Too many pests, too few pollinators

bee on one of my zinnia blooms

By this spring, we had lived in our house in southeast Louisiana for one year, so we have much yet to do to prepare our property for gardening. In late winter and early spring, I cultivated new flower and herb beds near the house. Because those new beds had been lawn previously, I spent a great deal of time removing grass so that I would have to spend less time weeding later in the season. Now every morning, I go outside, pull a few weeds, check for vegetables that are ready to harvest, and take photos to record the changes in growth. I  also look for pollinators. As I have written in a previous post, pollinators such as bees and butterflies are diminishing in numbers, the victims of intense agricultural practices (pesticides and genetically-modified, insect-resistant plants) and habitat destruction.

Today, I spotted, at different times, four butterflies circling the zinnias and sunflowers in my backyard, the most I had seen at a time this season. Two of them were much the worse for wear, with ragged and missing wings. Those tattered wings didn't seem to slow the butterflies down, however.  I couldn't get close enough to them for a good photo.

The pests, however, were easy to spot and fairly easy to squash with my fingers or shoes. I caught a few leaf-foot stink bugs and squashed them with my sandals, but several flew away before I could capture them. Last week's rain dispersed the Bt that Tom had sprayed on the tomatoes, and what I have now identified as tomato fruitworms are once again infesting the tomatoes. I managed to squash some with my fingers; I've gotten over the gag reflex response to green caterpillar guts.

bee near Crimson Sun ornamental sunflower

tomatoes in 8'X8' bed (tarp in back killing grass for next bed)

We made the mistake of planting too many tomatoes in one 8-foot X 8-foot garden area. We didn't have the big garden dug and tilled at the beginning of the season, so we planted vegetables behind our house, in one of the 8-foot X 8-foot beds that will eventually be full of herbs and flowers. Tom planted more than twenty tomato plants in one of those square beds, and the plants are so close together that I can't walk between them. Thus, it's more difficult to reach the pests in order to eliminate them in a frontal assault. Next year, we will plant tomatoes in rows in our big garden, where I'll be able to examine each plant more carefully.

So for now, we're using Bt and our fingers to eliminate tomato fruitworms. Oh, and I followed the advice of some gardener in Austin, Texas, who wrote on her blog that she has vacuumed leaf-foot stink bugs off her tomatoes with a shop vac. That was fun.

Because we didn't get the big garden dug, tilled, and amended until later in the season, we planted hot weather vegetables there: peas, okra, peppers, mainly. The okra leaves are being munched on, and I discovered aphids on several of the leaves.

aphids on okra leaf

tomato fruitworm

It's hot and humid here in southeastern Louisiana now, so the pests are out in force. The battle over our food continues.