Beneficial bugs, and not so beneficial

mid-sumer in the raised beds

My veggie garden is on a “summer break.” Not a whole lot going on there at the moment, although the rains have kept things growing well.

When my zucchini squash plants wilted last year, Dave’s Garden blog told me what was up.

This year, I found out how to spot squash vine borers when I discovered some of the eggs and we let them hatch in a bottle. This website entry from North Carolina had the perfect description. It also told me that for a small garden, like mine, the best organic control is to inspect the leaves, remove the eggs by hand and squash those squash bug nymphs where ever possible. So far it appears to be keeping things under control as the plants are still thriving.

Then, we found some bigger, even prettier (we’re kookie this way) eggs last week.

Assassin bug eggs

I was tempted to crush them right away, but their golden surface and larger size made me wait.

Dave had found some of the same. These, it seems, are assassin bugs. Beneficial. Tough. All natural pesticide, and they appeared to have been laid just to help with the vine borer problem.

We hatched them, and sure enough…. baby assassin bugs. You don’t want to handle these took much as they have a proboscis that can poke you pretty good in the finger. Emma held a very large one one year and found that out the hard way.

Dave captured them in photos. Emma had released ours before I got a photo, but I am glad to know they are patrolling the beans and melons in the hot-hot side yard.

The hatchlings left egg shells behind

Anaheim Hot peppers gettin' big

Tomatoes growing beside sweet basil

 

One drawback to better controlling the number of plants I put in the ground is waiting for things to ripen. My two tomato varieties: Chadwick Cherry and Bloody Butcher slicing are apparently later to mature. Everything is still green. Note to self for next year, get some faster maturing varieties.Jim and I are looking for a great home-made red sauce recipe that will make the best use of our home-grown garlic, basil and tomatoes. Send me a link if you have ideas!annual tradition: volunteer pumpkinsOne of my favorite things to do is to allow a couple of select pumpkin vines grow out of our compost. Last year we got a fun couple of decent pumpkins we showed off in our September ‘08 “fallishness” post. This year we have a few more we’ll get to enjoy as we prepare for the cooler seasons.