Schedule To Expect Hostile Insects, Etc?

Question

Hi Everybody,I appreciate the recent advice regarding my problem with caterpillars targeting my broccoli and cauliflower.  I am tentatively taking the recommendation/ID of "cabbage looper," and planning on some BT.Although, at the moment, they seem to have finished their activity.  The cauliflowers are actually recovering, and I haven't caught any caterpillars lurking around in a couple of weeks or so.  (OTOH, my area has been getting the worst storms in 100/yrs, so I dunno if they just got blown/washed away or something.)So, anyway, I am looking to find some kind of schedule for pests.  When to expect their arrival, and when to expect them to finish.These cabbage-loopers are the only pests that have been a problem for me personally so far.  We are approaching the end of summer right now here in the Southern Hemisphere.  My small garden has as many different items as I can fit - tomatoes, beans, lettuce, zucchini, onions, capsicum (bell-peppers), etc, along with the aforementioned broccoli and cauliflower victims.A Google search isn't helping.  I know that this kind of schedule is different around the world.  But can anyone give advice?When are they coming?  When are leaving?  Is there some kind of standard "Farmer's Almanac" of pests, where I could transfer the time of year to match the southern season?Thanks in advance for your help!-V.

Ann · Accepted Answer

I'd look up (in Google) something like: home vegetable garden insets diseases In most cases, the insects/diseases, are already there - in the soil, hosted on other plants, etc - "waiting" for your vegetables to get to the stage they prefer. Look up individual vegetables to find at what stage of their growth they're vulnerable ... and to what. I don't know how useful the sites are, but I get hits when I look up: "new zealand" home vegetable gardens in

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You might find the website

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interesting. "Phenology is the study of the times of recurring natural phenomena especially in relation to climate change. It is recording when you heard the first cuckoo or saw the blackthorn blossom. This can then be compared with other records."

Bob Provencher · Answer

In the US we can go to our local County Extension agent to get spray schedules for just about anything in our local area. Maybe you have a similar government agency there? You may not want to follow the schedule, depending on what chemicals are being used, but at least you could infer the pests you need to be aware of from the schedule.

Frogleg · Answer

Don't trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you. Except for plagues of locusts and the like that can practically be ID'd on satellite photos, most bugs are somewhat localized and temporary phenomena. No reason to prepare for a pest that doesn't show up. As with the cabbage loopers, once you experience them, you can make your own schedule for being particularly alert. Some *do* have a regular cycle and if you're afflicted, identify the bug and prepare for the same possibility next year. I discovered that the fellow who got his corn in early in a community garden (allotment) had terrific corn. The less timely corn-growers got the bugs and birds.

Monique Reed · Answer

In my experience, pests show up when you do not have the time, the weather, or the health to do anything about them. They will arrive, en masse, just as you are about to leave town or have masses of company, when it is expected to rain every day for a week, or when you have thrown your back out and are not supposed to garden.

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Bob Provencher · Answer

My experience has been if you start to worry about them when they show upit's too late.

Schedule To Expect Hostile Insects, Etc?

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