How to get rid of Blister Beetles Organically

I do not believe in using chemical pesticides to rid garden pests. So how do we as organic gardeners get rid of pest insects? There are many ways, but that is not the topic of this post. This post is about my garden's arch enemy: The Blister Beetle!

The blister beetle is usually a problem in alfalfa hay fields, but for some reason, they were especially attracted to my heirloom tomatoes last year!

Perhaps one of the drawbacks to growing heirloom tomatoes is that they are less resistant to disease and to pest insects.

Blister Beetles get their name from the fact that they contain a toxin called cantharidin that will make your skin break out in blisters if you come in contact with it. They don't spread their toxin by biting you. Usually you would need to touch a crushed beetle to break out, but some people can have an allergic reaction just from touching one of the live beetles. They crawled over my hand while I was taking the above pictures and I was fine. The blister beetles in my garden did eat a lot of tomato foliage, but the most disgusting part about them was that they left huge droppings behind as well!

Enough already! They disgust me so!

Carrots Love Tomatoes, by Louise Riotte is the foremost authority on companion planting ideas. Riotte writes in the book that horseradish will keep blister beetles away. Using horseradish root in water as a spray will deter many insects. She goes in to what deters animal pests as well. I am following her advice and growing morning glories on my fence to keep deer away and cucumbers to keep raccoons away. Radishes next to those cucumbers will keep the striped cucumber beetle at bay.

This is a great book because in addition to advice on what to grow to keep pests away, it lists what vegetables and herbs will enhance the growth of others if grown at close proximity. The title tells of one; carrots love tomatoes.

I am planning where to place each vegetable in my garden this year based on these companion planting recommendations, which is number two on my to do list.

So there you have it, number two and three on my list. I hope to be able to write about most of the items on that list.

Thank you for reading this whole post. I apologize for the disgusting beginning. Now you know why I'm determined to be ready for the blister beetles this year!

A Black Widow and Square Foot Gardening!

I am currently reading Mel Bartholemew's "All New Square Foot Gardening" book and it is just as good as his original Square Foot Gardening book from many years ago. Here is a picture of the two covers:

Notice that among other things, he has chaged the way he lays out his squares. In the old days he just layed down wide boards to walk on in between his garden squares. Now he builds raised bed squares and spaces them farther apart with grass growing in between them.

Well Mel, I can give testimony as to one reason that is a better idea. Last season, I layed down planks in between my different kinds of beans like that to walk on. This fall when we cleaned up the garden I turned over the plank and guess what I found living under there? I found ants, worms, slugs and THIS:

Isn't that great for Valentines Day! I'm pretty sure that is a black widow spider! Of course I did not get to see its belly to check for the diamond pattern.

What do you think? If anyone reading this agrees that it is a Black Widow, please comment. If I'm wrong, then tell me what kind of spider it is. Here are a couple more pictures of it:

I have video of it as well, but I couldn't figure out how to get it embedded in this blog. (If anyone knows how to to that, I would appreciate some pointers)

So anyway, this season I will have to think twice about using boards to walk on since it provides great cover for such creepy spiders! I don't like Black Widows living in my garden!

On the plus side, it sure makes for a great addition to my close-up bug photo collection!

Fungus Gnat and a New Blog!!!

I enjoy studying insects and their role in the synergy of a garden. I do not believe in chemical insecticide because there are many beneficial insects that are killed along with the pest insect you have sprayed. Call me weird, but because of this interest in garden insects, I try to photograph them whenever possible. Take a look at my posts from this summer titled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" or "Space Alien or Garden Pest" to see what I mean.

Well here is one more insect picture for you: A Fungus Gnat living in the soil of our Hippeastrum flower.

What, you don't see it? Then let's zoom in to a close up!

You might think this picture is gross or weird, but it was very difficult to take. A Fungus Gnat is only 2-3mm in length - very small! The adult females (pictured above) lay eggs in the soil and the larvae feed on fungus in the moist soil. They are a small nuisance indoors, but outside they help in organic decomposition.

Now, do you want to see a picture of the giant Hippeastrum flowers that are blooming far above this little gnat? If so, I'm going to make you wait a little. Pictures of the flowers will be added to our next post on our new family blog: Little House and The Big Garden!

I am very excited about this new blog. It will still discuss our garden, but it will also deal with our other family interests. The best part about it is that my wife and daughters will also be writing posts. They already have in fact. Come on over to Little House and The Big Garden and leave an encouraging comment on my wife or daughter's first post! Then stop back by tomorrow to see the beautiful Hippeastrum (without the gnat!). Blessings to you all!

Crickets and Cantaloupe

Sometimes one thing can lead to another. Sometimes coincidences happen. Sometimes, if we are fortunate, we can catch a glimpse of The Holy Spirit at work in those coincidences.

In my last post, I documented the photo bug safari that my daughter and I went on. Taking pictures made her decide to catch some crickets that we had seen. She ran inside and got a peanut butter jar and captured five little crickets. These were the really small ones. I didn't even bother taking pictures of them and honestly, I didn't know why she would want to keep them in a jar. She busily collected some fine dirt and some blades of grass to add to the jar. Then she put in a moistened paper towel and a small slice of banana. What I didn't know is that coincidentally she had studied crickets in science class that afternoon. (If you are new to my blog you need to know that Sarah is being homeschooled for the first time this year and is two weeks in.) She learned in school that you could easily keep crickets because they eat just about anything. She was creating a little habitat in the jar for her new crickets.

She was putting what she had learned into action. She showed me which ones were male and female and how you could tell the difference and all kinds of cricket facts. She spent a lot of time this weekend watching them. We can even watch as the males "chirp" with their legs.

Saturday evening, the best part of the learning happened! Sarah brought me the jar alarmed that one of her crickets must be sick. She was right, one of them looked very strange. Its color was not normal, and it looked like it was stretched out. It didn’t seem to have control of its back half and was obviously struggling. We thought maybe it had been attacked by one of the others. We discussed taking it back out in the yard where it might have more food options. While we were deciding what to do, it happened! It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. It crawled out of the back half of its body and unfolded a new set of back legs that were tucked up under its wings on its back. What we had been watching was a metamorphosis! The nymph cricket became an identical looking but slightly larger adult cricket. We could look at it in diagram form in Sarah’s book, but that is nothing like seeing it happen right before your eyes. Sunday morning the back half “shell” was gone. I suppose they ate it. No wonder we never find them lying around the garden like we might find a snake skin.

Needless to say, she was very pleased with the whole morphing episode. She made comment that her friends at the public school aren’t going to get to see that, and that she thought being homeschooled was better.

After the cricket excitement died down, we enjoyed our first ripe Ambrosia Cantaloupe. It was soooooooo sweet!

We were extra excited since our watermelon didn’t work out. Both girls ate their fill! All in all, we had a great weekend. I am so pleased that the homeschooling is going well. The Lord sure has been gracious to us. And you know, I think I’m sleeping a little better with that peaceful soothing chirping sound coming from the peanut butter jar in the next bedroom.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

When it comes to insects in the garden, some are good, some are bad, and they're all ugly! Even still, I find them fascinating. After all, they are God's creatures too! My research last week about the tomato hornworm and braconid wasps got me very interested in how some insects are beneficial to the garden. Finding the Hornworm made me want to explore the garden to find out what other creatures I could find, so Sarah and I set out on a Bug Photo Safari! I knew we would find a lot of insects since we use no insecticides on the garden. Even still, I was surprised at how many different ones we discovered in just one day. We carefully photographed each one and then went inside to research what they are. Here are the ones we found only in tomatoes!

Bad!

The Western Yellowstriped Army Worm. Look how much of that leaf he already ate.

Bad!

Blister Beetle. These guys are doing more damage to my tomatoes than any other bug. They eat a lot of leaves, and deposit nasty droppings all over the place. I plan to post later about them only.

Bad!

Field Cricket and Grasshopper. Both have chewing mouthparts but the Grasshopper is much worse.

Bad!

Aphids! I think. They are very small and are found on the underside of the tomato leaves like aphids but they seem to have longer legs than aphids. I really don't know. I only found a few of them.

Bad and Good!

Tomato Hornworm and Braconid Wasps. The Hornworm can eat ALL of the leaves off of a tomato branch. It would probably be the worst garden pest of all if it weren't for the parasitic Braconid Wasps that kill them. See my recent post Space Alien or Garden Pest? for more details.

Good!

Spined Soldier Bug. The Soldier is beneficial because it eats armyworms, beetles and cabbage loopers (which were in my garden too). The Soldier Beetle is said to be so beneficial that there was a big article in Organic Gardening Magazine about how to trap them in the wild in order to release them in your garden. Read the article HERE. Notice there is another little bug on his back. I don't know his story.

Good!

A small spider. Spiders eat many insects.

Good!

I know what you're thinking, a toad is not an insect. You are right, but we found him on our safari and he is very beneficial to the garden since he also eats insects.

There is one more insect to show you, and I can not figure out what it is. I don't know if it is good or bad. I have seen these bugs sitting on tomatoes all season long. They don't seem to do anything or hurt anything. It is shaped like a very small stink bug, but is the wrong color. Look at the bright red color on part of its back. Also notice how small they are compared to my daughter's thumb. There are usually several together and they move pretty fast when disturbed - very difficult to photograph.

If you know what this is, please comment or email me.

Well there you have it. All of these were found in one evening in the tomato portion of the garden. It took a bit of searching to find them, but they were all there hiding amongst the many leaves, happily living their lives to the fullest. Some are bad but some are good. Overall things are balanced out and I still get much production from the garden. That’s why I believe in complete organic gardening. I say we should leave things the way God designed them to be.

Space Alien or Garden Pest?

Doesn't this look like a creature from a science fiction movie? I found two of these in the garden munching on tomato leaves. As it turns out, there are over 50 creatures in this picture.

This is a Tomato Hornworm with Braconid Wasp cocoons attached to it. I think the Tomato Hornworm is the absolute coolest garden pest there is. Most people hate seeing them in the garden because they can eat all of the leaves off of a tomato plant. Call me weird, but I have been hoping to find one of these in the garden this year. Actually I didn't find them. My wife found one, and my daughter found another one the next day. I knew they were Tomato Hornworms but I didn't know why they had white cocoons on their backs. We did some research on the internet and found out that they were Braconid Wasp cocoons. There were many good resources on the net but our favorite was The Bug Lady. The Braconid Wasps are parasitic. They live in the Hornworm (which is actually a caterpillar) as larvae, and then make cocoons on the outside to pupate. The adult wasps emerge, kills the caterpillar and flies off to find more caterpillars.

The Braconid Wasps are good guys! They are beneficial insects that control the caterpillar population. You see, there is no need for chemical insecticides, but I can get into that in a future post.

My daughters thought the hornworms were pretty cool too, so we put them in a big jar and brought them in for a couple of days. We put pantyhose over the mouth and waited and watched the tiny wasps hatch. We then emptied the whole jar back in the garden. This picture montage tells the story a bit better:

Notice how many wasp cocoons are on the hornworm in the above pictures. I counted over 300! If only half of them find a new caterpillar to invade, I won't have any caterpillar problems next year. God is amazing! He even thought of making tiny little parasitic wasps to keep our food source protected. Wow!

There are even smaller parasitic wasps out there. GardensAlive! is a store that sells organic and natural fertilizers and pesticides. I used to work there part-time in fact. They sell Trichogramma wasps for you to introduce into your garden to do a similar thing that my Braconids are doing. The Trichogramma wasps are almost microscopic!

Benificial insects are really cool. I even like the Tomato Hornworm. He doesn't eat that much, and I like having space aliens around in the garden. Here's one last close up look!

Yikes, beam me up Scotty!