I thought that they were such cute little bugs when I first saw them. My attitude has changed since they have turned the leaves of my eggplants into lace. I'm planning to use the following recipe but it won't be ready until tommorrow.
Garlic/Pepper Mixture ? 1/2 cup hot peppers of your choice ? 1/2 cup garlic cloves ( onions will also do ) ? 2 cups water Steep this mixture for 24 hours. An easy method for steeping the tea is to combine the ingredients in a clear glass jar, seal, and set in a sunny location. Strain and spray onto foliage.
Additionally, I check out the nursery for nematodes today. Any other ideas?
go to plant my eggplant. One thing I've heard of but not used is the cardboard/tanglefoot trap. Take 2 yellow squares of cardboard tack to 2 paint paddles and lightly coat with tanglefoot. walk slowly down the row holding the squares on either side of the plants. Supposedly the little beggers will jump to the cardboard. Steve
Well, spiffy. I got me some stuff called Monterey Garden Insect Spray. which comes from Fresno, and, of course, appears to be a subsidiary for DowAgro, aaaaaaah :o(
It has a snappy new insecticide called "spinosad".
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it can kill bees and aquatic non-vertebrates.
It seems that the trick is to apply late in the evening, when there are no bees around, and should be dry by morning (harder for the bees to get it on them). The eggplants aren't in flower.
I got a couple of hours to think about it. What do you think?
Oh, I also got some nematodes for the flea beetle larval stage.
Luckily :O) I have some twice froze habaneros :o(yucky) so I'll whip me up a Scoville cocktail for the little bastides ;O)).
WTF do you think I think? Have you gone nucking futz???
"Spinosad shows low toxicity when ingested by mammals (male rat LD50 =
3738 mg/kg) and no additional adverse effects from chronic exposure. Studies on spinosad show slight toxicity to birds, moderate toxicity to fish, and slight to moderate toxicity to aquatic invertebrates. However, it is highly toxic to bees (honey bee LC50 = 11.5 ppm) and is highly toxic to oysters and other marine mollusks. Applications to areas where bees are actively foraging should be avoided. After the residues have dried, it is much less toxic to bees.
Beneficial Trichogramma and Braconid wasps are harmed by the chemical, but it has much less effect on such insects as lacewings and beetles like the ladybug and spares predatory bugs such as damsel bugs and the big-eyed bug.[4"
What FKN part of highly toxic to bees did you not understand????
What FKN part of beneficial Trichogramma and Braconid wasps are harmed by the chemical, did you not understand???
Give up eggplant, fer effs sake!!! The life of one bee ain't worth you having grilled eggplant!!
I don't friggin' believe it.....are you trollin' for an ass-whumpin', you old grump?!?!?!??
Gawd, I gottao go get drunk or sumpin'.....the world just ended.
As I explained, I was going to spray it when the bees weren't out. Once it has dried, they aren't as likely to pick it up and return it to the hive. My gully hasn't washed for a couple of months now, so I won' be impacting any aqua thingies. And don't you get drunk without me Junger. I'll show you how it's done properly. Some folks seem to think that all you have to do is face the moon and howl. It ain't that easy. There is an art form to it.
I haven't consummated my deal with the devil. When making up my garlic and habanero libation for the flea beetle, I started coughing like I was roasting jalapenos, but I was only blending them. I just hope it doesn't vaporize the eggplants when I squirt it on tomorrow;o)
As luck would have it, I have a number of plants in pots, that wasps like to hang-out in. So tomorrow, a small forest of wasp friendly plants get moved to the eggplants, the nematodes are loosed, and I roll out the Scoville equivalent of "shock and awe" (be my luck if they are undocumented flea beetles). If nothin' else, I'm keeping the ground saturated because the flea beetle likes dry soil, tough. These suckers are going to have pneumonia by the time I'm through with them.
When I bought the "Spinosad", I was told that it was like Bt. I'll be getting my money back tomorrow.
So go back to bed. God is in her heaven, and all is well in the garden.
But all is not well in the garden. I headed out for my morning lumbering thru the beds with a cuppa and 'lo and beshit, I have those fkn flea beetles on my eggplants.......grrrrrrrr.
I headed to the nursery and got some marigolds (as I forgot to start any this year) and set around them. They have until tomorrow evening or they are going to be transplanted to pots and moved to the patio area. FKN flea beetles. FKN lots of things.
FKN trip to the nursery cost me fifty bucks, 'cuz I found some new stuff I just *had* to have.....pot stuff. Like pineapple sage and purple variegated sage and more rosemary and more basil and rose moss and some purple decorative peppers (like I needed more peppers to go with the other seventy five of about twenty varieties), and more eggplant......crap, is there no end to this sickness???
Been planting flowers and decoratives all afternoon and evening (that was another 200 bucks at the nursery, fortunately that was OP's money)
That's why I enjoy gardening so much. It relaxes me.
Besides the Scoville approach and the nematodes, I also stopped by Home Despot (because it was handy) and loaded up on marigolds. I had already moved some catnip in and some alyssum. Hosed down the ground around the eggplants. Tomorrow, I'll bring in the yarrow and stinging nettle.
I got rid of most of them using Diatomaceous Earth made for swimming pools. Get it at any Home Depot. It's made from diatoms naturally found in the sea. A huge box for something like $10. It'll last for years and years. It kills other bugs, insects and worms also. It kills by desiccation and irritation. Don't breathe the powder.
Yeah, it's glass. The silicon protection of diatom, the grass of the seas.
Fortunately, my run in with flea beetles has reached a cease fire after the garlic and pepper sauce, catnip, marigolds, alyssum, and a potted yarrow came on the scene. I'm also keeping the soil very wet and have unleashed nematodes on their larva.
I'm glad to hear that D.E. worked on them. I'll keep it in mind.
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