones with the BAD, BLACK, BUMP ON THEIR BUTTS -- which distinguishes them from the wonderful ASSASSIN BUG -- which is your garden ally)

A gentle pat will do it....

There is no magic bullet for bugs of any kind. What works for one bug doesn't work for all bugs. There is no end to the amount of remedies. When nature decides bugs need to eat, they are going to eat, but it is left up to us to decide what store they go to.When there is no other nice vegetable gardens nearby then it is just your good fortune, some years are better or worse than others.Local enviroments and your own or your neighbors garden health have a lot to do with keeping bugs away.Nothing will stop them from stopping by to see about lunch, but improper spacing,moisture,weeding, and plant selection will help them decide to stay for supper. First decide if you are going to protect with natural solutions or chemical or a combo of both. Store bought or engineered in the kitchen.How big doth your garden grow?How much can you afford, how much time do you have to spend, what about the good bugs.All things to consider when you decide is it really worth it.I make spray bottles when it is time for flying bugs. it consists of nothing more then water soaked in dried hot peppers,filtered,dishwashing soap. They have a bite they spit it out and then they move on.Adjustable nozzles allow accuracy for revenge and the bees can still do their thing.Bottles at both ends and one in the middle.To dang busy to go around burning bugs.Soil prep is different.What is the quality of your soil?Do you till? Did you till the garden end of season? Add anything to soil last year to help plants grow?Did you add chemicals last year to help with bugs?Did you get rid of plants from last year that might harbor pests? If your garden is small enough have you tested soil for ph,acid or alkaline. It's a lot to consider I know.Basically till (if you can), fertilize (10-10-10),amend the soil(I use lime), and till again. I do many other things to keep bugs out of my dirt before I plant and away from my plants once I do. All gardeners do.All have remedies according to their particulars. No magic bullets.Read,develop good basics,understand the process, think about what you are doing,and just plant the seed

This message was edited Feb 3, 2012 9:53 AM

Who was it that vacuumed the Stink Bugs?

My husband does it, lisa. Then he drowns them in some soap water.

All along I thought it was you screaming and vacuuming?

I scream for him when I see the bugs, the he comes with the vacuum. :)

Well, at least you have a system. I still think we need a video. LOL

Thank you for your help. I haven't amended my soil yet. I have four raised beds that are 8' by 4'. We have poor soil here, so I spent some money on having it trucked in...I am worried that there may be eggs left behind. I guess tilling will take care of that? Fire is a great option I didn't think of. I was squeezing them between gloved fingers for the first few weeks and then couldn't stomach it anymore. I would like to use organic/natural repellents because we really eat the food that comes from the garden. I have one to four hours per day for gardening and yard chores.

I never had stink bugs until last year. They absolutely took over one of my gardens, the one where I was growing melons and squash. They never got on my fruit trees and never came to my other areas with tomatoes, peppers, etc. This year I ordered some organic stink bug killer because if they are still there, they'll just take over again, there were thousands of them, at least 100 or more on each squash or pumpkin or watermelon or cantaloupe!! Safer brand isn't readily available around here so I went to their website and they have a stink bug trap and a pesticide for them. They're really infesting the country it seems.

http://www.saferbrand.com/store/insect-control/crawling-insects/stinkbugs

Prissyjoe, if your bugs only got on your melons and squash, those were probably squash bugs, not stink bugs. Same Order, different Family.

From your POV, that's probably not an important distinction. As Nakedspur said, there's no one magic bullet solution that will work for all gardeners at all times. But in general, for insects of the Order Hemiptera in general, which these are, knowledge and diligence are important components of your needed strategy. These insects are tough survivors.

The good news about SQUASH bugs is, the amount of foliage they actually eat is rather small. Same for their non-relatives, the striped or spotted cucumber beetles, which also prey on the cucumber family. What they and their larvae actually eat, doesn't do all that much damage.

The bad news is, these insects (the cucumber family specialists) spread bacterial wilt like wildfire, and that can kill a healthy cucurbit plant overnight. So with squash bugs in particular, learning to spot their eggs and remove the portion of the leaf where the eggs are concentrated, that's a lot better than just trying to do something about the adults.

Thank you petronius... wow, I looked at the pictures in the bug files and they do look a lot alike... it looks like there are several different kinds of squash bugs. Now, I'm not sure which ones I had. I didn't take any pictures.... I usually only like pictures of pretty things! There was one picture of the eggs in the bug files so if I do get them again this year, I'll be sure and look for them. I appreciate your help! Since we're in the same state, I was wondering if you have anything like them?

Nakedspur et al,
I've been keeping my bucket garden trimmed back, neat and tidy. I get up close and personal with the veggies. I trim off all the ratty yellowing bottom leaves, clean up around the buckets, and don't leave dead or fallen leaves in the grass.

Today, I spent time trimming the broccoli plants, after I harvested the ever-producing side shoots. I discovered one broccoli plant is FULL of soft-bodied, green, APHIDS!!!

I have also been battling pillbugs in my yard. They seem to be everywhere in the soil. I kept wondering what was chewing holes in the brassicas, since I rarely found cabbage loopers. Then, I figured out it was the pillbugs eating the leaves at night and burrowing down into the potting mix during the daytime.

I am about to build my very first raised veggie beds in the next two weeks, to receive my tomato seedlings, bell peppers, okra and eggplants.

What should I do within the next 2 weeks to get these creatures under control before I plant out? I've had good success with Sluggo Plus for the pillbugs on a small-scale basis (much smaller area to control). Itd cost me a small $$$ to buy enough Sluggo Plus for my whole yard!

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Linda

Linda
I wish I lived in Houston so I could help you build your raised beds. I love building raised beds. In the past year and a half since my retirement, I have built 11 in my own backyard of varying shapes and sizes and today I believe I found one last piece of bare real estate where I could squeeze in one more 4' x 4' bed..

Hrp50,
If you lived in Houston, I'd HUG you, just for offering! Then I'd help you build 'em!

How far is Houston to Corralton??

We were in Austin for a week and a week in Houston last Summer.

GG,

I envision you as a very organized and full of energy!!!

Incidentally I am in Hawaii for mom;s funeral in Oahu but now in Maui for R&R . She died in R.I. but burial was in Oahu.

Belle

bellieg
258 miles or about 4 1/2 hours driving time, IH 45 all of the way.

I will be back in San Antonio (3rd time in the last 6 months) in early May for a convention but SA is nowhere near Houston. I would love to bring back a second olive tree, an Arbequina variety this time, but I'm flying not driving. I've now spoken to several people who live in my area that say their olive tree does just fine here and there may be an olive orchard not far south of Dallas.

Belle,
So sorry to hear about your mother...

I'm gonna order you some new prescription eyeglasses!!!

Linda, crying over everything everywhere, all the time, and all at once! LOL!!!

Hrp50, I too love to build raised beds. I use the lumber that my husband has left over, after building our house. Of couse, he nails the four boards together for me, because its hard for me to do that. Is there an easier way to build those beds. Do you use a nail gun or screws? I use cinder blocks for some of my beds. You don't have to nail them.

Question,
The current site for my two new raised beds pools water, and I am concerned.

It didn't matter before, because there are currently free-draining veggie buckets sitting on the site. But, what do I have to do about that drainage issue before I place the two 4x8' beds?

The water eventually drains off...

Bellheman
I buy 2" x 8" x (however feet long I want it) cedar and use two electric drills and screws for connecting them at the corners to 4" x 4" posts. I found it easier to use two drills, one to drill the pilot hole and one to drive in the screws instead of using one drill and having to constantly change bits.

Gymgirl
Your site looks relatively flat to me, but you might try a French drain or try leveling the low area with additional soil before building the bed. As long as you don't create a lake effect by putting down black weed block, only use newspaper print that will decompose, you shouldn't have any problem. My backyard slopes from the house down to the fence line, a grade of maybe three or four feet, which makes it a challenge to make my raised beds level. I'm getting better at it with experience.

Thanks, Hrp50,
The buckets are sitting on large sheets of flat cardboard boxes with breathable weed block pinned down over the cardboard, to keep the site clear of grass. Originally, there was a 10'x14' Arrow shed sitting there. I'll have two beds, 4'x8'x 16" deep, parallel to each other, with a 2' walkway between them. They'll sit 2' off the fenceline.

Prissyjoe, to an insect, the Rio Grande looks like a major superhighway to get wherever they want. This is a great place to practice amateur entomology.

From when I briefly lived in Roswell, I mostly remember those big UFO's. Well, they were unidentified by me when I first saw them, anyway. When they finally slowed down enough for me to identify them, they turned out to be huge grasshoppers.

New Mexico has plenty of the wild buffalo gourd all over, a tough survivor which emits lots of the smelly bitter substances called cucurbitacins that make some cucumbers taste bitter, and is a very attractive scent to insects that like to feed on the cucumber family. So I wouldn't doubt that Roswell also gets its share of pesky insects that go after squash/pumpkin, melons, cucumbers etc.

Thanks for reminding me of that. I've noticed that if I CRUSH a squash bug or cucumber beetle, I'm just putting more cucurbitacin-laden aroma into the air, and drawing even more of them in. At one time, the screen on a front door to a house I lived in was almost completely covered with striped cucumber beetles. That's when I finally figured out, when you hand-pick them and want to kill off your prisoners, it's better to drown them in some water with a little cooking oil floating on top. Then plan to dispose of the bodies someplace other than the compost pile, I might add.

About all I can say in somewhat remediation of my ignorance, at least we hardly ever used that door anyway, and at least I was somewhat drawing them away from my squash plants by drawing them to the screen. Problem was, I was drawing them in from all over the neighborhood.

What about going around with a jar of water with bleach and pitching those guys into it. If you are able to catch them to squeeze them, you should be able to put them in a jar.

I just LOVE the visuals I get of you guys burning bug butts or vacuuming them. DD would like to do the fire part, but we are in a fire zone here, so not great idea.

I suppose one would have to actually test [water + bleach] against [water + a thin film of cooking oil] to be sure, but my hypothesis is, the oil will work better because if it works at all for insect X, it works surprisingly fast.

Insects breathe through tiny little pores called spiracles in their sides; oil blocks the spiracles and suffocates them. Plus, the oil increases the surface tension of the water and makes it tough for them to fly away, or to crawl up the sides of the jar.

Chlorine bleach in sufficient concentration will eventually kill almost anything, but it may take longer than one wants.

For aphids, use a drop or 2 of dish soap and a drop or 2 of ammonia in a spray bottle filled with water.

THANK YOU, STEPHANIETX!!!!

Just be sure that the dish soap DOES NOT contain bleach, no toxic fumes allowed. Oh, BTW I have never heard of using ammonia on plants, good to know.

In the garden, I use Lemon Ajax, because most of the critters don't like citrus.

In the garden, I use Murphy Oil Soap. It's slick so bugs don't stick to it. Be sure to spray early in the morning so the leaves don't get burned. I've also used a drop or two of rubbing alcohol. Usually, water and soap do the trick.

Stephanie, do you spray the soap on the leaves and the vegetables? I could do that.

Steph,
Post a Murphy's Oil Soap Recipe please.

I ripped 28 buckets today. Have twelve to rip tomorrow. Left these because they have the aphids. Or does it matter since I'm ripping them anyway.

Once I pull the infested broccoli plants, should I quarantine the potting mix for awhile? Saturate the potting mix anyway?

I'd hate to lose twelve buckets of pine bark fines.

Thx!

Oops! Sorry, I've been out and about and missed this.

I don't have a "recipe". I just put a bit of Murphy's Oil Soap, some liquid seaweed, liquid gardening molasses, and compost tea (usually just 1-2 capfuls of each) in a sprayer and fill with water. I spray plants weekly to help control spider mites and other bug problems like aphids. I spray on top and under the leaves and along the stems (as much as possible). This really helps not only feed the plants (seaweed, molasses, and compost tea) but keep the bugs at bay. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for squash vine borers.

This message was edited Mar 7, 2012 11:15 PM

I love your recipe is "some" a scientific measurement? Do you add "some" water?