Sometimes it feels like war in the garden. As I’ve mentioned before, we have seen our share of common and not-so-common pests in the garden this year. First, the slugs, then the cucumber beetles and flea beetles, followed by the cabbage loopers (a first for me) squash bugs and the cabbage moths. Let’s not forget the chiggers (another, painful first) and ticks…not a danger to the vegetables, but pretty unpleasant for those of us in the garden. While DEET has become my friend this summer, I hesitate before spraying or sprinkling anything on the plants. Sprays and powders (even the ones approved for organic use) can eliminate beneficial insects along with the pests. I prefer to maintain balance through cultural controls and providing habitats for beneficial insects.
Fortunately, we have a wealth of good bugs, along with the bad. If you stroll through the garden or spend any time working, it doesn’t take long to notice our healthy spider population, harvestmen (daddy long legs), damselflys, and dragonflys. You’ll see the occasional praying mantis and if you’re there at the end of the day, you’ll be treated to the firefly’s light show. All of these bugs are beneficials in the garden. They eat, among other things, slugs, caterpillars, beetles, flys and mosquitos.
This week, we discovered tomato hornworms eating our tomato plants. Hornworms can be one of the most destructive pests to tomato plants. First, they are big. They’re downright freakishly large when you are used to cabbage worms and caterpillars. Second, they eat the eat the tomato plant leaves and stems AND take large bites out of the fruit (do NOT mess with my tomatoes!). Normally I would hand-pick the worms as I find them. However, we discovered that many of the worms are playing host to Braconid Wasp larvae. The female wasp deposits her eggs under the skin of the worm using an ovipositor. The eggs hatch into larvae and chew their way through the skin of the worm. Once outside, they spin a cocoon, which are the white, egg-like things you see on the host worm. The worm is already weakened, so it will die soon after the wasps hatch. Happily, these small wasps don’t bother humans so there’s no danger of stings.
I enjoy reading your blog Carla, I had no idea how multi-talented you really are! 🙂
I felt compelled to post a comment this time — your description of the wasp depositing eggs in the worm had me reminiscing about the first time I saw the movie “Alien”. ha!
Wow! I will have to share this information with my 8 yr. old grand-daughter who has a butterfly garden, vegetable garden, and is growing blueberries and raspberries this year. She is very fascinated by insects and all sorts of creepy crawlers so she will like the info on the hornworms ..she definitely did not acquire gardening and love of bugs from me but like to share with her because she loves it. If you don’t hand pick them do you just leave them on the plant until they die???