On 6/24/2016 4:49 PM, T wrote:
On 06/21/2016 08:01 AM, George Shirley wrote:
Stink bugs are messing up the tomatoes big time. Put out some containers
of water under each bush this morning, hoping the !@#$ bugs drown. Put a
little cooking oil in each container, also hoping that keeps the bugs
from getting away. We shall see.

Picked another small bucket of crowder peas this morning. Things seem to
become ripe overnight but they sure shuck easy, a sort of zipper pea is
what this variety is. Pop one end, pull down and the hull just opens up.
Makes the job much easier.

Harvested another batch of figs, seems that about a dozen figs ripen
each morning. Miz Anne put up two pints of fig jam yesterday and
probably will do another small batch tomorrow or the next day. I alter
the "So Easy to Preserve" recipe based on number of figs to be used.
Works pretty good as long as we follow the recipe change.

Going to be hot again today, in the low nineties the weather folk say,
the skies are cloudy with dark clouds and a promise of rain is in sight.

George

Hi George,

Did you ever figure out a management method? I have an
infestation of earwigs. They are mowing down everything
that sprouts. (****ed me off when I see them carrying away
fresh sprout leaves.)
Nope, the small containers with an oil added caught a few but not
enough. I went to the old fashioned method, rubber gloves, a face mask
and squash the buggers with your fingers. Got quite a few but there were
more there this afternoon. I guess I'm going to have to resort to
pesticides.

I have been spraying them with chrysanthemum by the
hundreds, but there is inexhaustible supply. They are ruining
my garden this year and we only have a tiny growing window
in Northern Nevada.
I don't remember ever seeing an earwig around here, may have to Google
them to see what they look like. One thing that helps us is we don't
grow vegetables in dirt. Our medium is 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite,
and 1/3 composted cow manure. It gets dug out each season, more compost
added, shake it all up on a tarp, back into the bed. In the meantime we
add household compost to our compost barrel and, eventually, that gets
mixed in too.

I am going to fire up my weeds killer pump up canister with
dish soap and Cayenne powder this evening. They like it
damp. So, lets add a little soap to their bathing experience!

Trouble is, I kill 50 of them and a half hour later, I
have to kill 50 more. They keep coming and coming and
coming!

They now ignore garlic powder.

I made this beautiful sliced bed in the yard for
Rose radishes. Took me about 2 hours of hacking and
removing rocks to make about 5 foot by 1-1/2 wide
by 1 deep.

Filled with vegi scraps from the table and weeds.
Then peat moss and dirt I dug up, sans rocks. Planted
three rows of radishes. And they sprouted beautifully.
Now they are half gone and the patch is seething
with earwigs.

AAAAHHHHHH!!!

-T
Ma Nature has a strange way of working with gardeners.