I haven't been here for quite a while. And only a few posts here
lately. Everyone on vacations?

With basically no winter this past year, even my avocados survived and
put up new trunks! (I'd planted them last summer thinking "annual").
But global warming has also brought new bugs I haven't seen before.
Anyone know what the little liquid gold beetles are? They are about
1/3 size of japanese beetles, and look like drops of mercury (but
bright gold in color) on my now lacey morning glory leaves.

Kira

In article ,
Kira Dirlik !! wrote:
Anyone know what the little liquid gold beetles are? They are about
1/3 size of japanese beetles, and look like drops of mercury (but
bright gold in color) on my now lacey morning glory leaves.

Probably Tortoise Beetles:
http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG295/html/tortoise_beetles.htm

--
Steve

When I googled for a picture of "tortoise beetle," this image appeared (on
second page of listings):
http://bugguide.net/node/view/10175/bgimage

For those of us old enough to remember seeing -- and holding! --
mercury, the Golden Tortoise Beetle is exactly as Kira described it.

Anne
"Steve" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Kira Dirlik !! wrote:
Anyone know what the little liquid gold beetles are? They are about
1/3 size of japanese beetles, and look like drops of mercury (but
bright gold in color) on my now lacey morning glory leaves.

Probably Tortoise Beetles:
http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG295/html/tortoise_beetles.htm

--
Steve

Kira Dirlik wrote:
Everyone on vacations?

Too busy weeding!

Garden report: harvesting tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucumbers,
peppers, basil.

Alberto's heavy rain provided needed soil moisture but seems to have
helped the pathogens which afflict tomato plants.

This year there are larger-than-ever numbers and varieties of insect
pests which feast on eggplant foliage.

A high wire fence keeps Bambi out of the garden. Any tomato or
cucumber vine which sends a branch through the fence gets "barbered".

A flock of Canada geese visit several times a day, feeding on grass and
the garden rejects which I toss over the fence. Sometimes they stick
their long necks through the fence and steal a ripe tomato!

This morning I saw a young and rather thin red fox searching for food.


Daniel B. Martin

Daniel B. Martin wrote:

This year there are larger-than-ever numbers and varieties of insect
pests which feast on eggplant foliage.

I've noticed that too, but can't spot the predator.
Any ideas what could be chewing the leaves? And organic methods for
control?

jan wrote:
Daniel B. Martin wrote:


This year there are larger-than-ever numbers and varieties of insect
pests which feast on eggplant foliage.


I've noticed that too, but can't spot the predator.
Any ideas what could be chewing the leaves? And organic methods for
control?


I use Sevin only in the most desperate of situations. I prefer to
hand-pick the BadGuys. Flea beetles are "smooshed" with fingers.
Larger insects are dropped into a can of detergent solution.

Eggplant pests in my garden include:
- Flea Beetles
- Colorado Potato Beetles, both adult and larvae
- flat green guys (name unknown) which don't move much
- Harlequin bugs
- Stink bugs
- Curculios
- Mexican Bean Beetles

Some gardeners have trouble with hornworms and slugs too.


Daniel B. Martin

Daniel B. Martin wrote:
I use Sevin only in the most desperate of situations. I prefer to
hand-pick the BadGuys. Flea beetles are "smooshed" with fingers.
Larger insects are dropped into a can of detergent solution.
Eggplant pests in my garden include:
- Flea Beetles
- Colorado Potato Beetles, both adult and larvae
- flat green guys (name unknown) which don't move much
- Harlequin bugs
- Stink bugs
- Curculios
- Mexican Bean Beetles
Some gardeners have trouble with hornworms and slugs too.
Daniel B. Martin

That is my MO also, but I succombed to the nuclear WMD Raid as true
dispair with my peppers. I use Sevin usually only once on very small
eggplant plants, which gives them a growing start, and then I daily
squish the flea beetles. Mine are doing well.
I nipped that other critter in the bud that appeared from nowhere
last summer. Potato beetle??? Looks like a swollen tan dog tick, and
younger ones like "boogers". (Sorry.) ha ha These guys are
voracious.
Small green grasshoppers also take a share, but hop fast.
I have pulled, in two different hordes a few weeks apart, over 150
each time, of a caterpillar that has attacked my brocolli, savoy
cabbage, and curly kale.... into the soapy water pot along with the
Japanese beetles. The eggs are a tiny flat spot of yellow on
underside of leaves, and the biggest worms are about 1 inch long,
yellow underneath, red head, and backs are lengthwise black, grey,
white stripes. Anyone know what moth lays those eggs? (I don't know
what the max size of the caterpillar would be, if allowed to live.)
That cottage cheese container of water with a few drops of
dishsoap pretty much takes care of every bad critter. Even those
fuzzy white flies, if you hold it under the mass, so they they jump
into the container, and not escape.
Kira

Kira Dirlik wrote:
Looks like a swollen tan dog tick, and
younger ones like "boogers".

Your description does sound like the larvae of the Colorado Potato
Beetle. Good photo he http://www.uky.edu/Ag/kpn/colobtl.jpg

Daniel B. Martin

Larvae image he
http://www.monctonnaturalistsclub.or...e%20larvae.JPG

Daniel B. Martin

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:05:55 GMT, "Daniel B. Martin"
wrote:

Kira Dirlik wrote:
Looks like a swollen tan dog tick, and
younger ones like "boogers".

Your description does sound like the larvae of the Colorado Potato
Beetle. Good photo he http://www.uky.edu/Ag/kpn/colobtl.jpg

Daniel B. Martin

That was the one that I found on the eggplants today! About 6 of
them. The other one is very similar, but instead of the stripes, has
a row of spots along each side.... and MANY babies. I saw that one
only twice so far this summer. It just about devoured my eggplants
last year before I discovered it.
Kira