Controlling Pests the Easy Way

 What you need is a nephew with very quick hands and an interest in insects.The pictures are bad, but the day was good and I don't think I've ever seen that squash vine borer above actually flying around in my garden before, even though every year it always manages to kill my zuchinni. I told my nephew that my garden would not disappoint for bughunting, but I had no idea that he was going to be doing me such a big favor. The cucumbers and zuchinni just might have a chance this year thanks to him.

Where I'll be Six Months From Now

Colorado Potato Beetle Eggs

Probably, stooped over or squatting, checking the underside of my potato, eggplant and tomato plants for the yellow clusters of eggs laid by the Colorado Potato Beetle. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun and it isn't really, but the good part is that if I remember to start doing this a little before Memorial Day (or to put it in the gardening year, sometime just after the tomato transplants go in the ground), I can manage an important pest in the garden.

And in five months? Definitely checking out Cayleb's tulip and bulb display at Brooklyn Botanic. It's different every year, but it's always around the same time. (That's what's awesome about gardens, this fantastic mix of regularity and surprise, and the chance each time round to learn a little more, try something different or just get better at the craft.)

I Thought I Saw a Wasp

Lesser peachtree borer on Garlic Chives, Brooklyn

Keen to impress my bug-loving nephew with my mad bug-identifying skills, I pored over the shots of what at first glance I thought was a wasp in my garden. But the wings in the shot below reminded me of a certain hummingbird moth that I'm so fascinated by, so instead of seeking out information on wasp identification, I looked for a clearwing moth instead. Turns out that the insect visiting the garlic chives in my garden, is indeed a wasp imitating moth, but more importantly it's also an important pest for fruit farmers. Something to keep in mind, if I ever find myself so lucky as to own a piece of land with room for some fruit trees. If my research is correct, this is a male Lesser Peachtree Borer, Synanthedon pictipes, but as usual I'd be happy if I nailed the genus alone. The looking at bugs thing is similar to the looking at plants thing. The more you look, the more you will see and after some time spent looking hard at the small things around you, something does sink in.

Lesser Peachtree borer moth male, Brooklyn

I also thought I saw a bright green metallic bee and you know what? I did. Coud it be Agapostemon sericeus, one of our New York native bees? Perhaps. I'll call it at genus Agapostemon, until I know better.

Keep looking Aaron. There's so much to discover.

Female Agapostemon metallic green bee on Goldenrod, Brooklyn

What's Biting

At the tips of some branches on 5th ave near Central Park, en masse in webs, the Fall Webworm Caterpillar (Hyphantria cunea). It's not anywhere near fall yet, so I think the common name is off just a bit, but I think my ID is right.

You Can Take the Boy Out of the Pumpkin Patch

Squash bug eggs

but still he may be searching for squash bug eggs on vacation. We visited the Fort Montgomery Museum while at Bear Mountain and checked out the revolutionary war garden that was replicated onsite. The theory is that soldiers in the revolutionary war supplimented their food supplies with gardens built onsite at forts. The gardener was keen to show us what he was growing (some familiars like the three sisters, corn, beans and squash) and even gave us instructions on how to make our own yarrow tincture. So we squashed bug eggs together and talked gardening. For news on a local Revolutionary War Garden in Brooklyn, go here.

Lesson in Metamorphosis

If you're not careful, the craft of gardening will lead you off in other directions and you may find yourself capturing a moth pupa you find in the soil and bringing it home to see what it becomes. Not long ago, Joe found a pupa just beneath the soil surface that looked a lot like the one pictured here, wrapped it in soil and foil and started the experiment. Now that it has transformed, we think it is in the Noctuidae Family of Moths (Owlet Moths). We're willing to say we think it might be in the subfamily Noctuinae, Cutworm or Dart Moths and that the insect in its larval stage is a pest in the garden, but that's about all the research we're willing to do. The metamorphosis was something to experience though. (More pictures of similar moths here).

The Art of War

Know your enemy.

In the garden that sometimes means knowing where insects will lay their eggs or what month or temperature to start looking for the signs that a pest is present. Every year in Brooklyn in mid to late May, I spot my first Colorado Potato Beetle in the garden and I crush it. But I know that if I really want to protect my plants from the damage this pest will cause, I will have to destroy the Colorado Potato Beetle's eggs before they hatch because it's the larvae that wreak all the havoc. Down at Floyd Bennett Field, the community garden has most of the crop pests and diseases you might expect to find on a small farm. (I spotted my first cucumber beetles of the season yesterday too.)



Clusters of eggs left on the underside of a leaf by the Colorado Potato Beetle.

The Killing Field

Down at the old field that was once Floyd Bennett Airfield, it's killing time for the Colorado Potato Beetle. It's also egghunting season.

Side benefit of the turf job in the Rose Garden

Getting to see ladybugs in their larval (above) and pupa (below)states. I thought that Sarah might have done a release as part of an IPM strategy to battle the aphids that were attacking the artichoke thistle in the annual border. But she didn't, which means the ladybugs got to those aphids naturally, which is pretty cool. One benefit of having a diversity of plants in the rose garden is that it attracts beneficials like the ladybug to come and duke it out with the pests, like aphids. Even when it's about bugs, it's still about the plants.

IPM in practice

Amanda and I got a practical lesson in Integrated Pest Management today while assisting Caleb as he gets ready to plant a row of Ilex crenata as a hedge behind the annual border in the Lily Pool Terrace. These Japanese Hollies came from the nursery with some hitchhikers, a wax scale (Ceroplastes sp.). Caleb's solution was to handpick the plants before introducing them into his area and so we spent some time inspecting each small shrub for these scale insects that seemed to resemble barnacles. It reminded me a little of squashing Colorado Potato Beetle eggs and Mexican Bean Beetle larvae in my own small vegetable garden. It was a neat lesson in IPM. Because the plants were small and the insects quite large and easy to spot and remove, it seemed like the most practical way to approach the problem and hopefully prevent the insect's spread. If the insect was smaller and more entrenched, perhaps the plants would have gone back to the nursery or another method used to try and control the population.

Medicinal Plant/Noxious Weed ID by Joe

Cirsium arvense (Canada Thistle)...found by Joe while he was doing laps in Prospect Park. Not the typical what's-blooming-now bouquet by Joe, but this one is wearing a handwritten label, which is nice. Canada Thistle, incidentally, isn't from Canada at all. It's from Europe. And people think botanical names are tough. According to Peterson's Field Guide of Eastern/Central Medicinal plants, this thistle (heh) was used by Native Americans as a bowel tonic and dewormer. If I run into any worm problems in the future, I guess I know where to go to harvest it. According to the USDA plant database, it's listed as a noxious weed in most states, but not New York.