"Joe" wrote in message
...
Grey wrote:
Hi there, I am a gardening newbie but am trying to take a fairly hands
off organic approach.
A lot of the plants in my vegetable bed have masses of soft, wet foam
around their bases full of squat insects that are grey-brown with a red
patch on either side of the abdomen. They are almost flea-like in their
squatness, with the body sloping up steadily form the head to the
middle of the abdomen, and then sloping down quickly to the tail. I
assume these are instars and not adults, and they are not very
segmented. I am finding them on tomatoes, chard, oregano, and lot's of
other stuff.
Should I let them be, or should I take measures (organic) to control
them? My chard has started having large patches of wilting on the
leaves (thin, soft, brownish light-green patches) but I don't know if
this is related. I can email you pictures, or is there a place I could
post them?
Thanks for any help!
Grey
The brownish patches are likely from leafminer, see
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/vegprob...leafminer.html
Floating row cover is a good organic solution.
Bill Moats
Pau Hana Farm
Milton-Freewater, Oregon