George Shirley wrote:
On 5/6/2014 8:33 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
OK , today I found a small black bug on my decimated eggplants .
About maybe 3mm long , and several on most leaves - except the one
where the spider has set up shop . Also found a Colorado potato
beetle on an eggplant yesterday .
Something is eating the leaves on my peach tree , not sure what
but they're havin' a time of it .
Found a small green caterpillar on one of the apple trees , a few
leaves have been munched .
Found a small bug , cylindrical and about 5-6mm long with orange
spots on either side of it's "neck" and long antennae , not sure if
it's a predator or pest .

My plan for right now is to dust the affected plants with some DE
, should stop most pests . I surely don't want to get into using
insecticides now , as I have a bee hive coming later this month . In
fact , I'm not so sure I should continue the DE after the bees
arrive . I just know I need to get a handle on this before it gets
out of control .
Depends on where you live Terry as to what sort of bugs you've got. I
think maybe the small, cylindrical one with the orange spots may be a
lady bug, they predate on all the smaller bad bugs so leave that one
alone. Lots of good pictures on the web with descriptions of the bug
and what they predate on. I lost two peach trees to peach borers so
now I have garlic and onion chives growing in a ring around all my
fruit trees, just in case. Haven't had a borer yet since they were
installed. Potato beetles of any kind can ruin your day, I pick them
off by hand and drop them in an old jar with a half inch of kerosene
or motor oil in it, motor oil generally as kerosene is hard to get
around here.
George

We're in the Ozarks in north central Arkansas . I did ID the potato bug on
the web , haven't had time to research the others . I do know that DE is
non-toxic and will go away with the next rain ... I really do want to avoid
pesticides and herbicides completely , but may have to bend a little if it
means losing the whole crop of insert veggie/fruit here . I am not ,
however , above scattering a little triple 13 around ... but not much and
not often .
--
Snag